Seattle Asian American Film Festival

Last updated
Seattle Asian American Film Festival
Founded2003 [1]

The Seattle Asian American Film Festival was founded in 1985 and has been revived over the years by different producers. The current iteration was founded in 2012 and made its debut in 2013 by co-founders Kevin Bang and Vanessa Au. It is a revival of (and a return to the events original name) of the previously running Northwest Asian American Film Festival, which was directed by Wes Kim from 2003 to 2007 and which had experienced a five-year hiatus. [2] The inaugural film festival was also held at the Wing Luke Asian Museum from January 25 to 27, 2013. The festival is currently run and directed by Executive Director, Vanessa Au, and Festival Director, Victoria Ju.

Contents

History

Origins

The Seattle Asian American Film Festival was founded in 1985 by KingStreet Media, a community-based Asian American media production and advocacy group based in Seattle's International District. Kingstreet Media was an offshoot of the International Examiner newspaper as almost all its members were either photographers, writers or graphic artists for the paper. The festival came about after the group helped complete "Beacon Hill Boys" - the first ever dramatic film about Asian American youth. The film had caused a sensation locally when it premiered a few months earlier, had been nominated for a student Academy Award, and was beginning to make the festival rounds nationally and internationally. Capitalizing on the film's success and looking to expand their commitment to raising the profile of Asian American cinema the group put together the city's first all Asian American film festival. To emphasize recent breakthroughs in Asian American filmmaking, which up until that time had been almost completely dominated by documentary work, the festival featured programs made up entirely of narrative films (dramas, comedies, etc.). In addition to "Beacon Hill Boys," the line-up included Wayne Wang's acclaimed sleeper hit "Chan Is Missing," Visual Communications' historical epic "Hito Hata: Raise The Banner," Stephen Ning's coming-of-age tale "Freckled Rice," Robert Nakamura's multi-ethnic comedy "Fool's Dance," and Steven Okazaki's mother/daughter profile "The Only Language She Knows" among others. The festival was held at Seattle's historic Nippon Kan Theater with the International Examiner acting as media sponsor. The festival's founders and staff included Dean Wong, William Satake Blauvelt, Sumi Hayashi, Dean Hayasaka, Ken Mochizuki, Jeff Hanada, Greg Tuai, and Jesse Reyes.

The second edition of the festival was held in 1987 with the International Examiner taking over as producer. The paper hired Nellie Fujii-Anderson as festival director and William Satake Blauvelt returned as Programming Director. Also, several other KingStreet Media members who also worked for the paper helped again. This time the festival was held at the University of Washington's Kane Hall and featured an expanded line-up of narrative, documentary, experimental and animation films, as well as independent films from around Asia. The Examiner had taken on the festival, in part, as a way to raise funds for the newspaper. Although the festival was successful on different levels they soon found out that film festivals in general were not money making propositions and so declined to act as producer for any further editions. The International Examiner did continue its role as a media sponsor of the festival to the present day.

The festival then went on hiatus for several years until it was revived in 1994 by Emily Wong, then Assistant Editor of the International Examiner, and William Satake Blauvelt who had been working as a filmmaker/curator/critic. This time the Seattle Asian American Film Festival was set up as an independent organization that put together a large coalition of volunteers, as well as community and media sponsors from within and outside of the Asian American community. Screenings were held at the Seattle Art Museum with side-bar events happening around the city. From 1994 through 1998 SAAFF, as the festival was affectionately dubbed, became nationally known as one of the premiere Asian American film festivals in the country which supported many filmmakers who went on to greater fame including Ang Lee ("Broke Back Mountain"), Kayo Hata ("Picture Bride"), Frieda Lee Mock ("Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision"), Kip Fulbeck ("The Hapa Project"), and Justin Lin ("Better Luck Tomorrow"). Aside from the festival itself the SAAFF organization co-sponsored year-round premiere screenings of Asian American films that found mainstream distribution like "The Joy Luck Club." The festival also published quarterly newsletters and a comprehensive annual booklet. Prizes - the Gold, Silver and Bronze Carp Awards for the best films as voted on by the audience were introduced. Programming was further expanded by doing retrospective tributes to selected directors and actors; archival screenings; commissioned live scores for silent films; as well as panels and Q&A's with visiting filmmakers. SAAFF also expanded their efforts to be more international in scope and featured work from around the Pacific Rim that featured under represented groups like Australian aboriginal and Pacific Islander filmmakers. SAAFF also made a commitment to showing work that up to that time had been ignored by the Asian American community including trangressive, experimental work on taboo subjects and films dealing with the Gay and Lesbian experience. Work was screened in all formats including 35mm, 16mm, 8mm, and video. In addition to Emily Wong (Director) and William Satake Blauvelt (Programing Director) the festival staff included John Pai, Albert Shen, Mari Murao, Shannon Gee, Soyon Im, and Vuong Vu among many others.

2003 Revival

The festival was revived once again in 2003 and re-branded as the Northwest Asian American Film Festival and was led by Director Wes Kim for four years, until 2007. Kim is also a filmmaker, writer, director, and producer of the award-winning short films Profiles in Science,Vision Test, and Cookies for Sale, and Kim's films have appeared in over 40 U.S. and international film festivals and have screened in 17 countries, as well as being broadcast nationally on public and cable television and featured in programs at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Wing Luke Asian Museum in Seattle. [3]

2012–2013 revival

After the festival concluded in 2007 and took a five-year hiatus, the festival was revived under its original name of the "Seattle Asian American Film Festival" in 2012–2013. Former director Wes Kim still serves as an Advisor on the Festival. [4]

2013 inaugural festival

The inaugural 2013 film festival featured Eliachi Kimaro's documentary A Lot Like You as Opening Night film (the film also won Best Documentary at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, and was a Top 10 Audience Choice Award at the Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF)). The festival also featured a short film program entitled Cinematropolis curated by Seattle-based hip hop group Blue Scholars, and named after their album of the same name. Other films included a film written and produced by Yuji Okumoto and directed by Blaine Ludy entitled Out, and Andrew Ahn's Dol (First Birthday) (Official Selection of the 2012 Sundance Film Festival). [5]

Other films include the documentary Manilatown Is In the Heart, short films such as Scott Eriksson's How War Ends, Jocelyn Saddi-Lenhardt's Mother and Child (a Visual Communications "Armed With a Camera" fellowship film), Steve Nguyen and Choz Belen's Hibakusha , Valerie Soe's short film The Chinese Gardens, Akira Boch's The Crumbles (winner of an Audience Award at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival), Iris Shim's multiple-award winning documentary, The House of Suh, Yumiko Gamo Romer's Mrs. Judo: Be Strong, Be Gentle, Be Beautiful, several short documentaries that were also Visual Communications "Armed With A Camera" fellowship films such as Basketball, Meri Jaan by Veena Hampapur, That Particular Time by Jeff Man, and Magellan Doesn't Live Here by Micki Davis.

The final day of the festival screened Tadashi Nakamura's documentary, Jake Shimabukuro: A Life on Four Strings, S. Leo Chiang's Mr. Cao Goes to Washington, (Best Documentary at the DC Asian Pacific American Film Festival and the Audience Award for Documentary Feature at the New Orleans Film Festival), Porter Erisman's Crocodile in the Yangtze, and Closing Night film was Timothy Tau's Keye Luke , a short film bio-pic on the actor and the artist who grew up in Seattle that was most known for being the first on-screen Kato in the 1940s Green Hornet film serials before Bruce Lee and the All-American "Number One Son," Lee Chan, in the popular Charlie Chan films of the 1930s. [6] Keye Luke is also related to Wing Luke, former Assistant Attorney General of Washington, member of the Seattle City Council and the first Asian American to hold elected office in the state, who also is the namesake of Seattle's Wing Luke Asian Museum. The Luke family and the Luke Family Association are also still based in Seattle currently. [7] [8]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Keye Luke</span> American actor (1904–1991)

Keye Luke was a Chinese-American film and television actor, technical advisor and artist and a founding member of the Screen Actors Guild.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LA Film Festival</span> Annual film festival held in Los Angeles, California, USA

The LA Film Festival was an annual film festival that was held in Los Angeles, California, and usually took place in June. It showcased independent, international, feature, documentary and short films, as well as web series, music videos, episodic television and panel conversations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Busan International Film Festival</span> Annual film festival held in Busan, South Korea

The Busan International Film Festival, held annually in Haeundae-gu, Busan, South Korea, is one of the most significant film festivals in Asia. The first festival, held from 13 to 21 September 1996, was also the first international film festival in Korea. The main focus of the BIFF is to introduce new films and first-time directors, especially those from Asian countries. Another notable feature is the appeal of the festival to young people, both in terms of the large youthful audience it attracts and through its efforts to develop and promote young talent. In 1999, the Pusan Promotion Plan was established to connect new directors to funding sources. The 16th BIFF in 2011 saw the festival move to a new permanent home, the Busan Cinema Center in Centum City.

The Bangkok International Film Festival (BKKIFF) is an international film festival held annually in Bangkok, Thailand, since 2003. In addition to film screenings, seminars, gala events and the Golden Kinnaree Awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thessaloniki Documentary Festival</span>

The Thessaloniki Documentary Festival (TDF) is an international documentary festival held every March in Thessaloniki, Greece. TDF, founded in 1999, features competition sections and ranks among the world's leading documentary festivals. Since 2018, TDF is one of the 28 festivals included in the American Academy of Motion Picture, Arts and Sciences Documentary Feature Qualifying Festival List. TDF is organized by the Thessaloniki Film Festival cultural institution, which further organizes the annual Thessaloniki International Film Festival, held every November. French producer Elise Jalladeu is TDF's general director; film critic Orestes Andreadakis serves as its director.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brisbane International Film Festival</span> Film festival in Australia

The Brisbane International Film Festival (BIFF) is an annual film festival held in Brisbane, Australia. Organised by the Screen Culture unit at Screen Queensland, the festival has taken place since 1992, with the program including features, documentaries, shorts, experimental efforts, retrospectives, late night thrillers, animation, and children's films. The festival has attracted more than 400,000 visitors across its history. The festival was replaced by the Brisbane Asia Pacific Film Festival from 2014-2016 but has been revived in 2017 while the Brisbane Asia Pacific Film Festival has ceased operations. In 2018, BIFF was held at Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA), with screenings held across multiple venues.

The Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival is the largest documentary festival in North America. The event takes place annually in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The 27th edition of the festival took place online throughout May and June 2020. In addition to the annual festival, Hot Docs owns and operates the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema, administers multiple production funds, and runs year-round screening programs including Doc Soup and Hot Docs Showcase.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Visual Communications</span>

Visual Communications –– is a community-based non-profit media arts organization based in Los Angeles. It was founded in 1970 by independent filmmakers Robert Nakamura, Alan Ohashi, Eddie Wong, and Duane Kubo, who were students of EthnoCommunications, an alternative film school at University of California, Los Angeles. The mission of VC is to "promote intercultural understanding through the creation, presentation, preservation and support of media works by and about Asian Pacific Americans."

The Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival (LAAPFF) – formerly known as VC FilmFest – is an annual film festival presented by Visual Communications (VC). It was established in 1983 by Linda Mabalot as a vehicle to promote Asian Pacific American and Asian international cinema. The festival fulfills a unique mission in illuminating the visions and voices of Asian Pacific peoples and heritage. The festival is held in Los Angeles in May, which is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.

Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, or PÖFF, is an annual film festival held since 1997 in Tallinn, the capital city of Estonia. PÖFF is the only festival in Northern Europe or the Baltic region with a FIAPF accreditation for holding an International Competitive Feature Film Program, which places it alongside 14 other non-specialised competitive world festivals including Berlin, Cannes, Venice, Karlovy Vary, Warsaw, and San Sebastian. With over 250 feature-length and over 250 short films and animations from 80 countries (2018) screened, and an attendance of over 80,000 (2018), PÖFF is the one of the largest film festivals in Northern Europe. The festival, its sub-festivals and the audiovisual industry platform Industry@Tallinn hosted around 1200 film professionals and journalists in 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephane Gauger</span> American film director

Stephane Gauger was a Vietnamese-born American film director, screenwriter and cinematographer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timothy Tau</span> American novelist

Timothy Tau is a Taiwanese-American writer, engineer, attorney, law professor and filmmaker. Tau won the 2011 Hyphen Asian American Writers' Workshop Short Story Contest for his short story, "The Understudy", which was published in the Winter 2011 issue of Hyphen magazine, Issue No. 24, the "Survival Issue." Tau also won Second Prize in the 2010 Playboy College Fiction Contest for his short story, "Land of Origin". He has also directed a number of short films and music videos that have screened at various film festivals worldwide and on YouTube.

Stephen Dypiangco is an American filmmaker. He was a Producer of Marketing and Distribution for Luke Matheny's Oscar-Winning short film, God of Love. He was also a Producer of Marketing and Distribution for Mark Wexler's documentary How to Live Forever. He has also directed a short documentary entitled Made In The Bronx which was a Regional Finalist for the Student Academy Awards and won the Best Documentary prize at the Starz First Look Student Film Festival. Along with Patrick Epino he makes up the "National Film Society" which is part of PBS and makes original web content about films, film festivals and filmmaking, viewable online.

Erin Li is a Taiwanese-American filmmaker, writer, director and producer. She has directed and written the short films To The Bone, L.A. Coffin School and others. She has also served as an Associate Producer on the documentaries Iceberg Slim: Portrait of a Pimp (2012), The Girls in the Band (2011), America The Beautiful 2: The Thin Commandments (2011), and Voices Unveiled: Turkish Women Who Dare (2009).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Shaw (composer)</span> American composer

George Shaw is a film composer and musician. He has composed original music that can be heard on many videos on YouTube as well as a number of short films. He has also worked as an orchestrator on such films as Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Ghost Rider and Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kalyanee Mam</span>

Kalyanee Mam is a filmmaker whose film, A River Changes Course, which she directed and produced, has won several awards, including the Grand Jury Award for World Cinema Documentary at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival and the Golden Gate Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 2013 San Francisco International Film Festival.

<i>Keye Luke</i> (film) 2012 American film

Keye Luke is a 2012 American short film directed by Timothy Tau, written by Timothy Tau, Ed Moy and Feodor Chin, and produced by Timothy Tau.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seoul International Women's Film Festival</span> Womens film festival in South Korea

SEOUL International Women's Film Festival is an annual film festival held in Seoul, South Korea. The first festival took place on April 1, 1997, which marked the second appearance of the international film festival in Korea following Busan International Film Festival launched in 1996. This was a time when there was not a clear idea on how to define a film festival. During this time, SEOUL International Women's Film Festival came up with the catchphrase "See The World Through Women's Eyes.This phrase set its main goal to introduce women's films that explore “women’s reality from the women’s perspectives.”

<span class="mw-page-title-main">27th Busan International Film Festival</span> Film festival in South Korea

The 27th Busan International Film Festival was held from October 5 at the Busan Cinema Center in Busan, South Korea till October 14. This year, the festival restarted events and program sections which were not conducted due to COVID-19 for last 2 years. The festival opened with Iranian film Scent of the Wind by director Seyed Hadi Mohaghegh, Jeon Yeo-been with Ryu Jun-yeol were master of ceremonies for the opening ceremony.

References

  1. ↑ Högerle, Erin Franziska (2020-10-26). Asian American Film Festivals: Frames, Locations, and Performances of Memory. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. ISBN   978-3-11-069653-0.
  2. ↑ Seattle Asian American Film Festival, About, http://seattleaaff.org/about
  3. ↑ Seattle Asian American Film Festival, About, http://seattleaaff.org/about
  4. ↑ Id.
  5. ↑ Seattle Asian American Film Festival, Program, http://seattleaaff.org/program
  6. ↑ Seattle Asian American Film Festival, Program, http://seattleaaff.org/program
  7. ↑ Moira Macdonald, Seattle Times, Seattle Asian American Film festival Gets Under Way, http://seattletimes.com/html/movies/2020207886_atatheater25columnxml.html
  8. ↑ Seth Sommerfeld, Seattle Metropolitan Magazine, Timothy Tau Discusses His Short Film About Keye Luke, http://www.seattlemet.com/arts-and-entertainment/film/articles/timothy-tau-discusses-his-short-film-about-keye-luke
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.