SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL ASIAN AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL CELEBRATES 25TH ANNIVERSARY

Ealasaid/ February 28, 2005/ Movie Reviews and Features

SFIAAFF AT A GLANCE:
What: A local film festival featuring a vast showcase of films by and about Asians.
When: March 10-20, 2005
Where: San Francisco, Berkeley, and San Jose
Buy tickets: www.naatanet.org/festival/ or telephone (415) 865-1588.
HIGHLIGHTS:
* Opening Night: 3/10, 7:00 pm at the Castro Theater. “Saving Face” followed by a gala at the Asian Art Museam featuring sounds from Dan the Automator, Dhamaal, DJ King Kong and SambAsia.
* “An Evening with Steven Okazaki,” featuring the world premier of Okazaki’s latest film “The Mushroom Club” and a live on-stage chat.
* A retrospective film program, featuring films spanning three decades.
* “Hiroshima, Mon Amour,” the 1959 classic about a French actress and a Japanese architect in his city of Hiroshima.
*The documentary “Sorceress of the New Piano,” followed by a special performance by subject Margaret Leng Tan, the world’s first professional toy pianist.
*”Evolution of a Filipino Family,” a 10.5 hour documentary filmed over eight years which examines the fifteen years of martial law in the Philippines and its effects on one family’s neighborhood.
* Closing Night: 3/17, 7:00 pm at the AMC Kabuki 8 Theaters. “The Motel” followed by a gala at San Francisco’s War Memorial Building.
* Three-day showcase in San Jose at Camera 12, 3/18-3/20, featuring a selection of films from the whole festival.

For 25 years, the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival has been bringing films by and about Asians to the Bay Area. This year’s festival kicks off March 10 in San Francisco and runs through March 20, closing with a special three-day showcase in San Jose. The festival features 131 films and videos, and includes films from around the globe. There are movies from Australia, Canada, China, Hong Kong, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, the Philippines, South Korea, Thailand, and the United Kingdom, among many others.
The festival gets rolling on March 10 at the historic Castro Feature with “Saving Face,” the feature debut for San Jose native Alice Wu. A romantic comedy about living honestly in a traditional community, “Saving Face” tells the story of Wilhelmina (Michelle Krusiec), a successful surgeon and dutiful daughter. The only problem is that Wil is not only unmarried but in love with a woman, Vivian (Lynn Chen). Wil finds herself unable to come out to her mother, and the situation is further complicated when Ma turns up on Wil’s doorstep pregnant and disowned by her own parents. After the screening, there will be an exclusive party at the Asian Art Museum.
One of film’s spotlights features the work of Steven Okazaki, a documentary filmmaker who has won numerous awards (including an Oscar and a Peabody) during his long career. Starting with a special screening of his latest short, “The Mushroom Club,” the festival is also showing “Living on Tokyo Time”, “Hunting Tigers”, “American Sons”, and “Days of Waiting”. “The Mushroom Club” returns to the subject of his 1980 documentary “Survivors” — the effects of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The film includes interviews with a 90-year-old survivor who collects melted glass and metal that still wash ashore in Hiroshima and the members of The Mushroom Club, a support group for children born with defects caused by contamination from the bombings. After the screening of “The Mushroom Club” on March 15, Okazaki will make a rare public appearance and discuss his long career with award-winning journalist and author Nguyen Qui Duc.
Also appearing at the festival is Margaret Leng Tan, the subject of the documentary “Sorceress of the New Piano.” Through interviews with Tan, music critics, and other composers, as well as extensive footage of Tan’s performances and experimentations, the film gives us a look at this unusual musician. Best known for working with toy pianos, Tan is a striking figure in modern music. She will be giving a special performance of her music following the screening of “Sorceress of the New Piano” on March 13.
Another highlight of the festival is “The Evolution of a Filipino Family,” a ten-and-a-half hour epic documentary which takes an unvarnished look at the fifteen years of martial law imposed on the Philippines by then-President Ferdinand Marcos. The focus of the film is the Gallardo family, whose barrio is swept by a wave of guerrilla activity and crime after the change to martial law. The family’s fortunes decline and the stresses from within and without their home threaten to tear them apart. Filmed over the course of eight years, “The Evolution of a Filipino Family” is an astonishing work. The film screens in its entirety on March 19, with a one-hour dinner break at 6pm, but in case that much film in one day seems a bit daunting, the second half is repeated on March 20 with intermissions and a ticket stub from the March 19 screening is good for admission to the March 20 repeat showing.
Most of the films showing at the festival are new, but there is also a retrospective program featuring films spanning three decades of history. The retrospective selections include “Manzanar”, the first documentary to look at the Japanese American internment; “Sewing Woman,” Arthur Dong’s semi-fictional monologue about his mother’s life; and “First Person Plural,” a fearless look at a Korean child adopted by American parents after the Korean War.
The festival closes its San Francisco run on March 17 with “The Motel,” a tale of friendship between Ernest (Jeffrey Chyau), a chubby Chinese American kid who works in his family’s sleazy suburban hotel, and the bad-boy tenant there who becomes the big brother Ernest never had. Following the film there will be a gala party at the historic War Memorial Building. But the festival isn’t over for those who can get to the Camera 12 Cinemas in San Jose, where many of the films from the festival will be showcased March 18 through March 20.
You can get more information about the festival and buy tickets by calling (415) 863-0814 or by visiting the festival website, http://www.naatanet.org/festival/ .