A film festival is not just a collection of screenings, as this year’s annual San Diego Asian Film Festival will attest. The festival, which runs from Oct. 21 to Oct. 24, will feature over 150 films from 12 countries and hopes to bring together actors, filmmakers and viewers alike to interact through workshops, panels and receptions.
The festival was conceived by organizer Lee Ann Kim while she was “lying in bed in 1999.” The first San Diego Asian Film Festival was organized by the Asian American Journalists Association of San Diego and held at the University of San Diego in 2000. Since then, the festival has given birth to the San Diego Asian Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization for which Kim serves as executive director. In its mission statement, the SDAFF states that it is “dedicated to educating the community about the rich diversity of the Asian Pacific Islander culture through films and videos.” Although the primary event of the SDAFF is the annual festival, the foundation also promotes cultural awareness in local high schools and colleges by offering internships and cultural literacy programs.
The festival kicks off with “The Ride,” a film by UCSD graduate Nathan Kurosawa, on Oct. 21. The piece follows a cocky surfer who travels through time to Waikiki, Hawaii in 1911 to meet Duke Kahanamoku, the legendary father of modern surfing. The film was made in 17 days with a budget of around $1 million and won two awards at the Hawaii International Film Festival. Kurosawa’s short “Kadomatsu” won the Audience Award for Best Short Subject at the same festival in 1996.
Action-flick buffs will enjoy the Thai film “Ong Bak: Muay Thai Warrior,” a film about the brutal world of Muay-Thai-style kickboxing. “Josee, the Tiger and the Fish,” is a Japanese movie about a romance between a college student and a disabled woman. “When 705 Attacks,” made by “three Tustin chumps,” offers a whimsical set of ridiculously funny short films. Anime fans will be able to watch “Steamboy,” the most expensive anime film ever made. Films at the festival are not limited to those from East and South Asia; “Silence of the Sea,” a documentary feature about an Iranian man’s fight to return home, will also be shown. “The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam,” a documentary by Ann Marie Fleming about her vaudevillian great-grandfather, closes the festival on Oct. 24.
Several prominent members of the Asian-American film community will attend the festival. In addition to Kelly Hu (“X2”) and Sung Kang (“Better Luck Tomorrow,” “Pearl Harbor”), John Cho and Kal Penn of this summer’s “Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle” will also make an appearance. Cho and Penn will participate in a panel, “Harold and Kumar Go to San Diego,” that will reveal an honest look at the pros and cons of working in Hollywood and feature the real Harold Lee, on whom the character in the movie was based.
A reality television/documentary film panel called “Getting Real with Reality” will include comedian Dat Phan, the winner of NBC’s “Last Comic Standing,” in addition to Harlemm Lee, the winner of NBC’s “Fame.” Lisa Ling (“The View”) will also attend to present two pieces of her work with National Geographic: “Basketball Diplomacy: From Mao to Yao,” and “China’s Lost Girls.” The former deals with Houston Rocket’s center Yao Ming’s rise to fame in the United States, and the latter focuses on baby girls orphaned in China due to the country’s one-child policy.
Kim encourages both Asians and non-Asians to attend the festival, saying, “Film transcends cultural and economic barriers, and the San Diego Asian Film Festival is the only place where you can journey through Asian America through provocative, entertaining and enlightening films that you won’t see anywhere else.”
