|
|
The San Diego Asian Film Festival Arrives!
|
|
Katy Gagnon caught up with Lee Ann Kim, the San Diego Asian Film Festival director and filed this opening night report.
It’s in its tenth year and the San Diego Asian Film Festival keeps getting bigger and better.
The 15-day festival, which showcases the work of Asian filmmakers in more than 200 films from 20 countries, kicked off last night at the UltraStar Cinemas in Hazard Center.
“This is the largest and the biggest of the film festivals in San Diego County,” said Lee Ann Kim, executive director of the San Diego Asian Film Foundation. “We’ve scoured the world for these films.”
Festival-goers packed the theater for the opening night’s showing of “Children of Invention,” an award-winning feature film written and directed by Tze Chun. The film depicts a Chinese family living outside Boston and in search of the American Dream. The family’s matriarch, a single mother, becomes involved in a ponzi scheme targeting immigrants and when she is separated from her children the resiliency of her children is tested. Although Chun wrote the script in 2007, the film touches on many of the economic issues facing families today.
Since its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, “Children of Invention” has already won numerous awards and captured the attention of critics. The film’s producers plan for a limited theatrical release early next year.
However, it’s only one of the many noteworthy films showing in the festival this month.
“Red Cliff,” an epic war film known as the most expensive film ever produced in Asia, will show Sunday. For the first time in the festival’s history, two Bollywood films will be shown. The festival will close October 29 with the premiere of "Ip Man," an action movie based on the life of Bruce Lee’s martial arts master Yip Man.
Keeping the rough economy in mind, the festival offers free showings every day at 4 p.m. and short films from the festival can be accessed on Time Warner Cable at no charge.
The idea for the festival began in 1999 because Kim, who was acting as president of the Asian American Journalists Association, wanted “something big to bring the community together and there is nothing like film to transcend everything.”
Starting the festival also was a very personal cause, she said.
Growing up as a Korean immigrant in Chicago, Kim said she was acutely aware she was different. In the 1970s and 1980s, you rarely saw Asians on TV or in film, she said, so when I found out other Asians were making films and on TV, I felt for the first time alive and validated.
Kim, 39, worked as a news anchor at KGTV until last year when she stepped down to organize the festival fulltime. Still, Kim brings her experience as a journalist to the festival.
“This is my newscast,” she said. “In my newscast, I told stories people needed to see, stories people needed to hear to be connected.”
Although the festival has grown considerably since its inception, Kim has big dreams for its future, which include larger theaters for showings and connecting to larger film festivals.
Nonetheless, Kim aims to keep the festival unique to San Diego.
“We’re not New York. We’re not LA. We’re not San Francisco,” Kim said. “We want to be a big city festival in a small town.”
For more information on the festival visit www.sdaff.org
By Katy Gagnon
 |
| Comments |
| The comments are owned by the poster. We are not responsible for its content.
|
|
| Published by: |
 |
| Our Staff |
Shweta Damkondwar - Site Programing
Vijaya Vedu - Calendar
Angela Basurtto - Photography
Neha Vasudeo - Marketing
Monica Alnes - Intern
Shari Johnston-O'Neill - Photography
Tom Johnston-O'Neill - Sr. Editor |
| Join our Team! |
 |
|
Print
eMail
