I'm passionate about amplifying AAPI voices. View past programming I’ve done for the Asian American Int’l Film Festival
Celluloid Synergy: Experimental Films from 1960s-Now (2024)
“Celluloid Synergy” features experimental short films, some previously screened at AAIFF in the 1970-80s and some more contemporary experimental shorts. These films play with the physicality of film itself and use film as a medium for conceptual art, with the goal of bringing back the underground, experimental spirit of AAIFF in its early days.
This year’s program features:
White Calligraphy, Re-Read (1967), dir. Takahiko Iimura
To Serve the People (1979), dir. Danny Yung
24 Frames Per Second (1978), dir. Al Wong
Eiga Zuke (1994), dir. Sean Morijiro Sunada O’Gara
IT FOLLOWS IT PASSES ON 撿起放下墜落提起 (2023), dir. Erica Sheu
Natural Disasters (2023), dir. Tiffany Jiang
Retrospectives in Dialogue (2023)
“Retrospectives in Dialogue” pairs older, seminal films with contemporary works that explore similar themes. Doing so hopefully reminds us how films made in the past are not stuck in time, but rather are alive and continue to inform Asian-American storytelling today. Despite being made decades apart, these films all explore the relationship between filmmaking and activism, as well as the impact of urban development and gentrification on Asian-American communities.
This year’s program features:
HITO HATA: Raise the Banner (1980), dir. Robert A. Nakamura and Duane Kubo, 4K restoration
The Fall of the I-Hotel (1983), dir. Curtis Choy, 2K restoration
Big Fight in Little Chinatown (2022), dir. Karen Cho
RENDERING REAL: Explorations of Asian American and Asian Diasporic Archives (2022)
Co-programmed with David Koh
Programmers’ statement:
This year, AAIFF is celebrating its retrospective with RENDERING REAL: Explorations of Asian American and Asian Diasporic Archives, an online virtual exhibition featuring 11 artists and 4 organizations selected as part of the new media category.
The new media category is an extension and expansion of AAIFF’s dedication to support Asian and Asian diasporic artists working with newer forms of media and moving image that fall out of the bounds of traditional cinema. We look to these artists to understand how storytelling can take shape in newer forms fit for the digital age.
RENDERING REAL revolves around interrogating archival material and the archival process. Especially within the Asian/Asian diasporic community, archives can be powerful reminders of the past and how it continues to inform our present and future. How can we engage with archives more interactively? How can we utilize archives in a manner that activates it rather than renders it passive? Are archives only materials of the past that gather dust or can they be living organisms in the present?
RENDERING REAL aims to contemplate these questions through our selection of new media artworks and projects. We want to thank the artists who have submitted their works, as well as the organizations who shared a selection of their projects reflective of their ongoing efforts to establish and push the boundaries of Asian/Asian diasporic archives.