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Media Contact: Larsen Associates at (415) 957-1205 23rd SAN FRANCISCO 23rd SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL ASIAN AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL WRAPS ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL YEAR The Nation's Premier Showcase for Asian American and The San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival concluded its 23rd annual event with 132 films and videos showcased over eleven days across three cities: San Francisco, Berkeley and San Jose. The event drew an attendance of over 23,000, including over 250 filmmakers and industry guests from around the world. The winners of the Festival's first-ever juried competition and audience awards were announced at the Closing Night Gala party held on March 17 at San Francisco's historic War Memorial Building. The juried competition is open to films made by or about Asian Americans or Asian Canadians. The Best Narrative Feature Award went to THE MOTEL, first-time feature director Michael Kang's heartwarming coming-of-age comedy-drama about a Chinese American adolescent growing up in a sleazy suburban motel. THE MOTEL was the Closing Night film of the Festival. The Narrative Feature Competition jury, comprised of filmmaker Mark Decena (DOPAMINE), distributor Marcus Hu (Strand Releasing) and filmmaker Kayo Hatta (PICTURE BRIDE), also presented a Special Jury Award to Ian Gamazon and Neill Dela Llana's CAVITE, a gritty hostage drama about a Filipino American whose family is kidnapped by terrorists. The Best Documentary Feature Award was given to veteran filmmaker Curtis Choy's documentary about the controversial author and activist Frank Chin, WHAT'S WRONG WITH FRANK CHIN?, which made its world premiere at the Festival. The Documentary Feature Competition jury, comprised of programmer Cynthia Kane (Sundance Channel), filmmaker/cinematographer Emiko Omori (RABBIT IN THE MOON) and journalist/scholar Helen Zia also gave a Special Jury Award to Hosup Lee's AND THEREAFTER, the portrait of a Korean woman whose fate changed forever after marrying an American G.I. The Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature was a tie between Alice Wu's Opening Night film SAVING FACE, a touching comedy about a Chinese American lesbian and her pregnant single mother, and Bahman Ghobadi's TURTLES CAN FLY, a portrait of refugee children in Iraq's Kurdish north just before the U.S. invasion. The Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature went to Ali Kazimi's CONTINUOUS JOURNEY, a chronicle of a shipping vessel carrying Indian immigrants that was prevented from entering Canada in 1914. The Festival kicked off on Opening Night with Alice Wu's feature debut SAVING FACE, screened to an enthusiastic sold-out crowd at the Castro Theatre. Wu and cast members Michelle Krusiec, Lynn Chen and Joan Chen attended the screening as well as the dazzling gala party at the Asian Art Museum, featuring a performance by Dan the Automator. The Closing Night film was THE MOTEL, attended by director Michael Kang and cast members Sung Kang, Jeffrey Chyau and Jade Wu. "The Festival is thrilled to introduce many significant new voices in American independent cinema-filmmakers like Alice Wu and Michael Kang-who are reshaping the American film landscape by telling untold stories in compelling and daring ways," declared Festival Director Chi-hui Yang. This year's Spotlight was on Academy Award-winning filmmaker Steven Okazaki, whose latest documentary THE MUSHROOM CLUB world premiered at the Festival and helped commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing and of the end of the Pacific War. Okazaki's earlier films like LIVING ON TOKYO TIME and the Oscar-winning DAYS OF WAITING were screened, with Okazaki on hand to discuss his work. The Centerpiece Presentation of Evans Chan's documentary SORCERESS OF THE NEW PIANO, making its US premiere at the Festival, featured a rousing live performance by Margaret Leng Tan, the subject of the documentary and the only professional toy pianist in the World. NAATA, the organization that presents the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, celebrated its 25th anniversary by asking three programmers-Renee Tajima-Pena (MY AMERICA... OR HONK IF YOU LOVE BUDDHA), Justin Lin (BETTER LUCK TOMORROW) and the team of Gurinder Chadha and Paul Mayeda Berges (BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM)-to select films that offer both a personal and historic perspective on NAATA and span the three decades of its history. Tajima-Pena chose Robert Nakamura's MANZANAR, Curtis Choy's DUPONT GUY - THE SCHIZ OF GRANT AVENUE and Arthur Dong's SEWING WOMAN-as the three documentaries that continue to impact audiences and filmmakers. Lin selected Spencer Nakasako and Sokly Ny's A.K.A. DON BONUS. The team of Chadha and Mayeda Berges picked Deann Borshay Liem's FIRST PERSON PLURAL as the film that embodies NAATA's spirit. "I'm very pleased that we celebrated NAATA's 25th anniversary by revisiting some classic works by veterans such as Spencer Nakasako, Steven Okazaki, Curtis Choy, and Deann Borshay Liem," said Eddie Wong, NAATA's Executive Director. "Equally invigorating were the cutting edge work of the new generation of Asian American filmmakers." In addition to SAVING FACE and THE MOTEL, Asian American independent features like Quentin Lee's ETHAN MAO and Steven Mallorca's SLOW JAM KING (which opened the San Jose portion of the Festival) were also popular. Also showcased were a number of documentaries which world premiered at the Festival: Anita Wen-shin Chang's 62 YEARS AND 6500 MILES BETWEEN, Satsuki Ina and Stephen Holsapple's FROM A SILK COCOON and Grace Lee's long-awaited THE GRACE LEE PROJECT, alongside Curtis Choy's WHAT'S WRONG WITH FRANK CHIN?. Another popular documentary was THE YEAR OF THE YAO, a Special Presentation of the Festival, attended by co-director Adam Del Deo. Films and filmmakers from Asia had a huge impact at the Festival this year. The Festival held the North American Premiere of Fruit Chan's DUMPLINGS from Hong Kong, attended by actress Bai Ling. The Festival also hosted the North American premieres of OUT OF THIS WORLD from Japan, with veteran filmmaker Junji Sakamoto in attendance, and of Kenny Glenaan's YASMIN from the UK. Other popular international films included Park Chan-wook's OLDBOY from South Korea, Ken Loach's A FOND KISS from the UK, Hideaki Anno's CUTIE HONEY from Japan and Guka Omarova's SCHIZO from Kazakhstan. The Jet Li-starring UNLEASHED was added as a special screening and quickly sold out. The SFIAAFF gratefully acknowledges its sponsors The 23rd San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival,
presented by NAATA and Asia Street on International Channel is supported
in part by the Asian Art Museum, Canadian Consulate Trade Office,
Comcast, Grants for the Arts, Koret Foundation, National Endowment for
the Arts, Noon, Oscar Printing, Procter & Gamble, Radisson Miyako
Hotel, San Francisco Tobacco Free Project, Wallace Alexander Gerbode
Foundation, and Wells Fargo. NAATA is supported with major funding from
the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
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