posted by adam on 03.12.04 @ 09:12 AM PST
Now that the SanFran/Berkeley leg of the Festival has closed, it's time for me to reflect on my experience. (The festival's over for me since I can't make it down to the San Jose leg. I don't own a car and CALTrain is temporarily not running on the weekends.) I must say that I didn't enjoy the festival as much this year as last year. But the problem is me. See, I chose to see three films I'd already seen, two (A GOOD LAWYER'S WIFE and BEING NORMAL) because I hadn't seen them on the big (somewhat) screen yet and another (DOLLS) because I hadn't seen it w/ English translation yet (I saw it in Vienna a year ago and my German is below preschool level). So the excitement of the new that comes w/ festivals was dampened by my decisions.
At last year's festival, . . .
posted by gavin on 03.11.04 @ 03:38 AM PST
I had some time before the movie started, so I wandered over to that cozy little crepe place upstairs. I walked inside and gazed at the colorful tubs of gelato --purple, green, white-- in particular the espresso bean, with its brown, sugary cream glistening in the fluorescent light, asking to be wrapped in a warm, fluffy crepe, and placed into my mouth.
How sweet you must taste, I thought, you, the sweet crepe.
I should have taken you then into the night, into the confines of the Kabuki, where Japanese movies flickered on the screen, wonderful doses of animation and stop-motion hilarity.
posted by adam on 03.10.04 @ 07:46 AM PST
Excuse me if this is too obscure a reference, but I happen to be reading Canadian Charles Acland's new book "SCREEN TRAFFIC: Movies, Multiplexes, and Global Culture" while attending a film a day at the festival this year. The book looks at how the U.S. commercial movie business has altered the cinema-going experience since the 1980's and why we ended up w/ all these multiplexes. One of the issues discussed in this book is that the vast choices of films such multiplexes w/ multiple screens were supposed to permit never materialzed because the speeding up of releases of blockbusters by the majors has resulted in more and more screens in these multi-screen venues being taken up by only one or two blockbusters.
And this got me thinking of how different my experience is at the SFIAAF when I attend a film at the AMC Kabuki as opposed to the PFA or The Castro. . .
posted by adam on 03.10.04 @ 07:23 AM PST
Annie,
You got me thinking about the laughter during the Sunday 7:15 showing of Victor Vu's FIRST MORNING. There was a lot of laughter at moments in the film that I don't think Vu intended for humor. Being that the film falls in the soap opera genre (and I do NOT mean that in a bad way as that description is often used; it's as valid a genre as any other), it can be overly melodramatic at times in trying to deliver its points. This arouses laughter in some people. Although some laugh out of condescension, I think some just laugh because they are witnessing a known trope in soap operas and they're actually laughing out of recognition for, or response to, the technique, even, at times, out of appreciation for the unique twist a director may put on that trope.
posted by annie on 03.10.04 @ 03:55 AM PST
audiences can be brutal. they can laugh at your film, they can pointedly fail to clap, they can simply walk out. this weekend i had a reminder of the courage necessary to be a filmmaker - what it takes to put out a piece of your heart and then come to watch the rest of the world pick it up and sneer at it. and yet, that audience honesty is absolutely vital to this festival. i mean, dang, i can barely stand it during the Q&A when one filmmaker gets all the questions, and the other directors shift from foot to foot trying not to look sheepish. but without that feedback loop, film is just a fancy form of doodling. does that even make sense? it's almost four a.m. i meant to write about "the art of breathing" tonight, but guess that'll have to wait.
posted by annie on 03.09.04 @ 06:18 PM PST
This afternoon's screening of Ching Ip's feature "See You Off To the Edge of Town" was part of the Schools at the Festival program. I think even if I hadn't been wearing a backpack today, we would have just got swept up into the stream of high school kids. "You're from Wallenberg, right? This way...." "Um, we're not from Wallenberg." "Oh, what school then?" "Uh, the school of hard knocks?" We couldn't stop giggling. Does this mean I can still use a youth pass on MUNI?
The students were all restless and midway through, the kids from Newcomer High up in the balcony completely stopped paying attention and kept on chattering despite shushes from the main floor. (I guess loving and true examinations of family dynamics aren't that interesting at age 15.) But given all my recent self-created family drama, Ip's story of a family on a roadtrip felt like the most honest and least trite portrayal of an Asian family I've seen yet. The eldest daughter's evasiveness about her personal life, but desire for recognition. The mom loudly praising her youngest's ex-boyfriend in front of the current one. The father's betrayal. And the ending, we all agreed, was perfect.
Then we stole one NAATA staff member off for beer in paper bags on the Peace Plaza.
posted by adam on 03.09.04 @ 07:38 AM PST
Gavin, I don't think we've met, but it's nice to meet you in a bloggy sort of way.
Of course, I know MJ, and although she won't associate w/ me in public, I hope blogs are ok? Just Kidding. MJ, I wish you would have been there at the showing of IM Sang-soo's A GOOD LAWYER'S WIFE (the film you mention, Gavin, in your first post on the blog) since I wanted to check on the translation of what he said.
posted by gavin on 03.09.04 @ 02:34 AM PST
Message to Japanese pop stars who dye their hair sandy blonde and think themselves White: You ruin my night one more time and I'm gonna get Jin Tha MC to bust a cap in your ass.
posted by min jung on 03.08.04 @ 12:34 PM PST
Like Gav, I was lucky enough to check out the lush experience of watching Ms. Wong perform as ShoSho in Picadilly. What a delight. How utterly emotive! Crazy falcon crest level drama and intrigue! Secret Lovers! Scandal! Jealousy! Murder!
Oh...plus an ice cold sake stashed in the purse for drinking while in the movie.
I don't think I've been sober at a single film festival event yet.
posted by gavin on 03.08.04 @ 02:17 AM PST
All this Asian American history is overwhelming my brain. Today I find out that one of America's greatest entertainers in the early 20th century was Asian.
I'm thinking 'How the hell did I not know about this?'
posted by min jung on 03.07.04 @ 03:53 AM PST
Gavin,
Only one of us is allowed to be king mischief maker during the festival.
Don't make me get all highlander on your ass and have to take you out on this notion.
Today's movie tally: 0
Today's drink tally: 5 (Mandarin tonic, 3 Scotch on the rocks, and a beer)
Giant Robot Reception and Directions in Sound v. 2.0.
Realization, my corporate sponsorship pass doesn't get me into anything. Fuck.
posted by gavin on 03.07.04 @ 03:13 AM PST
Damn, Min Jung. That's a cool ass story. Maybe I'll try to get kicked out of a bar this festival too so I can have something interesting to write on this web site.
By the way, how many people out there are reading this? If you are, can you post a comment about what you think of the festival so far?
posted by min jung on 03.06.04 @ 03:32 AM PST
Yes, Gavin and I met tonight (again) at the Jeproks party.
Tis a funny experience to see how small the circles are and how often we get to run into one another.
posted by gavin on 03.06.04 @ 02:29 AM PST
I started the night at a filmmakers reception at Lit Lounge, thrown by the good folks of Jeproks. You'll be hearing a lot from them soon. They've got a feature film in post and a TV pilot on the way. Good stuff.
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Join our manja.org correspondents as they break down the 22nd San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival.
Min Jung Kim is a bay area writer and leading humor columnist for KoreAm journal and anyone else foolish enough to pay her for her rants and musings.
Gavin Tachibana is an independent filmmaker based in San Francisco. His short film, "The Flavor," hit the circuit of Asian American film fests last year.
Adam Hartzell is a bay area writer with a Cleveland sensibility who writes primarily about South Korean Cinema for sources such as koreanfilm.org. He will have a chapter on SHIRI and THE POWER OF KANGWON PROVINCE in an upcoming book by Wallflower Press.
Annie Koh is co-Program Director of Locus Arts, an Asian American performing arts space in San Francisco's Mission District. She also has a serious obsession with SPAM (the canned kind).
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