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San Diego Asian Film Festival 2012

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  1. Added Friday Night Screenings: SHANGHAI CALLING, THE IRAN JOB, STARRY STARRY NIGHT, FLYING SWORDS OF DRAGON GATE

    Posted November 9th, 2012 by Brian in Announcements

      You asked, we delivered. We’re bringing back some of the hottest tickets at our festival this year. Friday, Nov. 9 6:45pm SHANGHAI CALLING (sold out) 8:05pm THE IRAN JOB 9:30pm STARRY STARRY NIGHT 9:45pm FLYING SWORDS OF DRAGON GATE Of course, that’s in addition to other big titles: REMINGTON AND THE CURSE OF THE […]


  2. VIETTE-NAM: (H)annoyed No More, and the Sigh Gone

    Posted November 8th, 2012 by Dr. Craig D. Reid in Uncategorized

    Mye Hoang is baaaaack at the SDAFF, but this time it’s personal…no joking, it is. For many years, Hoang worked for the San Diego Asian Film Foundation applying her personal touch, knowledge and experience with Asian film to help what is today the Pacific Arts Movement’s flagship event, the San Diego Asian Film Festival, now […]


  3. FLYING SWORDS: OMG

    Posted November 7th, 2012 by Dr. Craig D. Reid in Uncategorized

    Last night was to me one of the biggest shocks of the festival…I was so blown away by this film that I couldn’t believe my eyes. I’ve been covering film for over 20 years and like many film critics over the past couple of years, we’ve been bombarded with 3-D films. Many of these films have […]


  4. SUNDAY, BLOODY SUNDAAAAAY: PART 2 – HUMAN TRAFFICKING: The Invisible Jam

    Posted November 6th, 2012 by Dr. Craig D. Reid in Uncategorized

    Part 1 of this blog elucidated that documentaries and true stories bring us windows of someone else’s lives, where we can lay witness to the suffering and hardships of others. It’s key that when you watch films of this nature, open your eyes and close the egos, because it can be easy to put yourself […]


  5. YELLOW FEVER: Please Don’t Bug Me.

    Posted November 5th, 2012 by Dr. Craig D. Reid in Uncategorized

    Documentaries and true stories bring us windows of someone else’s lives, where we can lay witness to the suffering and hardships of others. We in essence became Sunday, armchair quarterbacks expounding upon our own intuitive (usually pseudo-intuitive) sense of how he or she should have handled their situation, often boasting with, “Now if that was […]


  6. SDAFF 2012 Award Winners Announced!

    Posted November 5th, 2012 by Brian in Announcements

    The best in Asian American cinema were honored at Saturday’s star-studded Awards Gala. The winners were: Grand Jury Prize: JOHNNY LOVES DOLORES (Clarissa de los Reyes) Best Narrative Feature: GRACELAND (Ron Morales) Best Documentary Feature: SEEKING ASIAN FEMALE (Debbie Lum) Best Narrative Short: MONDAY MONDAY (Eric K. Yue) Best Animated Short: 38-39°C (Kangmin Kim) Special […]


  7. SATURDAY NIGHT’S ALRIGHT FOR FIGHTING BUT ONLY AFTER TAIWAN’S PEACE

    Posted November 4th, 2012 by Dr. Craig D. Reid in Uncategorized

    Being a graduate student at Taiwan’s most prestigious university, National Taiwan University (aka Tai Da) back in 1979, there is no way that I could miss out on attending one of this year’s SDAFF new initiatives…partnering with the UCSD (University of California, San Diego) in bringing a special series of eight Taiwanese films to be […]


  8. OPENING NIGHT – TAKE 2 – FIVE FINGERS OF DEATH

    Posted November 3rd, 2012 by Dr. Craig D. Reid in Uncategorized

    I really don’t know where to start this blog, there is so much to say that on a personal level, “opening night” blew my mind. I mean, how many times do you get to meet a director who started a movie craze in the United States, watch the film that started the craze, then have […]


  9. Rush Line and Box Office Only: what to do when films are sold out online?

    Posted October 30th, 2012 by Brian in Announcements

      SOLD OUT ONLINE? Chances are, there are still plenty of tickets. Note if the screening is RUSH LINE ONLY or BOX OFFICE ONLY. RUSH LINE ONLY Set your clocks and get to the theater early! RUSH LINE ONLY means we’re out of tickets online and at the box office. Once badgeholders are let in […]


  10. SDAFF Themes 2012: Social Media on Film

    Posted October 30th, 2012 by Brian in Themes

    Today, social media and film go hand-in-hand. We even have a summit to prove it. Films are funded, and then promoted and even distributed through channels like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. The centrality of social media in our lives also means it becomes thematically significant in the stories we tell. And as the documentary UPLOADED […]


  11. Festival Q&A: H.P. Mendoza, director of I AM A GHOST

    Posted October 29th, 2012 by Brian in Inside Scoop

    As we count down to opening night, we bring you special Q&As with filmmakers whose features will be presented at our festival this year. In this edition, Lisa Yadao speaks to director, screenwriter, actor, and composer H.P. Mendoza about Asian Americans in film, the afterlife, and balut. Mendoza, who has not one, but two features screening […]


  12. Festival Q&A: Ron Morales, director of GRACELAND

    Posted October 25th, 2012 by Eric Lallana in Inside Scoop

    As we count down to opening night, we bring you special Q&As with directors whose films will be presented at our festival this year. In this edition, programmer Eric Lallana speaks to Ron Morales, who won Best Narrative at SDAFF ’08 with Santa Mesa, and who is back with his latest film, GRACELAND. Congratulations on […]


  13. Festival Q&A: Richard Wong and H.P. Mendoza of YES, WE’RE OPEN

    Posted October 22nd, 2012 by philliplorenzo in Inside Scoop

    As we count down to opening night, we bring you special Q&As with filmmakers whose features will be presented at our festival this year. In this edition, managing director Phillip Lorenzo speaks to YES, WE’RE OPEN director Richard Wong and writer-actor H.P. Mendoza. Did this story start from you getting to know a couple in […]


  14. SDAFF Themes 2012: Fukushima films

    Posted October 19th, 2012 by Brian in Themes

    Last year’s festival was a mere seven months after the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster in and around Fukushima, Japan. Since then, countless films about the devastation and its after-effects have been produced by Japanese and non-Japanese filmmakers alike. Many of the films are predictably sentimental and exploitative. More interesting is how many of them are […]


  15. Festival Q&A: Monika Treut, director of THE RAW AND THE COOKED

    Posted October 16th, 2012 by Brian in Inside Scoop

    As we count down to opening night, we bring you special Q&As with directors whose films will be presented at our festival this year. In this edition, programmer Tracie Yang speaks to Monika Treut, the director of the luscious documentary THE RAW AND THE COOKED. First, how did you begin this project and when did […]


  16. Festival Q&A: Mye Hoang, director of VIETTE

    Posted October 8th, 2012 by leeannkim in Inside Scoop

    As we count down to opening night, we bring you special Q&As with directors whose films will be presented at our festival this year. First up is Mye Hoang, who makes her big return to SDAFF — this time as director, producer, writer, and star of her debut feature, VIETTE, which screens on Monday, Nov 5 […]


  17. Inside Scoop: How SDAFF chooses films

    Posted October 3rd, 2012 by Brian in Inside Scoop

    Film festivals are shrouded in mystery, and the lack of complete transparency, along with the sheer volume of annual submissions, have led some to doubt the legitimacy of the process. We can’t speak for other festivals, but we can certainly speak for ourselves. Here’s the chronology of a film submission at the San Diego Asian […]


  18. Welcome to the Great Cinema Party!

    Posted September 24th, 2012 by Brian in Announcements

    The entertainment has arrived, the talent’s in the green room, and the drinks are on ice. Some call it a film festival, but this year I’m calling it, to borrow the title of Raya Martin’s new feature, a cinema party. It’s not just a celebration, though there is plenty to celebrate. It’s an upheaval, somewhere […]