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2016 SDAFF Spring Showcase

All Films & Events

  1. 3688

    Royston Tan / Asia Pop! / Singapore / 2015 / Comedy, Family, Musical / 99 mins
    38-year-old Xia Fei Fei is a parking lot attendant, lurking by cars and waiting to issue tickets. But the sudden arrival of an old stage partner and the opportunity afforded by a TV singing competition awaken Fei Fei’s long-buried pop star dreams.
    3688

    UltraStar Mission Valley
    Saturday, April 30, 2016 1:00 pm

    3688

    UltraStar Mission Valley
    Tuesday, May 3, 2016 5:10 pm


  2. ANIMATED SHORTS PROGRAM – CHINA NOW

    China Now / 95 mins
    Through styles as diverse as ink wash painting, Tibetan thangka, and 3D computer graphics, these six short animations breathtakingly imagine fable-like pasts and dystopian, surreal futures.

    In This Program: AN APPLE TREE, DOUBLE ACT, FAMILY REUNION, THE HUNTER AND THE SKELETON, THE NEW BOOK OF MOUNTAINS AND SEAS PART 2, PERFECT CONJUGAL BLISS

    ANIMATED SHORTS PROGRAM

    UltraStar Mission Valley
    Sunday, May 1, 2016 3:00 pm


  3. BORN TO DANCE

    Tammy Davis / Asia Pop! / New Zealand / 2015 / Musical / 96 mins
    Tu may have been born to dance, but tell that to his traditionalist dad or to the world-renowned K-Crew, whose members have their suspicions about this kid from the wrong side of the tracks. But nobody tells Tu to pop or pump to any beat other than his own heart’s, and nobody who witnesses his potential and his ethic will leave uninspired by the brilliance of his commitment.
    BORN TO DANCE

    UltraStar Mission Valley
    Friday, April 29, 2016 5:30 pm

    BORN TO DANCE

    UltraStar Mission Valley
    Saturday, April 30, 2016 3:15 pm


  4. A FILMLESS FESTIVAL

    China Now / China / 2015 / Documentary / 80 mins
    This film documents the 11th Beijing Independent Film Festival in 2014, from the preparations before the opening ceremony to the process of its forced cancellation. The footage used for the film was captured by audience members, local artists, invited directors and special guests, festival volunteers and workers, as well as journalists and members of the media.
    A FILMLESS FESTIVAL

    UltraStar Mission Valley
    Sunday, May 1, 2016 1:00 pm


  5. HEART ATTACK

    Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit / Asia Pop! / Thailand / 2015 / Comedy, Romance / 124 mins
    When bumps start appearing on the neck of a graphic designer, he realizes he needs more than Photoshop to remove the rash… he needs a dermatologist. And when the workaholic falls in love with a doctor-in-training, awkward hilarity will ensue.
    HEART ATTACK

    UltraStar Mission Valley
    Saturday, April 30, 2016 7:45 pm

    HEART ATTACK

    UltraStar Mission Valley
    Monday, May 2, 2016 5:25 pm


  6. HONOR THY FATHER

    Erik Matti / Masters / Philippines / 2015 / Drama, Thriller / 115 mins
    Edgar is a family man, living well off with his wife and daughter. But when a secret regarding their finances is exposed, their lives are put in jeopardy by the very friends they have come to trust. With John Lloyd Cruz as Edgar and direction by Erik Matti, HONOR THY FATHER features uncompromising grit and drama that surrounds every corner with claustrophobic tension.
    HONOR THY FATHER

    UltraStar Mission Valley
    Friday, April 29, 2016 7:35 pm

    HONOR THY FATHER

    UltraStar Mission Valley
    Wednesday, May 4, 2016 5:00 pm


  7. THE LOST ARCADE

    Kurt Vincent / Asian American Panorama / USA / 2015 / Documentary / 79 mins
    In the waning years of the video arcade boom, the Chinatown Fair was legion: the last place to check out the newest games, the surviving oasis of competition and community. But with its inevitable closure came the end of an era for a generation for whom CF was not just an amusement, but a home.
    THE LOST ARCADE

    UltraStar Mission Valley
    Saturday, April 30, 2016 5:25 pm


  8. THE MUSIC OF STRANGERS: YO-YO MA AND THE SILK ROAD ENSEMBLE

    Morgan Neville / Asian American Panorama / USA / 2015 / Documentary, Musical / 96 mins
    THE MUSIC OF STRANGERS glides and circles around the dizzying, tradition-defying virtuosos of the Silk Road Ensemble, a collective of musicians assembled by Yo-Yo Ma from countries along the fabled trade route. Rich in history, politics, and of course wall-to-wall music, the documentary wondrously captures the ravishing ways unexpected connections sprout from unexpected harmonies.
    THE MUSIC OF STRANGERS

    UltraStar Mission Valley
    Thursday, April 28, 2016 7:00 pm


  9. MYSTERY KUNG FU THEATER

    Asia Pop!
    We could tell you what it is, but then we'd have to make sure they are the last words you ever hear again.
    MYSTERY KUNG FU THEATER

    UltraStar Mission Valley
    Tuesday, May 3, 2016 9:45 pm


  10. RIGHT NOW, WRONG THEN

    Hong Sang-soo / Masters / South Korea / 2015 / Comedy, Experimental / 121 mins
    As in many a Hong Sang-soo film, a director meets a pretty young artist. There are drinks, unseemly interactions, and inevitably more drinks. But in its depiction, once again a marvel of cinematic structure, the narrative fissures into any number of other possibilities, revealing a comical game of what-ifs and switched perspectives as delirious and puzzling as the romantic encounter itself.
    RIGHT NOW, WRONG THEN

    UltraStar Mission Valley
    Tuesday, May 3, 2016 7:20 pm

    RIGHT NOW, WRONG THEN

    UltraStar Mission Valley
    Wednesday, May 4, 2016 7:25 pm


  11. THE RIVER OF LIFE

    Yang Pingdao / China Now / China / 2014 / Experimental, Family, Hybrid Documentary / 104 mins
    Using an innovative structure, based on the distinctive texture of family memory through space and time, Yang Pingdao invents something poised delicately between fiction and documentary to capture crystallized moments in his family history, to recreate in cinematic form its emotional weight and variety, woven around the life and death of his grandmother, and the birth of his child.
    THE RIVER OF LIFE

    UltraStar Mission Valley
    Sunday, May 1, 2016 7:20 pm


  12. SPARK

    Hu Jie / China Now / China / 2014 / Documentary / 101 mins
    Spark was an underground magazine published in 1960 by four young intellectuals who wanted to expose the devastating famine caused by Mao’s Great Leap Forward, a horrendous period of national suffering that is still unmentioned in China’s history textbooks today. His alternative oral history approach knits together courageous interviews with the magazine’s surviving supporters, who were ready to sacrifice themselves to alert their countrymen to unprecedented disaster.
    SPARK

    UltraStar Mission Valley
    Sunday, May 1, 2016 5:10 pm


  13. SWEET 20

    Phan Gia Nhat Linh / Asia Pop! / Vietnam / 2015 / Comedy, Family, Musical / 127 mins
    A grandmother neglected by her family becomes magically reborn as her 20-year-old self and wins back the hearts of her bratty descendants, a senior center suitor, and indeed an entire nation. A remake of the Korean film Miss Granny, SWEET 20 looks forward to the bubbly possibilities of Vietnamese pop cinema and especially singer-turned-actress Miu Le in a tour-de-force physical performance of granny sass.
    SWEET 20

    UltraStar Mission Valley
    Thursday, May 5, 2016 6:45 pm Rush Line

    SWEET 20

    UltraStar Mission Valley
    Thursday, May 5, 2016 7:30 pm Rush Line


  14. THREE STORIES OF LOVE

    Ryosuke Hashiguchi / Masters / Japan / 2015 / Drama, Romance / 140 mins
    A bridge-repairer quietly goes on with life after the senseless murder of his wife. A gay lawyer holds a secret love close to his heart. A housewife dreams of a life large enough to contain her sense of self-worth. Together, the quests depict love as lingering fevers resistant to diagnosis and immune to easy remedy. This is drama at its most adult: uncompromising, hardened, and immensely felt.
    THREE STORIES OF LOVE

    UltraStar Mission Valley
    Monday, May 2, 2016 8:00 pm