SFIAAFF. Preview.

There was a seemingly solid wall of young, excited people at 111 Minna St. for the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival Launch Party last month. It was late, but it was still happening. There weren't any free drinks. But it was still happening. Young hipsters and film geeks like indieFEST, older fashionistas like SFIFF, and all kinds of young people, apparently, love SFIAAFF.

SFIAAFF, running from March 16 to 26 at a host of venues around the Bay Area, is the largest Asian American film festival in the country, and this year there are a record-breaking 12 narrative features and 10 documentaries screening in competition, all by or about Asian Americans or Canadians (technically Americans, too, but nevermind). What's really important about this festival is the competition; many of the films coming from Asia are often just as likely to turn up at the usual big city international fests. But it used to be very difficult to get together a quality quorum of films by Asian American filmmakers - there just weren't as many out there.

The slate this year is causing a lot of buzz, mostly because many of the films screening in competition have just won awards elsewhere. Narrative feature Eve and the Fire Horse (screenings) and doc Dear Pyongyang (screenings) both picked up Special Jury Prizes at Sundance. The filmmaker couple behind Abduction (screenings), Chris Sheridan and Patty Kim (with Jane Campion as Executive Producer) are being very close chested with their Slamdance Audience Award winning documentary - Jonathan Marlow was one of the few lucky enough to catch it. There's been a bit of talk about the Independent Spirit Awards' recent veering off towards so-called mainstream fare (although, according to Pat Buchanan on last week's McLaughlin Group, the fact that Brokeback Mountain was even nominated for an Academy Award, followed by the ceremony's low ratings, shows that Hollywood is, as usual, "out of touch with mainstream America"). The Independent Spirits still have their John Cassavetes Award, though, for the best feature made for under $500,000, which went to SFIAAFF competitor Conventioneers (screenings). Opening Night feature, Eric Byler's AMERICANese (screenings; Joan Chen fans note this one down) won SXSW's Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature and a Jury Award for Outstanding Ensemble Cast.

Eve and the Fire Horse is undoubtedly going to be a crowd pleaser. Nine-year-old Eve and her sister Karena must reconcile their own family's Chinese Buddhist traditions with the Catholic Canadian life surrounding them. Eve looks great, and its heart is in the right place, but the quirkiness of it all starts feeling a bit too treacley by the halfway mark. If a child's innocent observation of the magical, odd and occasionally sad world around her - mixed in with occasional flights of fantasy (a dancing goddess, levitation, etc) - is your thing, and it has been for many people I've spoken with who think Eve is a perfect delight, this is for you. If you're prone to rolling-of-the-eyes, then perhaps not.

Dear Pyongyang is Eve's exact opposite. Director Yonghi Yang wields a shaky camera to deliver some truly ugly (visually, and occasionally emotionally) confrontational conversations with her Korean father - it's what programmers like to euphemize as "raw." And raw it is. But unlike Eve, Pyongyang puts you off at first, to bring you in at the middle, and then crush you like the old Kids in the Hall skit by the end. Yang's father is from South Korea, but he has always aligned himself with the North. After having moved his family to Japan to work at promoting ethnic Korean schooling there, he sent his three young Japanese-born sons back to North Korea during the repatriation movement. Thirty years have passed, and Yang has been unable to reconcile her love for her father with his steadfast loyalty to the fatherland. Together they journey to visit the sons who are now trapped in North Korea, taking a surreal ferry ride over the sea and into the propagandistic fantasyland that is contemporary North Korea. This is when the film really kicks into high gear. It provides a brief and rare glimpse into a country that's often in the forefront of our thinking, yet remains fuzzy to us in any real sense. If you're worried about the dubious sanity of Kim Jong Il, Dear Pyongyang will only reinforce your gape jawed-ness. By the time that trip begins, a significant way into the movie, Yang may have already lost most of her audience. But those who have given her a chance will likely get drawn in at this point, hopefully make the leap with Yang into her father's aching conscience.

In a broad sense, Conventioneers takes its cues from Haskell Wexler's 1968 touchstone, Medium Cool. Filmed clandestinely on the streets (and cafés, hotel rooms and convention centers) of New York during the 2004 Republican National Convention, it's pushing another reference to say "Romeo and Juliet story," but that's what it is - only instead of swallowing bitter poison, the protagonists cop a bitter pill. In town for the convention, married Texas Republican Dave looks up his old Dartmouth classmate Leah, who is in the process of building coffins for the big demonstration. Old attractions erupt and while Dave leans towards rethinking things, Leah's less willing. Conventioneers does draw on a few stereotypes (Dave's wife is not too likeable), but remains engaging to the end. The performances are all strong, often a worry in no-time no-budget features, and there is enough soap opera tension to fuel the more philosophical moments. In a surprise end, though (watch for a spoiler here), the filmmakers can't help it, and all Republicans do turn out to be assholes, after all. C'mon, you can only take fiction so far!

Finally, something should be said about local effort Colma: The Musical (screenings). It's an impressively slick musical set in the San Francisco area suburb of Colma, known mostly for being the place where people get buried (literally). Three smartass theater geeks struggle in the post-high school world. Unfortunately, it does feel a bit like a film three clever high school students might make, just after graduating. It's hard to be negative without feeling guilty, though, because in the end Colma's just too darn likeable - fun, funny and nicely delivered. The music's quite good, in a contemporary band way, though it gets a little repetitive. Be warned, you might find yourself cringing as you remember your own high school ways.

There are some repertory highlights, too. The Pacific Film Archive is hosting a small sidebar, Heroic Grace: The Chinese Martial Arts Film (Part II). All classics from the 70s, screening are Clans of Intrigue, The Boxer from Shantung, King Boxer and the immaculately titled Dirty Ho, from master Lau Kar-leung.

Special guest James Shigeta will be in town for a screening of Sam Fuller's The Crimson Kimono, which is just one film in a sidebar dedicated to the handsome actor, perhaps the only Asian man ever groomed to be a Hollywood star.

It's a big festival and this may be a long preview, but it's only a small glimpse of all that's going on. Panels, guests, Directions in Sound, all are worth checking out. If the launch party is anything to go by, you should get your tickets early.

Posted by dwhudson at March 16, 2006 10:31 PM