Topic: asian cinema
East is Western: Johnny To's "Exiled" plays SFMOMA's "Nonwestern Westerns" series. (Photo courtesy SFMOMA)
SFMOMA's "Nonwestern Westerns" series
Until they started falling out of fashion in the 1960s, Westerns were pretty much the bedrock of the American movie industry. Whole studios had been created to churn ‘em out like “Bronco Billy” Anderson’s in the East Bay. (Fremont’s Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum still shows silent films year-round in his honor.) The Great Train Robbery, considered the first real narrative movie using cross-cuts, close-ups and other then-innovative techniques, was a Western.
topics: asian cinema, genre films, italian cinema, reviews, san francisco museum of modern art, westerns
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Battle of the year! "Planet B-Boy" won the SF International Asian American Film Festival's documentary competition. (Photo courtesy SFIAAFF)
SFIAAFF's winners
Boys will be boys, or b-boys, if you look at the winners of the 2008 San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, announced last night, the final SF night for the annual SFIAAFF. Winners of the Narrative Feature Jury Prize (a tie with Santa Mesa), as well as Best Documentary, were b-boy movies, Always Be Boys and Planet B-Boy, respectively. While breakdancing in the U.S. has certainly seen better days (a U.S. team has not won the international “Battle of the Year” since 1998), the art has been taken up with a vengeance by Asians, with Korean teams a particularly dominant force. Last night, they came up on top again. The complete list of awardees, in case you missed it live, is here at SF360. The Festival moves to San Jose March 21-23.
topics: asian american cinema, asian cinema, awards, bay area, directors, documentary, pacific film archive, sundance kabuki
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Goto and friends: SF International Asian American Film Festival Assistant Director Taro Goto toasts the year with actress/filmmaker Jacqueline Kim (center) and friend Jenn Lim (right). (Photo by Virgil Vidal)
"Last for One:" SFIAAFF's Taro Goto, moving on
As the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival draws to a close, it says goodbye to one of its loyal and gracious gentlemen, Taro Goto. Goto began as the Festival’s Print Traffic Coordinator in 2000, first thinking of the position as a temporary means to stay in touch with the film community. But he stayed eight years, and leaves as the Festival’s Associate Director. As he puts it, “[The job] became an obsession.” He gave notice that this would be his last Festival one year ago, and judging by this year’s success, he is going out in style. SF360.org asked Goto to give us a personal look at what makes him happiest about this last year of his tenure.
topics: asian american cinema, asian cinema, film festivals
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Shoestring wonder: A critic finds Brillante Mendoza's "Foster Child" both dramatically cohesive and beautifully shot. (Photo courtesy SFIAAFF/CAAM)
San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival
Cherry blossoms overflow the sidewalks and strangers suddenly seem willing to make eye contact. Spring in San Francisco, which, for the local film fan, means the start of festival season, a parade of one-time-only screenings running from the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival all the way up to July’s Silent Film Festival weekend. Now in its 26th year, SFIAAFF has grown from being a niche event to a major contender on the international festival circuit—with more than enough voices and crossovers to justify its unwieldy moniker.
topics: asian american cinema, asian cinema, center for asian american media, directors, documentary, dvd, sundance kabuki
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Brilliant: "Slingshot" director Brillante Mendoze speaks to a fan before a screening at the SF International Asian American Film Festival. (Photo by Laura Irvine)
Q&A: Brillante Mendoza
It is clear from the very first interaction with Brillante Mendoza that he is an extremely gracious man. This, even after the substantial acclaim he had been garnering for three feature films he unveiled this past year. In the most obvious ways, the two of his films playing at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, Foster Child and Slingshot, couldn’t be more different. The first of these films centers on the adoption day of Jon-Jon, a darling 3-year old, from a loving foster family. The latter examines the criminal underworld and its corrupt government counterpart in a dark and labyrinthine Manila. Still, as Mendoza makes clear, these films share a basic approach to the world, one that engenders respectful understanding through a desire to depict and see things as they really are. In part, because of filmmakers like him, Filipino independent cinema has enjoyed a renaissance in this first decade of the 2000s. Mendoza was in San Francisco for the first time recently for his screenings, when he took time to speak with SF360.org.
topics: asian cinema, critics, directors, documentary, film festivals, q&a
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For President? Daniel Wu wears his heart on his lapel as he returns to the Castro with "Blood Brothers." (Photo by Laura Irvine)
Daniel Wu
Last year, when Daniel Wu came back to his native Bay Area with his directorial debut, “The Heavenly Kings,” which screened at the 50th San Francisco International Film Festival, SF360.org contributor Jennifer Young reminded us of the joke that had been circulating online—that a Chinese law exists requiring Daniel Wu to be featured in every Hong Kong film. Still one of Hong Kong’s most prolific actors, Wu is visiting the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival this week with Alexi Tan’s “Blood Brothers.” Young got a chance to visit again with the actor when the film screened at the Castro this past Friday.
topics: asian american cinema, asian cinema, bay area, castro theatre, center for asian american media, critics, cult cinema, film festivals
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Stone's throw: Young Iranian director Hana Makhmalbaf's "Buddha Collapsed out of Shame" eloquently traces the determined journey of 6-year old Afghan girl to learn to read. (Photo courtesy Center for Asian American Media)
Judy Stone's San Francisco Int'l Asian American Film Festival picks
A name familiar to longtime readers of the San Francisco Chronicle, where she once worked, Judy Stone came out with Not Quite a Memoir two years back, offering audiences conversations on film from around the world. This week, she offers SF360.org readers her top picks for the SFIAAFF’s collection of films from around the world—films screening at the Sundance Kabuki as you read this. Her work has also appeared in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Ramparts, for over 40 years, and Stone has two other books out as well, Eye on the World: Conversations with International Filmmakers and The Mystery of B. Traven.
topics: asian cinema, authors, critics, film festivals, filmmakers
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