As I write this diary entry, we are mere days away from the start of the 24th edition of The Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival. Having started working with our programming committee since mid-September, I'd have to say that this year's group have put in a superlative effort in weeding through nearly 350 individual works the past several months -- a whopping 40 percent increase in submissions over last year. When the works that me and David Magdael, the Film Festival's Co-Director, are factored in, our programming team will have screened over 500 works that will be filtered down into a program line-up of 169 films and videos. The increased volume is a sign that cinema production by Asian Pacific peoples is growing by leaps and bounds; the dramatically increased percentage of rejected works indicates that the competition is becoming quite stiff. I've already taken a handful of calls by filmmakers whose works we couldn't include. It's a part of the job that's the most unpleasant for me, and the part where I have to be counselor, cheerleader, psychiatrist, and executioner -- a role far more than that of a mere Festival Co-Director. Someone has to do that job. On many days, I wish it wasn't me.
This year's Festival program is a mix of near-misses and happy accidents. "Near misses," meaning that there were a LOT of excellent films we saw that for one reason or another will not be programmed. WONDERFUL TOWN is just such a work -- I absolutely loved it when I saw it last fall at the Asian Film Market, and we came THAT close to programming it when it got sold to a French distributor last December. From there, all reservations went out the door, and we found ourselves at the back of a looong line of other film festivals waiting to include it in their own programs. Then there were a couple of other films we dearly wanted -- but not for the $2,000 asking prices that were thrown in our faces.
On the other hand, films we were afraid would not be available fell into our lap at the eleventh hour. Case in point: Canadian director Yung Chang's riveting UP THE YANGTZE was bought by a U.S. distributor on the first day of its U.S. premiere engagement at the Sundance Film Festival last January. We were dismayed when the distributor announced a mid-April release date, two weeks prior to Festival Week! But then, a change of scheduling, a late phone call, and voila! UP THE YANGTZE will make its Los Angeles Premiere at the Film Festival, prior to its theatrical premiere engagement in mid-May. The opportunity to screen a country's official submission for Foreign Language Oscar, as UP THE YANGTZE is) is exciting. It's doubly exciting to screen TWO country's official Oscar submissions, as Tony Ayres' stellar drama THE HOME SONG STORIES, starring Joan Chen, is set to make its L.A. Premiere screening on May 8 as our Closing Night feature.
While I was busying myself with the tasks of confirming our screening programs, I've received a series of responses to my earlier diary entry around "The Question." One of the more interesting comments I've gotten was from a reader who only signed his name as "Anonymous." His response, which was decidedly catty, went like this:
oh well, bad question to ask.
I agree to that, but at the same time, i think that you shouldn't be so harsh on "some white lady" asking a question that apparently others in the audience want to know the answer to. You are a festival co-director, and you should sensor your own reaction, so you and more importantly the organization you represent, don't come off looking like a jerk on your own site. Yes, you need to address your snobbery for the sake of your own festival.
no, i'm not white.
-asian guy
Now, I really don't respond to respondents who won't bother to actually identify themselves, and instead hide behind some safety hedge like "Anonymous" or "Asian Guy." For me, I'm willing to own my remarks, and quite frankly, if a white lady, or anyone else of any ethnicity for that matter, invests two hours of their time to experience a work of moving picture art and the best thing they can feed back to the artist is, "What was your budget," then how sad is THAT? In my experiences, I've consistently seen that form of marginalization carried out at Q & As whenever I've screened events at the old Independent Feature Project/West (now Film Independent). That my two cents, and if anyone out there has an issue with it, then write your own blog.
Well so much for that. On to more important things, namely, what's on tap for Festival Week 2008. We're happy to welcome a new blogger to the Festival website -- say hello to past Film Festival artist Michael Caigoy. He'll be writing his thoughts on just some of the films in this year's festival in a diary entitled, "Radical Posture." Check out his first entry on director Sarab Neelam's OCEAN OF PEARLS, and be sure to visit back for his upcoming reviews and critical comments.
As for me: throughout the week and into the back end of the Festival, I'll be sharing my thoughts and observations on how this year's bumper-crop of films are received by the audience and by fellow filmmakers. Regardless of what happens, I'd like to think our audience is not only watching, but paying attention as well.
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