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Shortened festival still packs punch

(chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2009-07-20 11:19

Ivy Ho, one of Hong Kong's best-known screenwriters, will make her feature film directorial debut on Thursday with the New York premiere of Claustrophobia at the 32nd annual Asian American International Film Festival (AAIFF).

The film is just one of many contributions from Chinese-American directors that will have screenings this weekend at the four-day festival.

When launched in 1978, the festival was the first of its kind and now claims to be the longest-running international independent festival supporting directors of Asian and Asian-American descent.

The festival draws a crowd of up to 10,000 attendees each year, a mixture of Asian Americans and film lovers of all ages.

But while the audience may defy demographic categories, attendees all have one thing in common - an appreciation of culture.

"Hollywood says people won't read subtitles and you have to dumb down movies - not here," says John Woo, acting executive director of the festival.

"If we showed films just for commercial sake we'd be out of business. What makes the festival a festival is our curatorial vision - we know who our audience is."

And finding films that fit this audience's needs is the mission of AAIFF organizers, says Woo, which will be even more difficult this year with a reduced lineup.

Typically a 10-day affair, the festival had to be cut down to four days - a result of recession.

So while there are normally 20 films shown, this year there will be only 15.

This year, the opening film Claustrophobia is a portrayal of five office colleagues' relationships. With Claustrophobia, Ho won the Hong Kong Film Critics Society's Best Screenplay Award for 2008, and has been successful overseas "despite the absence of kungfu or gun-firing in the film," says Ho.

She will attend the festival to witness the film's reception among US audiences. "The US market is a tough nut to crack, I know, but I'm hopeful," she says.

Many of the other films that made the cut portray real-life problems of Chinese Americans.

Set in New York's Chinatown, Here to Stay shows the downside of gentrification. Director ManSee Kong followed around Wong Pui Tak, a man facing eviction from his single-occupancy room after 30 years in Manhattan. His landlord, like many others, has bowed to the pressure of developers looking to build luxury condos in the area.

"Old Chinese men who worked in restaurants and sweatshops live in these rooms the size of closets. (Landlords) cut off heat and electricity there's nowhere for them to go," says Woo. "It's an issue that a lot of activist groups have taken up. Whatever cliche you think of about overcrowding in Chinatown, it's true."

Writer and director Tze Chun's Children of Invention is the story of two children left to survive on the streets when their mother disappears after being detained by immigration officials.

"America's a melting pot," Chun says. "It's made up of immigrants who are, by the nature of their journey here, survivors. It's what we're best at, and it's what we'll continue to do."

Echoing the spirit of the festival, films like this speak to both Chinese-American audiences and cinema fans across the board, said Martha Tien, the festival's program director.

Another documentary in this vein is Whatever it Takes, directed by Christopher Wong, which portrays a Wall Street warrior who quits his job to become a principal in the Bronx.

This year's festival will also be among the first events held in the new Museum of Chinese in America, which will officially open in September.

"Cinema is the international language that everybody understands," Woo adds. "All the conditions that make up a good film transcend, and cross borders .... It's magic. So this kind of product will continue to come from China because we're seeing China open up."

Brendan joined The China Daily in 2007 as a language polisher in the Language Tips Department, where he writes a regular column for Chinese English Language learners, reads audio news for listeners and anchors the weekly video news in addition to assisting with on location stories. Elsewhere he writes Op’Ed pieces with a China focus that feature in the Daily’s Website opinion section.

He received his B.A. and Post Grad Dip from Curtin University in 1997 and his Masters in Community Development and Management from Charles Darwin University in 2003. He has taught in Japan, England, Australia and most recently China. His articles have featured in the Bangkok Post, The Taipei Times, The Asia News Network and in-flight magazines.