Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival

PAAFF 2014
  NOV. 12-NOV. 22

2014 Festival Trailer

Director’s Statement

Greetings friends! It is with great excitement that I welcome you to the 7th Annual Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival. In this guide you will find details about all 16 features, 5 shorts programs, and a host of other peripheral programming at this year’s festival. PAAFF’14 is our biggest, and in my opinion, best festival to date—and would not have been possible without the tireless efforts of our volunteer staff, community partners, and sponsors.

2014 has been a landmark year for PAAFF, marking our first year-round pre-festival program and introducing our new PAAFF+ peripheral program, including three new sections: PAAFF Eats, PAAFF Pulse, and PAAFF Pride—which refer to our food, music, and LGBTQ programming respectively. There are too many great events in this year’s program to mention them all, but here are a few highlights.

Wednesday evening 11/12 our Opening Night Film A Leading Man has writer/director Steven J. Kung in attendance and a FREE reception for all ticket holders including food, drinks, music, and a live vegetable carving demonstration by Master Chef Joseph Poon.

Friday evening 11/14 PAAFF will host a live martial arts demonstration between screenings of Awesome Asian Bad Guys and Uzumasa Limelight.

Saturday afternoon 11/15 Chef Poon will join us again for a live cooking demonstration after the screening of Eat with Me, followed by our Centerpiece Film Farah Goes Bang with director Meera Menon in attendance.

Sunday evening 11/16 our Closing Night Film Brahmin Bulls has director Mahesh Pailoor in attendance and a FREE catered reception for all ticket holders.

Tuesday afternoon 11/18 Free Library of Philadelphia will host our FREE panel about APAs in Hip Hop featuring Jeff Chang, author of Can’t Stop Won’t Stop.

Saturday evening 11/22 our Festival Finale Film Kumu Hina will be followed by a FREE catered reception for all ticket holders.

Thanks you all for attending, and I look forward to welcoming you to our festival.

Rob Buscher
Festival Director

AWARD
WINNERS

We always believe that amazing work should be awarded and praised. These were the best of the best from our 2014 festival.

Photo of Meera Menon with her Best Narrative Feature award trophy for Farah Goes Bang - Photo by Nicholas Koenig

Best Narrative Feature

Director: Meera Menon

Film Still from Plastic Paradise: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Best Documentary Feature

Director: Angela Sun

Film Still from Cicada

Audience Choice: Narrative Feature

Director: Dean Yamada

Film Still from Ricki's Promise

Audience Choice: Documentary Feature

Director: Changfu Chang

Film Still from Usumasa Limelight

Honorable Mention: Narrative Feature

Director: Ken Ochiai

Film Still from Kumu Hina

Honorable Mention: Documentary Feature

Director: Dean Hamer & Joe Wilson

Film Still from Hsu Ji Behind the Screen

Best Short Film

Director: Thomas Rio

THE memories

Festival photographs taken by Kay Lim Photography, Nicholas Koenig, Justin L. Chiu, The Miles Eye, Amberlee Namini, Lisa Jiang, and Sara Mueller.