Join us for our first Film Club meeting of 2023! We’ll be starting out with a discussion on Martika Ramirez Escobar’s debut feature Leonor Will Never Die. Once again, we are starting out our season with a movie about movies–specifically, the way they shape and are shaped by our unconscious minds. Escobar’s madcap action dramedy tells the story of a struggling former filmmaker in the Philippines who ends up in a coma which transports her into her own unfinished screenplay. The result is a melding of many genres, an exploration of an artist’s psyche, and a totally unique cinematic experience. Our March PAAFF Film Club meeting is scheduled for March 16 at 6PM ET. Leonor Will Never Die is available through Vudu, Google Play, and Amazon. Make sure you join the PAAFF Film Club Discord server if you’re interested in continuing the conversation outside of our monthly meetings! Sign up for our Film Club newsletter below! *Please make sure to check the "PAAFF Film Club" box when signing up!
For April’s Film Club we will be looking at one of Akira Kurosawa’s lesser known films, Dersu Uzala. This Soviet-Japanese co-production, and Kurosawa’s only non-Japanese-language film, tells a moving story about cultural exchange, friendship, and loss, all taking place within the visually stunning wilderness of the Russian Far East. It is a film all about the unexpected but inevitable intersections of geography, untamed nature, and humanity. Our April PAAFF Film Club meeting is scheduled for April 20 at 6PM ET. Dersu Uzala is available to stream via Criterion Channel subscription, and to rent on Amazon. Make sure you join the PAAFF Film Club Discord server if you’re interested in continuing the conversation outside of our monthly meetings! Sign up for our Film Club newsletter below! *Please make sure to check the "PAAFF Film Club" box when signing up!
May’s Film Club will be a discussion on Edward Yang’s The Terrorizers. Considered a pivotal film in the era of New Taiwanese Cinema, The Terrorizers presents a startling look into urban life in the form of a tangled narrative web, complicated by changing perspectives and puzzling timelines. It is a story not only of Taipei in the 1980s, but of the modern city in general, what it does to people and the many ways they manage to exist within its confines. Our May PAAFF Film Club meeting is scheduled for May 18 at 6PM ET. The Terrorizers is available to stream via Mubi subscription, and to rent on Amazon. Make sure you join the PAAFF Film Club Discord server if you’re interested in continuing the conversation outside of our monthly meetings! Sign up for our Film Club newsletter below! *Please make sure to check the "PAAFF Film Club" box when signing up!
June’s meeting will be focused on a film from PAAFF’s own history: Sasie Sealy’s Lucky Grandma. Tsai Chin stars as the titular character–a chain-smoking, gambling grandma in New York City’s Chinatown–in Sealy’s debut feature, a darkly funny crime story that subversively highlights the role of elders in an immigrant community. This discussion will coincide with The Free Library of Philadelphia’s “One Book, One Philadelphia” watchlist, also featuring Lucky Grandma. Our June PAAFF Film Club meeting is scheduled for June 15 at 6PM ET. Lucky Grandma is available to rent on Vudu, Google Play, and Amazon. Make sure you join the PAAFF Film Club Discord server if you’re interested in continuing the conversation outside of our monthly meetings! Sign up for our Film Club newsletter below! *Please make sure to check the "PAAFF Film Club" box when signing up!
