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Music of Asian America Workshop: Word To Your Motherland

Institute of Contemporary Art 118 S 36th Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States

A Hip-Hop Exploration of South Asian American Identity with Seti X CHAIR: Annar Desai-Stephens (Eastman School of Music) Join Los Angeles born, South Asian American Sikh Recording Artist SETI X for this workshop exploring Hip-Hop Culture and its relationship with South Asian American youth and their development of self-identity. As a co-founder of India’s First All Hip-Hop Collective, SETI X has travelled the world representing South Asian American Hip-Hop for the last 10 years. Participants will be able to hear music and watch videos of the development of this scene from the early 80’s onwards. In this workshop we will explore the trajectory of artists who have pioneered this space, as well as the current musical landscapes of South Asian American artists reclaiming their culture and expressing themselves through Hip-Hop Music. We will explore influences that have crossed over from the “Asian Underground” Movement in the UK, as well as explore ideas of cultural pollination across the world from the US to India.

Free

Music of Asian American Conference: Asian Musics, Transplanted

12 Gates Art Gallery 106 N 2nd St, Philadelphia, PA, United States

In partnership with Music of Asian America Research Center and University of Pennsylvania Asian American Studies Program, we present the third annual PAAFF Conference. This year’s three-day conference explores the Music of Asian America through a series of paper presentations and interactive workshops that will run parallel to festival film programming, punctuated by two live musical showcases on Friday and Saturday nights during Opening Weekend. Bringing together filmmakers, academics, and other creatives - the PAAFF Conference presentations include many of the leading scholars on these subjects and top performing artists in their field. All conference programs are FREE and open to the public, RSVP advised due to limited seating capacity. Check guide listing for location information since the conference will be traveling between venues. CHAIR: Jennifer Jones Wilson (Westminster Choir College) The musical traditions of Asia survive, thrive and are transformed in the United States for a wide variety of reasons.  This panel explores the journeys that Indonesian, South Indian and Chinese musics have taken when they entered the halls of academia, were employed as a part of youth identity formation, or became a site of memory and entertainment for seniors. PANELISTS: Elizabeth Clendinning (Wake Forest University) Gamelan Chameleon: Cultural Representation and Academic Asian American Ensembles The Indonesian American community is small; however, Indonesian gamelan (percussion orchestra) ensembles have gained an outsized presence within American academic music programs in the past six decades since the first two academic gamelan ensembles were founded at the University of California-Los Angeles. Based on nearly a decade of research within American gamelan communities, this paper examines how gamelan communities have approached the task of representation. Rachel Schuck (University of Miami) Carnatic Music Transplanted to America:  Innovations of Youth in “Sustaining Sampradaya” As Carnatic music’s education system shifts and develops, performance practices and live venues reflect the impact of this music’s migration to the U.S. In this paper, drawing on ethnographic observations of the 2018 Cleveland Thyagaraja Festival and interviews with organizers and participants, I demonstrate that the performance spaces and community accessibility provided through the festival’s education program reveal the globalization of this tradition and contribute to the re-formation of South Asian identity in American education and music performance contexts. Lydia Huang (Temple University) Songs of China(town): Music, Memory, and Identity This paper examines the musical practices of Chinese seniors (age 60 and over) in weekly singing classes in Chinatown, Philadelphia. These seniors are a special group within the Chinese diasporic community, as many have lived under Mao’s regime and through the reform era. In turn, they have experienced periods where music was used as an educational tool, as a political weapon, and as products for consumption. Given their varied experiences with music, what does music making look like for them in Philadelphia?

Music of Asian American Conference: Militarism & the music of Asian America

12 Gates Art Gallery 106 N 2nd St, Philadelphia, PA, United States

In partnership with Music of Asian America Research Center and University of Pennsylvania Asian American Studies Program, we present the third annual PAAFF Conference. This year’s three-day conference explores the Music of Asian America through a series of paper presentations and interactive workshops that will run parallel to festival film programming, punctuated by two live musical showcases on Friday and Saturday nights during Opening Weekend. Bringing together filmmakers, academics, and other creatives - the PAAFF Conference presentations include many of the leading scholars on these subjects and top performing artists in their field. All conference programs are FREE and open to the public, RSVP advised due to limited seating capacity. CHAIR: Ricky Punzalan (University of Maryland) From the annexation of Hawaii, Guam and the Philippines to the Asian theater in World War II and subsequent Japanese occupation, and from the Korean War to the Vietnam war and the illegal, covert bombings of Cambodia and Laos, U.S. military policy has—since the late 19th century—changed the fates of Asians along the Pacific Rim, and led many to immigrate to North America. This panel explores how U.S. militarism has affected the creation, dissemination and reception of the music of Asian America. PANELISTS: Christine Bacareza Balance (Cornell University): We are Here Because You Were There:  U.S. Militarism & the Musics of Asian America While social and cultural histories of the early Asian American movement account for its simultaneously domestic and transnational concerns—the wars in Southeast Asia as well as the civil rights struggles fought “at home”—what has not yet been addressed in a direct or sustained manner is how “Asian American music” has been constituted by over 100 years of militarized relations between the U.S. and its Asian counterparts. My paper addresses the role of U.S. militarism by listening in on primary musical examples and surveying secondary sources that evidence how U.S. war, occupation, and military bases in the Asia/Pacific are the conditions of possibility for what we can call “Asian American music.” Elaine Kathryn Andres (UC Irvine) Typical Finesse: Bruno Mars and the Training of Race in U.S. Empire No stranger to charges of cultural appropriation, Filipino Puerto Rican American pop star, Bruno Mars is a key subject in debates on blackness and the mainstream. This paper examines Mars’ racialized reception to ask how the Asian American performing body mediates perceptions of race, place, and the political in U.S. popular music. Specifically, I examine Mars’ training and labor as an Elvis impersonator to trace the contours of the militourism entertainment complex in the Philippines, Puerto Rico and Hawaii and to situate his framing as an unthreatening and apolitical multicultural figure in U.S. popular music within deflected processes of U.S. militarism and the tourism industry’s coeval logics of imperial amnesia.

Music of Asian America:  History, Activism, and Collaborations

University of Pennsylvania, ARCH Arch Building, 3601 Locust Walk, Room 108, Philadelphia, PA, United States

November 10 – 11, 2018 Co-sponsored by the Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival and the Music of Asian America Research Center What is “Asian American music”?  This is a question that Asian American musicians and others have asked since the 1970s.  Some argue that “Asian American music” is not only a useful political and heuristic device, but also a beneficial term for building a community of artists.  Others, however, have posited that we should not use this term because there is no distinctive musical style in music made by Asian Americans. The 2018 Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival will highlight the music of Asian Americans.  It will include live concerts, screenings of music-oriented films, and a two-day conference on Asian American music on Nov. 10-11, 2018.  Presentations will occur on the University of Pennsylvania campus, and screenings on the conference days will either be on the University of Pennsylvania campus, or at the Lightbox Film Center in nearby International House Philadelphia. For the conference, we invite scholars and performers to submit a 250-word abstract on any aspect of music created by Asian Americans.  Presentations can be individual research papers (30 minutes including discussion period), workshops (30 or 45 minutes), or roundtables (30 or 45 minutes).  Research on the music of Southeast and South Asian Americans is particularly welcome. Please be aware that the audience will be a mix of (ethno)musicologists, performers, media scholars, filmmakers, and the general public. Potential topics include, but are not limited to: Has “Asian American music” been a useful and meaningful term in the past?  What about the present and the future? What role does activism play in music created by Asian America? What new perspectives have we gained on the music of the early Asian American Movement or Asian American jazz of the 1980s? How has Afro-Asian musical collaboration changed over the past four decades? What roles have traditional and folk musicians and University-based world music ensembles played in Asian American communities and Asian American activism?   How have Asian American musicians participated in discussions of cultural appropriation? Any research on music created by Asian Americans before the 1970s. Submissions and questions about the conference should be sent to [email protected].  The deadline for submission is July 15, 2018, and notifications will be sent in early August.  Presenters will receive free conference registration, and a pass for all PAAFF 2018 events.

Music of Asian America Conference: What is Asian American Music?

University of Pennsylvania, ARCH Arch Building, 3601 Locust Walk, Room 108, Philadelphia, PA, United States

In partnership with Music of Asian America Research Center and University of Pennsylvania Asian American Studies Program, we present the third annual PAAFF Conference. This year’s three-day conference explores the Music of Asian America through a series of paper presentations and interactive workshops that will run parallel to festival film programming, punctuated by two live musical showcases on Friday and Saturday nights during Opening Weekend. Bringing together filmmakers, academics, and other creatives - the PAAFF Conference presentations include many of the leading scholars on these subjects and top performing artists in their field. All conference programs are FREE and open to the public, RSVP advised due to limited seating capacity. CHAIR: Brian Sengdala (Rutgers University) What is “Asian American music”?  Some argue that it is not only a useful political and heuristic device, but also a beneficial term for building a community of artists.  Others, however, have posited that we should not use this term because there is no distinctive musical style in music made by Asian Americans.  This panel explores how Asian American musicians participating in different genres use style to contend with stereotypes and the North American racial landscape.    PANELISTS: Dan Wang (University of Pittsburgh) What is an Asian American style?  Superorganism in the Assimilated Public What do we desire when we desire the existence of an Asian American music?  What would be achieved by identifying a musical style as Asian American? Style, I argue, can allow members of a minority to recognize one another and thereby form communities (i.e. punk style, queer style), but at the cost of a public language that can be commodified, appropriated, and used to limit that very group’s expressive options. This paper engages with the indie band Superorganism, and in particular its lead singer Orono Noguchi. Peng Liu (University of Texas, Austin) From Learn Chinese to Chinese New Year:  A Journey of Voicing Authenticity in MC Jin’s Rap Music The obstacles that Asian Americans’ racial identity incurs become ever manifest when they aim to survive in rap music, a genre that has dominantly been perceived as a cultural signifier of blackness. The first Asian American rapper with a legitimate chance to find mainstream success did not appear until the early 2000s when Chinese American MC Jin gained his fame out of BET’s 106 and Park freestyle battle competition. Jin’s increasing popularity makes his “inauthentic” race ever apparent. Drawing on scholarships in Asian American studies (Ancheta 2006; Fong 2008) and rap music studies (Wang 2007), this paper aims to discuss the issue by offering a close reading of two rap tracks by Jin—“Learn Chinese” (2004) and “Chinese New Year” (2014). Toru Momii (Columbia University) Performing While Asian: Yuja Wang, Sarah Chang, and Asian (American) Embodiment in Western Art Music My paper considers how performance analysis can illuminate the ways in which Asian and Asian American performers of Western art music have operated within and responded to racialized narratives of difference. I first explore how Asian and Asian American performers are faced with a conflicting narrative of inclusion and exclusion in American society. I then argue that these narratives have challenged Asian and Asian American performers to renegotiate their identities vis-à-vis the hegemony of whiteness in Western art music. Joseph Small (Swarthmore College) Looking Back: Spall Fragments: Taiko Drumming-Dance Action-Adventure for the 21st Century! For the past fifty years, taiko drumming has served as a popular vehicle for Asian Americans to express self-identity and empowerment, embody ancestral memory, and combat stereotyping. Spall Fragments, my original, evening-length stage production, mixes taiko, dance, and serio-comic theatre, as a critical response to the explosion of problematic issues surrounding Asian American taiko practice. Supported by media samples of the performances, through critical discussion of Spall Fragments’ creative processes, I will outline the intricate landscape of contemporary Asian American taiko before concluding on how a new wave of taiko practitioners navigate these persistent issues.

Music of Asian America Workshop: No-No Boy

University of Pennsylvania, ARCH Arch Building, 3601 Locust Walk, Room 108, Philadelphia, PA, United States

In partnership with Music of Asian America Research Center and University of Pennsylvania Asian American Studies Program, we present the third annual PAAFF Conference. This year’s three-day conference explores the Music of Asian America through a series of paper presentations and interactive workshops that will run parallel to festival film programming, punctuated by two live musical showcases on Friday and Saturday nights during Opening Weekend. Bringing together filmmakers, academics, and other creatives - the PAAFF Conference presentations include many of the leading scholars on these subjects and top performing artists in their field. All conference programs are FREE and open to the public, RSVP advised due to limited seating capacity. Storytelling History & Identity Through Art Chair:  Michelle Myers (Yellow Rage) No-No Boy is a multimedia concert performed by Julian Saporiti and Erin Aoyama, doctoral students at Brown University. The No-No Boy workshop will focus on a close examination of the power of storytelling through recovery and curation of archival imagery, specifically about questions of immigration, identity, incarceration, migration, and refugees across Asian America. Saporiti and Aoyama, as researchers and artists, will discuss with participants the ways in which they utilize archival visuals to create an added visual dimension to their storytelling and music. The duo will break down their process of combining songwriting, scholarship, and film editing to create their work, inviting participants to think about how the intersection of historical research and personal identity exploration might serve their own art making processes. Together, we will think about our identities and histories as sources for  storytelling inspiration, exploring the meaning of these two words, “identity” and “history,” and have a conversation about potential work which might come from these personal and historical archives.

Music of Asian America Workshop: Sining Kapuluan

Institute of Contemporary Art 118 S 36th Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States

In partnership with Music of Asian America Research Center and University of Pennsylvania Asian American Studies Program, we present the third annual PAAFF Conference. This year’s three-day conference explores the Music of Asian America through a series of paper presentations and interactive workshops that will run parallel to festival film programming, punctuated by two live musical showcases on Friday and Saturday nights during Opening Weekend. Bringing together filmmakers, academics, and other creatives - the PAAFF Conference presentations include many of the leading scholars on these subjects and top performing artists in their field. All conference programs are FREE and open to the public, RSVP advised due to limited seating capacity. Chair:  Micaela Bottari How can Non-Western music and dance be preserved and practiced in a way that honors social-politico-historical contexts and cultural identity?  Should we avoid transactional learning experiences when music and dance is traditionally part of the lifestyle, not a performance? When can “cultural art” enter the Western realms of “high art”? Does the meaning of traditional music and dance change when practiced by diaspora and outsiders? These are all questions Sining Kapuluan, a Brooklyn-based educational arts group, focuses on when learning and performing music and dance inspired by traditional Filipino culture. The Philippines in particular has a complicated history of colonialism, war, and political unrest. Yet, her culture is rich with beauty. In a country consisting of over 7,000 islands, there are areas with music and dance practices that have survived the many changes and continue to be practiced today. A growing community of Filipinos and Filipino diaspora want to keep these traditions alive—including Sining Kapuluan. Sining Kapuluan traces their roots to 2nd and 3rd generation Filipino and Filipino American artists in the San Francisco Bay Area who have learned directly from masters in Maguindanao and Cotabato. The group’s repertoire incorporates kulintang, dabakan, gandingan, malong, pangalay, and much more. Sining Kapuluan will share their distinct learning process, and talk about their individual journeys in the arts and identity exploration.

Music of Asian America Conference: Militarism, Masculinity, and the Music of Asian America

Institute of Contemporary Art 118 S 36th Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States

CHAIR: Mandi Magnuson-Hung (Wells Fargo History Museum) One of the most enduring stereotypes in North America is the emasculated Asian male. Created in the late 19th century, this belief arose partly because early Chinese immigrants often had queues and wore silk gowns, and partly because they were forced to take jobs doing what many White Americans considered “women’s work.”  As several recent polls and Steve Harvey’s putdown of Asian men demonstrate, this stereotype is still alive and well today.  This panel explores how Asian American musicians and the World War II Museum in New Orleans have dealt with issues of Asian masculinity.     PANELISTS: Alan Parkes (New York University) Asian American Hardcore: Defying Inveterate Conservatism in Subculture The economic and social conditions of the 1980s offer insight into the era’s youth cultures. The ways in which these conditions affected race and how this was mirrored among youth unveils the influence of prevailing conservative principles on youth cultures, particularly within hardcore punk and its largely white membership, in which purported opposition to larger social structures alternatively turned to subcultural conservative representation. Limited Asian American participation in hardcore stems from this representation. Employing oral histories from Asian American hardcore members, this paper emphasizes their participation in the music scene, how they defied the racial makeup of the subculture, and consequently its adherence to conservatism. Dan Blim (Denison University) Music for the Pacific Theater: Scoring Asian Identities at the WWII Museum In this paper, I consider how three spaces in the World War II Museum in New Orleans continually recast visitors’ understanding of the Japanese and Japanese Americans - drawing on exhibition theory, fieldwork at the museum, and interviews with the museum and audio installation staff. Comparing these three spaces together illuminates both the broader challenges museums face when tackling legacies of race and violence and how sound specifically works to meet those challenges. Donna Kwon (University of Kentucky) Empathetic Asian American Queer Masculinity, Juxtaposed Narratives, and Double Consciousness in the Music of St. Lenox In this paper, I focus on singer-songwriter Andrew Choi, who goes by the moniker St. Lenox. Through video analysis, I hone in on his prominent use of juxtaposed extra-lyrical narrative and horizontal split-screen video production. I posit that these techniques reinforce a sense of “double consciousness” (Du Bois) often experienced by many “hyphenated” Americans.  By drawing on performance observations and interviews, I will examine Choi’s double-ness (or other potential hyphenations) in light of his immigrant experiences and queer identity.

Free

Music of Asian America Workshop: Activist Songbook

Institute of Contemporary Art 118 S 36th Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States

Presented by Byron Au Yong and Aaron Jafferis CHAIR: Lei Ouyang Bryant (Swarthmore College) Join composer Byron Au Yong and writer Aaron Jafferis as they teach material from Activist Songbook, a collection of 53 songs and raps to counteract hate. Material for Activist Songbook is based on interviews of Asian American, immigrant, and refugee organizers.  The project continues in multiple cities with interviews, workshops, and performances through the next U.S. Presidential Election on November 3, 2020.  Join us for this interactive workshop using story-sharing, songs, and raps to regain hope and activate change. Created as part of (ex)CHANGE: History Place Presence, a project of Asian Arts Initiative, www.asianartsinitiative.org  Original support for (ex)CHANGE: History Place Presence was provided by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, Philadelphia. Additional support from Montalvo Arts Center Lucas Artists Residency Program and Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience.

Free

Chef Demo

Reading Terminal Market 12th & Arch Streets, Philadelphia, PA, United States

Several market vendors will be adding limited quantities of Filipino dishes to their menus for one-day-only as part of our Filipino Food Sunday event. Vendors confirmed to date include Sang Kee (Seafood Palabok) and Flying Monkey Bakery (Ube Cupcakes)

Free

Documentary Program—Getting Lao’d: The Rise of Modern Lao Music & Films

Fleisher Art Memorial 719 Catharine St, Philadelphia, PA, United States

East Coast Premiere Director: Steve Arounsack 40 mins | Documentary | Lao People’s Democratic Republic | English, Lao After 25 years of silence, the private Lao music and film industries are reawakening. Filmed over 10 years, Getting Lao’d follows a new generation of young pioneers as they reimagine Lao media in a communist country. The film features many of the country’s most prominent musicians and filmmakers, and is perhaps the most comprehensive examination of the media landscape in Laos. Many neighboring countries in Southeast Asia have seen their music and film industries remain vibrant. Media in Laos, however, remains shrouded in mystery due to its landlocked geography and restrictive political environment. This documentary provides an extremely rare look at a new generation that tipped the cultural fulcrum. It is a story about a small country with a big heart. Screens with Phetmixay Means Fighter 12 mins | USA Director: Rita Phetmixay Lao American refugee Phoutone Phetmixay shares his experiences as an anti-communist rebel in Laos in this short documentary. Through trials and tribulations, Phoutone is able to survive a series of challenging encounters before escaping to the United States to start a new life. Director Rita Phetmixay expected in attendance.

Free

Worcester Footage & US Imperialism in the Philippines

12 Gates Art Gallery 106 N 2nd St, Philadelphia, PA, United States

Kate Pourshariati (Penn Museum Archive) Kate is the film archivist, media cataloger, and cultural film series programmer for the Penn Museum. This program will consist of a brief introduction to US Imperialism in the Philippines, followed by a guided viewing of an independently made 1913 propaganda film that argued Filipinos were not fit for self governance. The film was produced at a time when the debate within the US Congress surrounding the Philippines status as a US Territory began to favor granting their independence. Native Life in the Philippines (1913) was a collaboration between Dean Conant Worcester, Interior Minister of the Philippines who served as director/producer and camera operator Charles Martin. Worcester is highly controversial for his views of native peoples and for the racial agenda that he promoted in support of his own personal gain as a land-owner in the Philippines under colonial rule. The film was made near the end of Worcester’s career and was produced as a work of propaganda in support of keeping the Philippines under US territorial administration. Shortly after the film’s completion, Worcester left office and embarked on a lucrative lecture tour in the US. The following year Martin became the first director of the photography lab for National Geographic magazine.

Special Presentation: Propaganda Film Night

12 Gates Art Gallery 106 N 2nd St, Philadelphia, PA, United States

Wednesday, Nov. 14 | 6:30–8:30pm | 12G As one of the special events during the American Peril exhibit, PAAFF returns to Twelve Gates Arts for an evening of American propaganda. Our definition of Propaganda is content that: 1) promotes one-sided or biased information, 2) reinforces ideology central to systems of control (political, religious, class/race hierarchy), and 3) reduces complex concepts into simple dichotomies. Highly problematic by today’s standards, both Hollywood and independent filmmakers have utilized their craft to shape the opinions of the American public during times of war and during the occupation of conquered territories. Films will be introduced by and contextualized for their historical signficance. The content is offensive in its portrayal of Asian subjects, but important for understanding the causes of anti-Asian sentiment in previous generations.

WWII Anti-Japanese Propaganda & Hollywood

12 Gates Art Gallery 106 N 2nd St, Philadelphia, PA, United States

Rob Buscher (University of Pennsylvania) Beginning with Thomas Edison’s 1898 documentary news reel footage of the Wreck of the Battleship Maine and subsequent coverage of the Spanish-American War, film has played an important role in the way that Americans understand and consume conflict. As the technology used to produce motion pictures improved and Hollywood became increasingly intertwined with the military industrial complex, economic and cultural conditions of wartime America both necessitated and encouraged through capital gain the integration of anti-Japanese propaganda in major studio films spanning the war years 1942-1945. This program will provide a brief history of the Hollywood Studio system’s emergence as the hegemonic gatekeeper of American popular media, followed by a guided viewing of anti-Japanese WWII propaganda films. Content is derived from a variety of sources, but this lecture focuses primarily on entertainment based Hollywood films (fictional narratives), documentary news reels and soldier training films produced by the US Military sponsored War Pictures, and cartoons. Selected clips include: News Reels and US War Pictures: The News Parade: Bombing of Pearl Harbor (1941) Why We Fight: Prelude to War (1942) Know Your Enemy: Japan (1945) Popular Films: Little Tokyo, USA (1942) Across the Pacific (1942) Victory Through Air Power (1943) Air Force (1943) Thirty Seconds over Tokyo (1944) Purple Heart (1944) Cartoons: Ducktators (1942) Tokio Jokio (1943) You’re a Sap, Mr. Jap (1943)

Free

Documentary Program: Living in the Story

Fleisher Art Memorial 719 Catharine St, Philadelphia, PA, United States

Director: Lynn Estomin 52 mins | Documentary | USA | English Living in the Story documents thirty-five years of art making by the distinguished photographic artist Patrick Ryoichi Nagatani, one of the most brilliant photographic artists of our era. In the late 1970s, he pioneered the Contemporary Constructed Photographic Movement in Los Angeles, developing a new visual vocabulary by constructing tableau photographs from sets, sculptures, models, and paintings. The film portrays an artist deeply concerned and well informed about world events who uses imagery, storytelling, and narrative fiction to raise awareness about modern anxieties with an emphasis on the threat of nuclear weapons technology. Nagatani has also explored healing techniques and states of consciousness in which the material world is transcended. Despite the serious content of his subject matter, his innovative images are compelling and entertaining. An engaging raconteur and teacher, Nagatani talks in the film about his projects, his unorthodox photographic techniques, and his subtle weaving together of fiction and fact. Scott Nagatani’s hauntingly beautiful music score provides the film’s soundtrack. Director Lynn Estomin expected in attendance.

Free

Narrative Program: August at Akiko’s

Fleisher Art Memorial 719 Catharine St, Philadelphia, PA, United States

East Coast Premiere Director: Christopher Makoto Yogi 75 mins | Drama | Hawaii | English August at Akiko’s is a mystical film that lives in the seams between dream, reality, and memory with a time-signature all its own. Armed with just his suitcase and a sax, cosmopolitan musician Alex Zhang Hungtai (Dirty Beaches, Last Lizard) returns home to the Big Island of Hawai‘i after being away for nearly a decade. Amidst possessed sax solos and brooding strolls, Alex stumbles upon a Buddhist bed & breakfast run by a woman named Akiko (Akiko Masuda). Hungtai’s wild sax and Akiko’s Buddhist bells form the base for a rich soundtrack surrounding the unexpected new friendship and wrapping around the audience like a sonic web.

Free

Shorts Program: Augmented Adolescence

Asian Arts Initiative 1219 Vine St, Philadelphia, PA, United States

Asian Arts Initiative | 62 mins In today’s society, technology increasingly impacts how we live our lives from simple things like ordering food and taxis to finding our dating partners. Perhaps those most impacted by the omnipresence of digital technology are the post-millennial youth. This block of four narrative and one doc short explore a variety of coming-of-age situations impacted by technology. Filmmakers expected in attendance for post-film Q&A. Share Director: Barna Szász, Ellie Wen | 13 mins | USA An 18-year-old Instagram influencer attempts to reconcile his identity online with his identity in real life. Soap & Shadows Director: Donna Mae Foronda | 8 mins | USA It’s early in San Francisco when Bethany and Craig wake up from a strange sound, but instead of getting annoyed, they imagine playful scenes using the sound. Bethany is enamored by the moment, thinking Craig may be “the one.” Clique Bait Director: Anna Mikami | 15 mins | Home Kong Set in the international school community of Hong Kong, a high school girl spreads a video sexualizing her childhood friend and classmate. Halo-Halo Director: Bernard Badion | 9 mins | Hong Kong A food video blogger has trouble meeting his deadline, pining for the person he saw on the subway that morning. Can a missed connection post solve his problem? Lions in Waiting Director: Jason Karman | 17 mins | Canada The newest member of a minor league hockey team experiences hazing by his new teammates as he struggles to fit in both on and off the ice.

Shorts Program: Horror Genre

Asian Arts Initiative 1219 Vine St, Philadelphia, PA, United States

Asian Arts Initiative | 46 mins A serial dater-turned-killer, ghost children, and spiritually possessed painting are just a few of the topics in this year’s five-film Horror Genre Shorts program. Not for the faint of heart. Filmmakers expected in attendance for post-film Q&A. What’s That in the Ground? Director: Wally Chung | 2 mins | USA When you want one thing, sometimes you get the complete opposite or something worse. Heartseeker Director: Brett Kodama | 20 mins | USA After making a connection on a popular dating app, a single woman with a passion for cooking brings her date home for dinner. Chances are he won’t like what’s on the menu. Sanzu no Kawa: The River of Three Crossings Director: Cyrus Yoshi Tabar | 7 mins | USA After a shooting at school takes his sister’s life, a young Japanese American boy is trapped between his memories, grief, and the new reality he faces at home. Painted Skin Director: Hanrui Wang | 4 mins | China A young artist huddles down in an old, abandoned temple for the night. To pass the time he paints a beautiful woman, which is surprisingly lifelike. Hana Director: Mai Nakanishi | 13 mins | Japan, South Korea A college student named Sujin starts her job as a part-time babysitter for a single working mother who needs someone to look after her 4-year-old daughter Hana. Sujin is hired on the spot, but soon after she is left alone with Hana, strange things start to happen.

Shorts Program: Experimental Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander

Asian Arts Initiative 1219 Vine St, Philadelphia, PA, United States

Asian Arts Initiative | 72 mins Told through visual poetry and narrative, and infused with stunning color and sound, these shorts recognize the trials and triumphs of family, explore the environmental traumas inflicted upon Oceania, and share the pride and resilience of these communities throughout history to the present. We would like to express our deepest gratitude to the following organizations for their assistance with curating this program: the ‘Ohina Short Film Showcase, Pacific Islanders in Communications, and the Wairoa Mãori Film Festival. Director/Cinematographer/Editor Jes X. Snow will be in attendance with  Co-Producer Adriel Luis and other  members of the crew. PRAISE SONG FOR OCEANIA Director: Justyn Ah Chong | 5 mins | Hawai’i Praise Song for Oceania is a short film-poem about the ecology, history, politics, and cultures of the Ocean. The poem was written by award-winning Chamorro author Craig Santos Perez, and the video was created by Hawaiian filmmaker Justyn Ah Chong. LET THE MOUNTAIN SPEAK (Hawai’ian) Director: Vilsoni Hereniko | 5 mins | Hawai’i A visual poem that pays tribute to Maunakea, a mountain on the island of Hawai’i, and makes an artistic intervention in the controversy surrounding Maunakea. TAMA Director: Jared Flitcroft and Jack O’Donnell | 9 mins | New Zealand Ever seen the haka in silence? Tama is about a young indigenous Deaf boy who tries to perform the traditional Mãori war dance, the Haka, silently, and is the result of a unique collaboration between Deaf and hearing filmmakers. KALEWA Director: Mitchel Viernes | 17 mins | Hawai’i In the future, a Hawaiian astronaut makes the next great leap for his planet, his family, and himself. Tonight is his last chance. I MATAI Director: Kyle Perron and Nico Serneo | 10 mins | Guam A fallen warrior is honored by his family in an experimental take of the Ancient Chamoru Death Ceremony  told through the prayers of a man grieving over the death of his brother. ANOINTED Director: Dan Lin | 6 mins | Marshall Islands A poet from the Marshall Islands explores the legacy of U.S. nuclear bomb testing in her country through the stories of people who are still living with the effects of radioactive fallout and displacement. RISE: FROM ONE ISLAND TO ANOTHER Director: Dan Lin | 6 mins | Marshall Islands and Greenland Two indigenous poets—one from the Marshall Islands and another from Greenland—meet at the source of our rising seas to share a moment of solidarity.

Free

Shorts Program: Intergenerational & Overseas Perspectives on Queer Idenitity

Asian Arts Initiative | 81 mins This program of six narrative shorts explores a variety of perspectives on queer-ness, coming out, and embracing one’s identity both overseas and amongst the Asian immigrant generation in the US. Filmmakers expected in attendance for post-film Q&A. Hoài (Ongoing/Memory) Director: Quyen Nguyen Le | 11 mins | USA A young Vietnamese American queer woman and her father cohabitate after her recent breakup, exploring themes of heartbreak from romantic relationships, to families, to nations. Salamagan Director: Elisa Oh | 12 mins | USA Ana fears that coming out to her Filipino Catholic mother would break her heart. But when her mother needs help cleaning a hoarder house, Ana enlists her secret girlfriend for the job. Straighten Out Director: Yung-Chieh Chang | 14 mins | Taiwan Sheng wakes up in a clinic with no memory of how he got there. When he discovers the truth, he faces a difficult choice: following his family’s religious beliefs or embrace his true identity. Rani Director: Hammad Rizvi | 14 mins | Pakistan A Pakistani transgender woman sets out to take care of an abandoned child. Hudson Director: Shae Xu | 10 mins | USA A young divorcee mother tries to find the right moment to tell her teenage son that the woman she lives with is actually her girlfriend. Uninvited Director: Seung Yeob Lee | 20 mins | South Korea When a closeted gay man’s mother comes for a sudden visit, he quickly hides evidence of his live-in boyfriend.

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