Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival

Shorts Program: Sci-Fi Genre

Lightbox Film Center 3701 Chestnut St, Philadelphia, PA, United States

This block of four Sci-Fi genre narrative shorts explores a variety of not-so-distant futures dictated by technology and varying degrees of dystopia. Filmmakers expected in attendance for post-film Q&A Frenchies Director: Kuan-Fu Lin | 13 mins | USA After strange new neighbors move into his building, fear of the unknown makes a man start to …

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Free

Documentary Program: Prison Food

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

Free Screening Director: Aditya Thayi 44 mins | Documentary | Philippines, Indonesia | Indonesian, Tagalog Who says prison food needs to be boring? In this series, Filipino-American Chef Johneric Concordia heads to some of Asia’s most notorious prisons to see what’s cooking behind bars. He meets inmates running the prison kitchens and discovers a hotbed …

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Free

Documentary Program: Drawn Together

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

Free Screening Drawn Together: Comics, Diversity, and Stereotypes Director: Harleen Singh 40 mins | Documentary | USA | English Drawn Together: Comics, Diversity and Stereotypes follows the journey of three talented artists as they use comics and cartoons to challenge racial, religious, and gender stereotypes and inspire others to breakthrough socially and self-imposed limitations. Keith …

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Documentary Program: Futbolistas 4 Life

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

Free Screening Director: Jun Stinson 40 mins | Documentary | USA | English Futbolistas 4 Life is about Oakland teens from Latinx immigrant families and the healing power of soccer. The film takes you into the lives of two high schoolers: one is a college hopeful and DACA applicant navigating the reality of his immigration …

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Shorts Program: Musical Shorts

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

Free Screening 75 mins What do a street dancer, violin virtuoso, keeper of sacred tradition, and femme-forward hip hop artist-activist all have in common? Their love of music. This mixed block of two narrative and two doc shorts explores a few of the many different relationships that people have with music, and the impact it …

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Documentary Program: Havana Divas

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

Free Screening Director: S. Louisa Wei 90 mins | Documentary | Hong Kong | Chinese Caridad Amaran and Georgina Wong learned the art of Cantonese opera in 1930s Havana. Caridad’s mentor was her foster father, Julian Fong, who immigrated to Cuba in the 1920s after his family forbade him from performing opera. Georgina’s father was …

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Shorts Program: Never Again is Now

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

Free Screening This mixed program of doc and narrative shorts explores the similarities and differences between anti-Japanese sentiment that led to the community’s mass incarceration during WWII and Islamophobic bigotry in the post-9/11 and Trump Era. The block of six shorts is evenly split between Japanese American and Muslim/Sikh/South Asian stories for an evocative program …

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Documentary Program: Forbidden City, USA

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

Academy Award®-nominated filmmaker Arthur Dong’s documentary Forbidden City, USA takes you inside the glamorous world of Chinatown nightclubs in World War II San Francisco. You will meet the “Chinese Fred Astaire,” the “Chinese Sophie Tucker,” and the “Chinese Sally Rand.” Eighty years before the all-Asian cast of Crazy Rich Asians made box office headlines, the …

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Free

Shorts Program: Metamorphosis

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

This program of seven shorts each deal with a major transition, literal or figurative, and each challenge conventional storytelling in their execution. Fleisher Art Memorial | 61 mins Filmmakers expected in attendance for post-film Q&A. Monster Me Director: Yeon Jin Lee | 13 mins | USA An ancient monster emerges from the “Old Faithful” geyser …

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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 …

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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) …

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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 …

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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 | …

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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 …

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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 …

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