Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival

16 mm

Film Still from Three Stories

Three Stories

Synopsis: 10 years after immigrating from Japan where traditionally, carvings of Buddha were made from a single piece of wood, Eiko Fan’s wood sculpture reached a turning point. Eiko”s style evolved from this tradition to include flexible, inventive use of wood and body movements of mime and dance, encased in wooden costumes. Eiko then created a movie set in which her sculptural creatures could interact. Produced on 16mm film in 1981-1982 in collaboration with Rudy Burckhardt, a very well known photographer/filmmaker from New York, this film is a time capsule of Eiko”s life 35 years ago. Eiko later went on to perform “Live Wood Sculpture” performances internationally and even included her children in this production. Artist Eiko Fan will be present for a post-screening Q&A and a presentation on her work. Facebook Event Page 

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Film Still from Random Acts of Legacy

Random Acts of Legacy East Coast Premiere

Synopsis: Rescued from an online auction, a pile of deteriorating 16mm home movies spanning from 1936 to 1951, are restored by filmmaker Ali Kazimi. What emerges is the moving story of an unusually wealthy Chinese American family in Depression era Chicago. Kazimi”s quest to make meaning of these home movies connects him with Irena Lum ” the sole surviving daughter of graphic artist and collector, Silas Henry Fung. Intertwining a first person narrative with family accounts and other commentators, Kazimi weaves a rich tapestry of the life of the Fung family. The rescued footage offers an intimate and radically different visual perspective on the Chinese American community ” with a surprising feminist twist. Visually rich and textured, unafraid to show the decaying patina of a family archive, Random Acts of Legacy revels in the making of home movies and memory. Join Festival Director Rob Buscher for a brief presentation after the film on the Memories to Light Campaign to digitize and archive Asian American home movies from the celluloid era. More details available at: PAAFF.org/memories-to-light/ Facebook Event Page

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