Festival Eve

SFIAAFF starts tomorrow! This SFGate article talks about the history of the Center for Asian-American Media, which hosts the festival.

Given CAAM's roots in documentary film and especially in public television, it's funny that I feel I should point out some documentary stuff this year that might be overshadowed by the many Asian-American and Asian narrative features. Veteran documentarian Arthur Dong's Hollywood Chinese, the story of Chinese-Americans who helped shape classic Hollywood films, should be a real eye-opener. Then there are historic films themselves, including the 1929 Pavement Butterfly. Meanwhile, And Thereafter II is the sequel to a documentary from the 2005 festival about a Korean war bride's unhappy life in the U.S. Now, the first movie was so jaw-droppingly grim that I will have to sit this one out, but the images in that movie have really stuck with me.

So as strange as it sounds, when you go to the little festival that started out trying to tell the world about the Asian-American experience, try to look beyond the big, flashy comedies and dramas.