190 Films, 30 Languages: The San Diego Asian Film Festival Takes On the Algorithm
The festival's 27th edition is its biggest yet, opening with an animated LA love story and honouring Filipina screen legend Hilda Koronel.
Brian Hu has a complaint about your streaming queue, and he has 190 films ready to make the case. The artistic director of Pacific Arts Movement says audiences are tired of algorithms and of being told to watch only what resembles everything they’ve already watched. His answer is the San Diego Asian Film Festival, back for its 27th year from Nov. 5 to 14, and it is the biggest edition the festival has put together.
The numbers: 190 films from more than 30 countries, in 30 languages, spread over seven venues. Pacific Arts Movement, the San Diego nonprofit behind it, uses film to promote intercultural understanding and connect communities. The festival is already San Diego’s largest and one of the country’s leading showcases for Asian and Asian American cinema.
A first love, animated
The opening-night film is In Waves, adapted from AJ Dungo’s autobiographical graphic memoir of the same name. Phuong Mai Nguyen directs. The story follows two teenagers in the thick of first love in Los Angeles: AJ, a shy skateboarder voiced by Will Sharpe, and Kristen, an avid surfer voiced by Stephanie Hsu.
The film premiered at Cannes. San Diego audiences get an early look, since it opens in theatres on Nov. 27 and reaches Netflix on Dec. 11.
Elsewhere on the schedule, Bedford Park and Take Me Home both arrive with Sundance awards. Hirokazu Kore-eda, the legendary Japanese director, is represented by Look Back. The festival will also give Filipina actress Hilda Koronel a Lifetime Achievement Award for her contributions to cinema.
Six ways in
The programme is sorted into categories, which helps when you’re staring down 190 titles.
Asian American Panorama is the heart of the festival, with the best of Asian American cinema. Asian Pop! collects films of every genre from across Asia. Masters is for internationally recognised directors, and Unknown Pleasures goes the other way, spotlighting Asia’s newest film innovators. Classics Restored does what it says on the tin: restored works from cinema history. Shorts rounds things out with inventive storytelling, overlooked histories and compelling subjects.
That range matters for diaspora filmmakers in particular. A festival that puts a debut short in the same programme as a Kore-eda title treats them as part of one conversation, and gives emerging directors a room full of people who showed up to discover something.
The alternative to the feed
Hu doesn’t hide his pitch. “Many of us want to be challenged by perspectives unencountered, worlds undiscovered, and challenges to the status quo,” he said in the festival’s press release. He argues that filmmakers from Asia and the diaspora offer exactly that challenge to what he calls “the stale, audience-tested fare we encounter on our feeds and streaming services.” SDAFF, in his words, is “a curated platform for what we believe to be the most entertaining, provocative, and inspiring alternatives to the algorithm.”
Alex Villafuerte, executive director of Pacific Arts Movement, framed it as a look back as well as a look ahead. “This year’s festival is a celebration of how far our community has come and the power of film to bring people together,” he said. After nearly three decades, he added, what inspires the team most is watching audiences gather, discover something new and connect with each other.
Beyond the festival walls
The reach extends past San Diego this year. JoySauce is the festival’s media partner and digital companion, and select films from the lineup will appear on JoySauce’s streaming networks, including JoySauce TV. JoySauce founder and CEO Jonathan Sposato said the partnership is about “giving these talented filmmakers an even bigger stage, and connecting their stories with audiences far beyond the festival itself.” Coverage starts Nov. 5.
For filmmakers, a bigger stage often decides whether a film gets seen at all. A festival slot puts a film in front of an audience that came to watch it. A streaming slot can carry it to viewers who would never have bought a ticket. Both help a film outlast its screening dates.
The full schedule, ticket details and festival updates are at sdaff.org. If your recommendations have started to feel like reruns, ten days and seven venues is a decent place to look for something new.
Via JoySauce