SDAFF2019 -20th San Diego Asian Film Festival
November 7-19, 2019
https://sdaff.org/2019/
https://sdaff.org/2019/
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- DirectorR.J. LozadaJoseph MangatQuyên Nguyen-LeVietnamese, Korean, and Filipino American stories take shape on the streets of San Diego, a refugee and border city built on military narratives.Opening Night Film
- DirectorJames SweeneyStarsJames SweeneyKatie FindlayDana DroriTodd and Rory are intellectual soul mates. He might be gay. She might not care. A romantic-comedy drama with a twist; a love story without the thrill of copulation.Centerpiece Film
- DirectorJohnny MaStarsXiaoli ZhaoGuidan GanXihu YanA Sichuan Opera troupe are faced with the demolition of their theater and dissolution.Closing Night Film
- DirectorGrace LeeStarsGrace Lee BoggsGrace LeeGrace LeeIs your name Grace Lee? Do you think you are the only Grace Lee? Did you know there are quite a few of you? Oh yes, it's true. There are many of you and they're all over. They are mostly typically dutiful East Asian daughters with the associated and expected talents. Except, that's not always true. Then again, there are even more Grace Lees around. Why?
- DirectorJustin LinStarsParry ShenJason TobinSung KangA group of over-achieving East Asian American high school seniors enjoy a power trip when they dip into extracurricular criminal activities.
- DirectorBing LiuStarsKent AbernathyMengyue BolenNina BowgrenFilmmaker Bing Liu searches for correlations between his skateboarder friends' turbulent upbringings and the complexities of modern masculinity.
- DirectorGrace LeeStarsGrace Lee BoggsDanny GloverBill AyersGrace Lee Boggs is an activist and philosopher in Detroit who has dedicated her life to the next American Revolution and the possibility of a better, more just future for all of humanity. At age 97, she has been building movements and developing strategies for social change for most of her life -- reminding us that revolution is not only possible and necessary, but a process that must always be in motion.
- DirectorMichael KangStarsJeffrey ChyauSung KangJade WuThirteen-year-old Ernest Chin lives and works at a sleazy hourly-rate motel on a strip of desolate suburban bi-way. Misunderstood by his family and blindly careening into puberty, Ernest befriends Sam Kim, a self-destructive yet charismatic Korean man who has checked in. Sam teaches the fatherless boy all the rites of manhood.
- DirectorRichard WongStarsJake MorenoH.P. MendozaL.A. RenigenBest pals Rodel, Billy, and Maribel live in Colma. After graduating from high school the trio is having too much fun doing nothing or crashing college parties. But newfound revelations and romances force them to assess what to hold onto.
- DirectorPatrick WangStarsSebastian BanesPatrick WangTrevor St. JohnWhen his partner Cody dies in a car accident, Joey learns that their son, Chip, has been willed to Cody's sister. In his now solitary home life, Joey searches for a solution. The law is not on his side, but friends are.
- DirectorSpencer NakasakoStarsDavid MarkSophal MeasMike SivMike Siv has a plan: go to Cambodia with his buddies Paul and David, see the sights, have fun and reunite with his father and younger brother, whom he hasn't seen in 22 years. Harsh reality sets in before the journey even begins, however, as Mike, Paul and David have never been out of the U.S., and are the first in their families to visit Cambodia since fleeing the bloody regime of Pol Pot in the late 1970s.
- DirectorAlice WuStarsJoan ChenMichelle KrusiecLynn ChenA gay Chinese-American and her traditionalist mother are reluctant to go public with secret loves that clash against cultural expectations.
- DirectorSemi ChellasStarsHong ChauSarah GadonJohn Gallagher Jr.Inspired by the headline-dominating kidnapping of heiress Patty Hearst in 1974, this atmospheric drama is a fictionalized re-imagining of her time in hiding, from the perspective of Jenny, a political activist assigned to take care of her.
- DirectorHarry ChuckJosh ChuckA documentary based on Harry Chuck's collection of clippings and period films about the issues that motivated members of San Francisco's Chinese American community to reject submissive stereotypes.
- DirectorRichard WongStarsGrant RosenmeyerHayden SzetoRavi PatelThree young men with disabilities hit the road with a jaded nurse driver to a brothel in Montreal catering to people with special needs. Remake of the acclaimed Belgian film 'Hasta La Vista'.
- DirectorAndrew AhnStarsLucas JayeHong ChauBrian DennehyA lonesome boy accompanies his mother on a trip to clean out his late aunt's house, and ends up forming an unexpected friendship with the retiree who lives next door.
- DirectorAndrea A. WalterStarsRhian RamosOsric ChauMadeleine HumphriesEmpty by Design is a feature film about the struggle of identity that is experienced when living and growing up in multiple places surrounded by different cultures, and what it means to call a place home. The film takes place in Manila, Philippines and follows Samantha, a recent University Graduate who moves back home after her parents have passed away, and Eric, a Hollywood Stuntman and Body double who comes back to shoot a new film. Since moving back home, Samantha can't seem to connect with anyone in her life, friends, family, and has difficulty expressing her frustration and feeling of being back home to her sister Patricia. Similarly, Eric struggles with forming a bond with his estranged grandmother and culture, and aspects surround his job. On a night out, Eric has a brief encounter with Samantha and the two meet again later on and rekindle an acquaintance from high school that forms into an unexpected friendship and a new found meaning of what it means to be "home."
- DirectorBishrel MashbatStarsSam BayaraaMike CaliRobert CorsiniWith time running out and desperate for cash, two Mongolian immigrants turn to crime as their only solution.
- DirectorNadia ShihabMoving between the playful and the contemplative, explores the meaning of identity and home across three generations of an Iraqi family in Texas.
- DirectorJoseph JuhnBorn to Korean immigrant parents freed from indentured servitude in early twentieth century Mexico, Jerónimo Lim Kim joins the Cuban Revolution with his law school classmate Fidel Castro and becomes an accomplished government official in the Castro regime, until he rediscovers his ethnic roots and dedicates his later life to reconstructing his Korean Cuban identity. After Jerónimo's death, younger Korean Cubans recognize his legacy, but it is not until they are presented with the opportunity to visit South Korea that questions about their mixed identity resurface.
- DirectorAisha JamalIn 1991, a refugee arrived in Canada with his wife and five children, having fled his home in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Decades later, upon discovering the dwindling hamlet of Kandahar, Saskatchewan, he felt an immediate connection that needed to be explored. Abdul Bari Jamal's impulsive purchase of eight empty lots in the middle of the Canadian Prairies became an unexpected inheritance for his grown children. When the extended family of self-declared urbanites make their first trip together to witness their new property, Jamal's daughter takes the opportunity to document the unusual family vacation, hoping to unpack her father's relationship to his homeland and Canadian patriotism. What transpires on their journey is so much more than a humorous Green Acres collision of cultures-it's a heartfelt and moving conversation about two nations connected by conflict and how much of our identity is tied to the land we occupy.
- DirectorIsabel SandovalStarsEamon FarrenLynn CohenLev GornAn undocumented Filipina transwoman falls in love in Brooklyn.
- DirectorValerie SoeStarsGeorge ChenJustin TanKristina WongLOVE BOAT: TAIWAN looks at the Taiwan Love Boat, where college-aged Taiwanese Americans get closer to their history, their culture and each other.
- DirectorSasie SealyStarsTsai ChinHsiao-Yuan HaMichael TowSet in New York City's Chinatown, an ornery, chain-smoking Chinese grandma goes all in at the casino, landing herself on the wrong side of luck - and in the middle of a gang war.
- DirectorMiko ReverezaLiving in the United States illegally for over 20 years, Miko Revereza takes the Amtrak train from Los Angeles to New York in this critical moment of hostility against migrants in the country he has come to know as home. The journey seems daring, perhaps reckless, yet urgent and necessary.
- DirectorTim TsaiIn 1979, the fatal shooting of a white crabber in a Texas fishing village ignites a maelstrom of hostilities against Vietnamese refugee communities along the Gulf Coast.
- DirectorSonejuhi SinhaStarsCynthia NixonRobert AramayoOlivia DeJongeOne petty crime spirals into the next.
- DirectorOugie PakStarsWoohyun KimKwangmin LeeTobee PaikAfter failing his university entrance exams for the third year in a row, a young Korean man travels to New York City to visit his long-distance girlfriend.
- DirectorDiane ParagasStarsEva NoblezadaPrincess PunzalanSylvia RamosA Filipina teen from a small Texas town fights to pursue her dreams as a country music performer while having to decide between staying with her family or leaving the only home she has known.
- DirectorMyoung-Sung KoStarsKim Sang-kyungHeo Sung-taeKim Dong-youngA military detective investigating the murder of a poet in the immediate aftermath of the Korean War.
- DirectorTeruo NoguchiKiyoshi YamamotoStarsYui ImaizumiMinako KotobukiKô MaeharaAkio wishes he had a better relationship with his reserved father Akira. One day Akira suddenly quits his job and retires without giving out any explanation to the family. Thinking it could be a good tool to be close to his father, Akio gives him software of online game "FINAL FANTASY XIV". By teaching his father how to play the game and secretly interacting with him as an anonymous online avatar, Akio hopes to know his father better through the adventures with other players in the game; little does the young man know what Akira is going through.
- DirectorShinobu YaguchiStarsAyaka MiyoshiYû YashiroChaySuzuki Shizuka is an office lady at a conglomerate who is treated by a hypnotist and left under the spell. Thereafter she cannot but sing and dance whenever she hears any melody whatsoever. No matter the source, length or quality she is composed to dance along. Shizuka heads back to the hypnotist for relief, but he is nowhere to be found when he is needed the most.
- DirectorNitesh TiwariStarsSushant Singh RajputShraddha KapoorVarun SharmaA tragic incident forces Anirudh, a middle-aged man, to take a trip down memory lane and reminisce his college days along with his friends, who were labelled as losers.
- DirectorHeiward MakStarsKenny BeeSammi ChengChun Yip LoA young woman from Hong Kong has to reunite with her sisters to settle debts after her father dies.
- DirectorHideki TakeuchiStarsFumi NikaidôGacktYûsuke IseyaIn a world where people are discriminated based on their birthplace, a resident of the much-reviled Saitama Prefecture embarks on a revolutionary campaign to improve things for his home.
- DirectorTrinh Dinh Le MinhStarsHong DaoLanh ThanhVo Dien Gia HuyNau Van returns home several years after staying in America on the anniversary of his father's death to meet his family. Unbeknownst to them, he returns with his long-term boyfriend, Ian.
- DirectorPei-Ju HsiehStarsSamantha Shu-Chin KoYao-Jen ChangJia-Yin TsaiThis follows a woman who strikes up eclectic friendships with a deliveryman and a cross-dressing student.
- DirectorKôki MitaniStarsKiichi NakaiDean FujiokaYuriko IshidaKeisuke Kuroda (Kiichi Nakai) wakes up in a hospital bed and he is unable to remember who he is. He sneaks out of the hospital and happens to see the news on TV.
- DirectorPailin WedelStarsMax MoreMatrix NaovaratpongNareerat NaovaratpongAfter her untimely death, a scientist from Bangkok cryo-preserves his daughter's brain. Scandal swirls around the family as they struggle to grieve a child that, in their view, is suspended between death and reawakening.
- DirectorArden Rod CondezStarsMeryll SorianoJansen MagpusaoSunshine TeodoroA 14-year-old farm boy's life is suddenly upended when a video of him brutally attacking a classmate goes viral.
- DirectorSaeed RoustayiStarsPayman MaadiNavid MohammadzadehParinaz IzadyarThe police are after a drug lord named Naser Khakzad, but when they finally manage to catch him, he tries whatever he can think of to escape and save his family.
- DirectorKyeong-Taek LimStarsLee Si-youngPark Se-wanLee Jun-hyukA woman seeks to take revenge when her young sister disappears and she finds out that her sister suffered violence and sexual abuse from school bullies.
- DirectorCongcong TengStarsChen YaoJiuxiao LiXinming YangDiagnosed with ovarian cancer, a 29-year-old journalist who longs for true love ends up writing the biography for an entrepreneur's father, which leads her to embark on an existential journey.
- DirectorFeng ZuStarsFeng ZuLu HuangMinghao ChenA detective investigating a bizarre murder case begins to fall in love with a surgeon he has met while trying to solve the crime.
- DirectorIrene VillamorStarsNadine LustreCarlo AquinoElia IlanoMaya (Lustre) has always held a pessimistic view of the rain; it reminds her of failed love and other depressing things. Will the rain ever stop in her journey to overcome past heartaches?
- DirectorJung-chi ChangStarsFandy FanBerant ZhuChun-hao TuanBorn into the bottom rungs of society, two teenage brothers with nothing but each other hope to change their fate through their love of basketball. Little brother Tung-hao joins an elite school and transforms into a dazzling superstar; big brother Hsiu-yu ends up on a ragtag squad about to be disbanded, finding an unexpected new brotherhood in his never-say-die teammates. Eventually, the brothers cross paths on their way to ultimate basketball glory - the HBL championship - where they will discover that some things are more important than winning.
- DirectorYi'nan DiaoStarsGe HuGwei Lun-MeiFan LiaoA gangster on the run sacrifices everything for his family and a woman he meets while on the lam.
- DirectorPema TsedenStarsSonam WangmoJinpaYangshik TsoA family struggles against the conflicting dictates of nature, spirituality, politics, and free will.
- DirectorReza MirkarimiStarsHamed BehdadZhila ShahiAzadeh NobaharWhen the mother of a separated family dies, Jalal the father returns to sort things out but he does not want to take the children with him.
- DirectorAkihiko ShiotaStarsMugi KadowakiNana KomatsuRyo NaritaA musical duo decides to disband.
- DirectorXiaoshuai WangStarsJingchun WangMei YongXi QiTwo married couples adjust to the vast social and economic changes taking place in China from the 1980s to the present.
- DirectorZero ChouStarsRainie YangJay ShihPeijia Huang
- DirectorKiyoshi KurosawaStarsAtsuko MaedaShôta SometaniTokio EmotoA young Japanese woman finds her cautious and insular nature tested when she travels to Uzbekistan to shoot the latest episode of her travel variety show.
- DirectorLina WangStarsTajigul HeilmeierYasan KamisuKuramu KasimuWhen Isa is not at school or working on his parents' farmyard, he spends carefree days with his friends - until the outside world starts forcing him to say one goodbye after another.
- DirectorIvan MarkovicLinfeng WuStarsChuan LiLuying WangRuguang WeiThe city keeps growing and remains unexplored. Li, a migrant worker in Beijing, works by night and sleeps by day; his roommate's rhythm is the opposite. In an underground housing, the two men share the same bed, but never at the same time.
- DirectorYoon Ga-eunStarsKim Na-yeonKim Si-AhJoo Ye-rimA girl from a troubled family befriends two younger girls and begins to feel a sense of normalcy as they go adventuring at the seaside.
- DirectorKavich NeangStarsChunnat PokKimleang SoNary BunThe White Building, an iconic structure home to 493 families in Phnom Penh, faces demolition. In the building's final days, Kavich Neang follows three families, including his own, as they pack belongings, share memories and anxieties, and eventually move out before the building's total destruction.
- DirectorShengze ZhuMillions of Chinese people engage in live-streaming. Those whose poverty, physical limitations or sex prevent them from taking part in the real world find human contact here; fragments of lives that are interwoven with virtual showrooms.
- DirectorYosep Anggi NoenStarsGunawan MaryantoEcky LamohYudi Ahmad TajudinSiman discovers a foreign crew shooting a moon landing. He gets caught and his tongue is cut off. He goes through life in slow motion, imitating an astronaut in outer space, labeled as crazy.
- DirectorBecs ArahangaAmberley Jo AumuaMatasila FreshwaterStarsRo Mereani Adi TuimatanisigaAr-Ramadi LongopoaBetsy Lania LuitoloA portmanteau feature film by 9 female Pacific filmmakers and filmed on seven Pacific islands. It is about the journey of empowerment through culture over the lifetime of one woman, Vai.
- DirectorMariam GhaniStarsNoor Hashim AbirAdela AdimLatif AhmadiWHAT WE LEFT UNFINISHED tells the story of five unfinished fiction feature films from the Communist era in Afghanistan (1978-1991), and the people who went to crazy lengths to make them, in a time when films were weapons, filmmakers became targets, and the dreams of constantly shifting political regimes merged with the stories told onscreen. This tight-knit group of Afghan filmmakers loved cinema enough to risk their lives for art. Despite government interference, censorship boards, scarce resources, armed opposition, and near-constant threats of arrest or even death, they made films that were subversive and, in the filmmakers' opinions, always "true" to life. All five films - THE APRIL REVOLUTION, DOWNFALL, THE BLACK DIAMOND, WRONG WAY, and AGENT - completed principal photography before being canceled by the state or abandoned by the filmmakers. WHAT WE LEFT UNFINISHED brings together newly rediscovered and restored footage from these unfinished films with new footage shot in the same locations, and stories from behind the scenes, as told by the directors, actors and crew who worked on the films. Archival fictions, present-day recollections, and both imagined and real visions of Afghanistan slip and slide into each other in a film that reminds us that nations are inventions, and films can reinvent them.
- DirectorLi ShihStarsYu-Hsia KaoYi-Chieh LeeShu-Fang ChenLittle Han lives in the mountains with his great-grandmother, Auntie Han-hsiao. In rainy days, Little Han sits in front of the fireplace listening to Auntie Han-hsiao's colorful and mysterious tales. One day he sees an injured and dying sparrow. With sadness, he digs a small cave and buries it. Looking at the sparrows flying in the mountains, he hopes one day he can leave the mountains. However, when his mother Ali, who works in nightclubs, takes him to city to live with her, he has to face the endless quarrels and fights between Ali and his boyfriend, a man who exploits Ali's body to make money. In Auntie Han-hsiao's funeral, while the burnt ashes swirling in the wind, Little Han returns to Auntie Han-hsiao's bedroom and curls himself up in the bed like the sparrow he has buried.
- DirectorSiqi SongStarsBingyang LiuA man thinks back to his childhood memories of growing up with an annoying little sister in China in the 1990s. What would his life have been like if things had gone differently?
- DirectorYasmin RaiStarsYasmin RaiMemories and symbols intertwine as a young girl reflects on the 'survival manual' her mother gave her.
- DirectorDanski TangAn animated documentary exploring how a mother's abusive relationship shaped the director's own experiences in boarding school.
- DirectorWei Keong TanA lost man falls apart in a forest. The quiet, atmospheric terrain of the forest is undisturbed until a man comes along. Seemingly lost, he enters the unknown space, observing and exploring the area, before he starts to fall apart.
- DirectorSang Joon KimStarsGys de VilliersCharles HubbellPeter BishopA prosaic subway operator turned into a toad rediscovers himself in a dystopic world.
- DirectorFabien CorreKelsi PhungStarsJohanna Korthals AltesVéronique AugereauLou BroclainIn a kitchen, a mother and a child struggle to establish dialogue.
- DirectorEllis Kayin ChanTena GalovicZozo JhenA journey of a 7-years-old boy's acceptance of his grandpa's death in a traditional Taiwanese funeral.
- DirectorDahee JeongA very special animated short film that observes how we move around the world. We walk, look, work, run, and stand together.
- DirectorJill D'AgnenicaStarsMargaret AdachiAn old dog contemplates his bleak future after being laid off from his security job.
- DirectorMirai Mizue
- DirectorCheng-Hsu ChungA short film that directly gazes at lives and the society with observation and imagination. It is queer and it is here.
- DirectorMaegan HouangStarsKieu ChinhIn Full Bloom tells the story of Cecile, an older Vietnamese hoarder, whose life is upended when worms open a black hole in her house and threaten to take all her stuff.
- DirectorSanojStarsKetaki NarayanRukshana TabassumAbhinav Shukla'Burning' is a conversation between two young mothers brought together by strange and cruel social realities, at a funeral ghat in Varanasi.
- DirectorSungbin ByunDisabled teenager struggles satisfying his needs.
- DirectorHenry ChenStarsTeresa DaleyKe-Li MiaoA runaway girl stays in a love motel down the street from her house to avoid an escalating confrontation with her parents, whom she has a generational gap, cultural gap, and previous trauma with; during her one night stay in the hotel, she redefines her perception of love and what being a family truly means.
- DirectorLeslie TaiStarsKelsee EsparzaThis NYT Op-Doc explores the world of Chinese women seeking IVF and surrogacy in the United States.
- DirectorChloé HungStarsGabriel BrownSujata DayA couple surviving in a post-apocalyptic landscape reach a crossroads in their relationship and must decide whether to stay together or split up.
- DirectorJayil PakStarsChang Yong AhnLee Chae-kyungSeo Yun JoWhen the Korean goddess of birth visits a maternity ward to grant a couple their son, an unforeseen ghost alters her plan.
- DirectorJerome YooStarsIris HwangDaniel YangNatasha CalisAfter a violent incident goes viral, Korean high school bully Gong Ju is sent to school in Canada, to change her violent ways. Instead, she becomes a victim of bullying, but is determined to sit back on her rightful throne.
- DirectorChieh YangStarsAngel HoKris KuanKuang-Yao FanOn Chinese New Year's Eve, ten-year-old Yang Lan waits anxiously for her singer mother to come home.
- DirectorCara LawsonStarsShivaani SharmaAishveryaa NidhiVeronica RoseA young mother struggles to keep up with her day-to-day routine as her postpartum psychosis worsens.
- DirectorStacie Gancayco-AdlaoStarsTyson AdlaoNadine CaleAmber DenisonIt's girl's night out for Apiang, Gabriela, Genesis, and Ri. Shenanigans ensue as Gabriela matches with a cute white guy on Tinder and Apiang and Ri take one look at his photo and declare he has yellow fever-a fetish for Asian women. Gabriela serendipitously meets Tinder guy as her girlfriends investigate his shady backstory through the vast amount of information available at their fingertips, forcing her to confront her own stereotypes when it comes to dating.
- DirectorBrian ChengStarsDarren DengBobby Reilly
- DirectorFuyuko MochizukiWithin the Tokara Archipelago in Japan lies the island of Akuseki. Home to 83 residents, and one mysterious visiting deity called BOZE. This is a community that welcomes all that arrives from the sea with an open heart, even a lost boy.
- DirectorStephanie ChengStarsAmy ChangTara TanLevana WangA young ballet dancer experiences puberty for the first time in the middle of her rigorous ballet class.
- DirectorKaveh MazaheriStarsSonia SanjariSoroush SaeidiArtin RabieiMajid a financially struggling man comes up with a ploy in order to better the life of his wife Sara.
- DirectorVic Roxas
- DirectorGerald DingA young girl finds an outlet for her violent childhood, taking her on an unimaginable journey fighting for a world championship.
- DirectorM.G. EvangelistaStarsZenobia TeagueEmily BessaLeyla UlerioTeenage lovebirds, sensitive Francis and skater Angie, spend the summer together while Fran begins their transition.
- DirectorAndrew Thomas HuangStarsJeff ChenTeddy LeeHeidi LuoA Chinese-American restaurant worker exhausted by his job finds himself intrigued by a customer who seems to visit him in dreams.
- DirectorSeung-Eun ShinHomosexual marriage is not legalized in Korea yet. But what if it becomes legal and people who have same sex get married? How should they call each other's parents? In Korea the word 'father-in-law' and 'mother-in-law' is used in each way attached by the sex of the speaker. A language system detached from the heterosexuality would be necessary.
- DirectorXindi LouStarsJohn ElefantisJeffrey GibsonTerrence Wayne Jr.A closeted autopsy assistant finds his boyfriend's dead body in the morgue.
- DirectorKevin YeeStarsKevin YeeRob KellerLesley McKinnellComedian Kevin Yee makes a short film about making a short film.
- DirectorKenya GillespieStarsJosh Lak KimCameron OefingerAlan TrongAn Asian-American high school football player confronts his deepest fears after an encounter with a mysterious figure.
- DirectorBridey ElliottStarsJosh FademTeresa LeeChristine MedranoJake thinks he's in for a hot night with two young women, the night heats up, but not in the way he expects.
- DirectorFrederico EvaristoBob YangStarsChang Hsi OhOn the eve of an important ruling, the Taiwan Supreme Court Judge receives an unexpected letter.