On August 12, 2022, AABANY members attended an all-Asian lineup comedy show presented by the Asian American International Film Festival (AAIFF45). The venue at Littlefield in Brooklyn was completely packed as seven comedians of all different views and backgrounds captivated the crowd with their hilarious sets. Congratulations to former AABANY intern, Claire Yoo, for not only being the event lead and producer, but for also performing a wildly entertaining set of her own. Shoutout to the Membership Committee for organizing another successful comedy event and be sure to look out for future membership events!
On August 5, 2022, AABANY’S Intellectual Property Committee led a group to the 45th Asian American International Film Festival. The group saw the U.S. premier of Chosen, a documentary about five Korean Americans of vastly diverse backgrounds running for U.S. Congress in 2020.
A mix of AABANY members, including those who were new to the IP Committee attended. As always, new members are welcome at the IP Committee events. We hope to see you at the next one. Also, if you have any event ideas, please do not hesitate to reach out.
AABANY is longtime community partner to the AAIFF, and AABANY members are invited to attend the film festival with the special 20% discount code: AAIFF45BAR.
Our own Francis Chin, AABANY’s professional development committee chair will also be speaking on the 72 Hour Shootout post-screening panel, a special part of the AAIFF.
About the Festival
The Asian American International Film Festival (AAIFF) proudly known as “The First Home to Asian American Cinema,” is the first and longest running festival to premier and showcase independent Asian, Asian diaspora and Pacific Islander cinema. With its origins at the Henry Street Settlement in New York City’s Lower East Side, the AAIFF brings together audiences from all over New York City, the tri-state region, and around the world. The 45th Asian American International Film Festival (AAIFF45) will take place from August 3 – 13, and combines in-person screenings and events with online programs.
This year, AAIFF will feature FREE CHOL SOO LEE, a documentary which excavates the essential story of 1970s San Francisco, when 20-year-old Korean immigrant Chol Soo Lee is racially profiled and convicted of a Chinatown gang murder. In the past, AABANY featured Chol Soo Lee’s case in a trial reenactment titled,Alice in Chinatown: Chol Soo Lee and His Fight for Freedom. Five decades later, this documentary by Julie Ha and Eugene Yi revisits Chol Soo Lee’s story and serves as an urgent reminder that his legacy is more relevant than ever.
On August 13th, the festival will showcase its Closing Night Presentations. Features include DEAR CORKY, directed by Curtis Chin illustrating an intimate look at the legendary photographer Corky Lee. A long-time friend of AABANY, we have hosted various events honoring Corky’s legacy, including the photo exhibit “Photographic Justice: A Tribute to Corky Lee,” currently showing at the U.S. District Court Eastern District of New York. Passionate about activism, documenting history, and combatting Asian hate crimes through his camera, Dear Corky is a film revealing the man behind the iconic pictures that mobilized the Asian American community.
To learn more about the other films and see the full schedule of the festival, click here. For more information about ticketing, click here.
The 44th Asian American International Film Festival (AAIFF) rolled into town on August 11, billed as “the nation’s first and longest running festival dedicated to celebrating independent Asian, Asian diaspora, and Pacific Islander cinema.” Because we are not yet entirely out of the pandemic, AAIFF is being presented as a hybrid event with some screenings held in person and others made available on demand. One of the in-person programs took place on the third night, August 13, an evening featuring AAPI comics performing stand-up, fittingly called “Comedy Night.”
In a part of Brooklyn that the current generation calls Gowanus, nearly two dozen AABANY members joined a standing room crowd at Littlefield, a performance space that once was a warehouse (probably back in the days when this part of town was still known as Park Slope). The show was produced and hosted by Claire Yoo, an Events Coordinator for AAIFF who also happens to be President of Harvard College Stand Up Comic Society. Before you can say, “What? Harvard Students know how to laugh?” Claire took to the stage and launched into a profanity-laced opening monologue that filled the room with appreciative laughter, getting the entire audience properly riled up for the hilarity to come. (And don’t worry, Claire, we won’t tell your dad — who was in the audience — about your foul mouth.)
The line-up featured an assortment of top comedy talent, including award-winning writers from popular shows such as “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” “Patriot Act with Hasan Minaj,” and NPR’s “Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me.” The diversity of the comedians reflected East Asian, South Asian, and HAPA voices as well as LGBTQ+ perspectives that we rarely hear from in mainstream media. As one of our attendees, Lauren Kim of Fordham Law School, deftly summarized, “It was excellent, tons of fun, and every single comic was hilarious.” Indeed, they were! None of our performers bombed on stage. If anything, the level and quality of the comedy seemed to go higher and higher from one comic to the next. (Apologies to Moss Perricone, the first comic to go. We don’t mean to say you weren’t funny or that the other comics were funnier than you. Oh, wait … maybe we are saying the second part.)
By the way, we should mention that our host, Claire, was an AABANY intern during Fall 2020. During her internship she learned that AABANY is a community partner of AAIFF and asked how she could get involved with Asian CineVision, the non-profit that organizes AAIFF each year. We hooked her up, and just a few months later … she is the producer and host of the largest comedy show she has ever put together. Congrats, Claire! Great job! (And Asian Cinevision, you are welcome!)
Thanks to all the AABANY members and friends, including President Terry Shen and his wife, Stella, who joined us. We hope everyone will support AAIFF and its mission to promote and spotlight AAPI artists, writers, performers, producers, and filmmakers. Read about the AAIFF films we are co-sponsoring this year here.
AABANY will be a community partner for two film screenings for the 2020 Asian American International Film Festival this fall. These two film screenings include:
Since President Rodrigo Duterte took office in 2016 and announced his campaign to rid the Philippines of drug addicts and dealers, as many as 20,000 Filipinos have been murdered. ASWANG confronts these executions and their devastating aftermath.
CODED BIAS explores the fallout of MIT Media Lab researcher Joy Buolamwini’s startling discovery that facial recognition does not see dark-skinned faces and women accurately and her push for legislative protection against biased AI.
This year, the festival is entirely online; you can watch from home with an internet connection. Each film or event will have a link to purchase your tickets. After you purchase, you will receive an email with a link to view the film. You may purchase anytime within the dates of our festival (October 1 to October 11, 2020). For more information and FAQs, please visit the “How to Festival” section of their website.
Please click the links above to purchase tickets and learn more about the films. AABANY members will receive a 20% discount code to all festival screenings once they register for the event on the AABANY website.
Click here to register for “Aswang” on the AABANY website. Click here to register for “Coded Bias” on the AABANY website.
For more information on the AAIFF, please click here.
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On July 28th, AABANY will be co-sponsoring the screening of the short film program, Evolving Immigrants, with Asian CineVision for the 2018 Asian American International Film Festival. Please click the video to watch the trailer for one of the films, Gold Fortune.
On July 28th, AABANY will be co-sponsoring the screening of the short film program, Worth Fighting For, with Asian CineVision for the 2018 Asian American International Film Festival. Please click the video to watch the trailer for one of the films, Slow Angels.
On July 28th, AABANY will be co-sponsoring the screening of the short film program, Worth Fighting For, with Asian CineVision for the 2018 Asian American International Film Festival. Please click the video to watch the trailer for one of the films, A Letter for Sang-Ah.
AABANY will be co-sponsoring six film screenings with Asian CineVision for the 2018 Asian American International Film Festival this summer. These six film screenings include:
Each screening will be followed by a Q&A with its respective filmmakers. All screenings will be held at Village East Cinema.
Please click the links to learn more about the films. AABANY members will receive a discount code once they register for the event on the AABANY website.
Remarkable stories are told every year at the Asian American International Film Festival (AAIFF), the first and longest running festival for Asian American cinema in the country. At the upcoming 40th AAIFF, held from July 26th to August 5th, AABANY is cosponsoring two films. Come see Defender, the intense and personal story of San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi, who strives to combat racism, police brutality, and injustice against minorities while showing the critical role of the public defender in the justice system, and Save My Seoul, which follows two Korean-American brothers while they unravel the dark complexity of the sex trade in Seoul, and the broken culture that causes it.
Check out the trailer for Defender above.
All AABANY members can use the discount code AABANYaaiff40 to see these films at a 25% discount. Visit http://aaiff.org/2017/ for more info. We hope to see you there!
