AABANY is excited to announce our community partnership with the 46th installment of the Asian American International Film Festival (AAIFF46), the first and longest running Asian American film festival in the US. Established in 1978 by Asian CineVision, a media arts nonprofit focused on AAPI interests, the festival is committed to supporting AAPI cinema as a tool for social change and inclusion in the media arts. This year, the festival is taking a unique hybrid format, screening films both in-person and online this July 26th to August 6th.
The festival lineup includes a distinctive selection of feature films, such as “Yaobikuni’s Love,” “Raging Grace,” and “Finding Her Beat.” Additionally, you can look forward to a captivating assortment of short films, including “Skin Can Breathe,” “Inheritance,” “Honolulu,” “The Ocean Duck,” “Rooted (防己),” and “The Roaring of the Carabao.” Overall, AAIFF offers an enthralling experience, promising to immerse viewers in a world of fascinating stories that resonate with the Asian diaspora experience.
Aside from an outstanding selection of Asian American films, AAIFF will showcase exclusive panels, receptions, and other unique VIP events. Attendees will be provided with exceptional opportunities to mingle and connect with both industry professionals and fellow film enthusiasts.
AABANY will be promoting these particular films for AAIFF26:
To receive a 25% off discount code, exclusive to AABANY members, please register at the embedded links above at least two days prior to the screening date. Tickets and passes are currently on sale on the AAIFF website— make sure to spread the word and confirm your attendance now by clicking here and securing your spot. To learn more, visit the AAIFF site by clicking here, or follow @asiancinevision to receive updates about this phenomenal event.
QBE North America is an international insurer and reinsurer offering a diverse portfolio of commercial, personal and specialty products, as well as risk management solutions. Their product portfolio includes property, motor, crop, energy, marine and aviation. QBE North America employs a team of more than 11,800 people, in 27 countries around the world.
QBE is encouraging talented individuals with diverse backgrounds and experiences to apply for QBE’s 2023 Summer Legal Internship Program. The internship will run 10 weeks from May 30th through August 4th, and students are expected to commit to 5 days a week, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The program is designed so that interns will work on a wide range of assignments with the various sub-units of QBE’s Legal, Regulatory and Compliance team, such as Business Unit Support, Corporate Shared Services, Regulatory and Litigation. The internship will be hybrid, with interns working remotely as well as in-person at the New York office, located at 55 Water Street.
Applications will be considered on a rolling basis, and applicants selected for interviews will be contacted. Law students are strongly encouraged to apply as soon as possible. QBE will be selecting 2 law school students to join the program. Please follow this link for full details.
On August 14, AABANY’s Pro Bono & Community Service (PBCS) Committee and Government Service and Public Interest (GSPI) Committee hosted a hybrid legal clinic and provided a “Know Your Rights” presentation for residential and commercial tenants on the topic of rent arrears and evictions. The event was held at the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association (CCBA) in Manhattan’s Chinatown and was co-sponsored by AABANY, CCBA, Asian Americans for Equality (AAFE), and the Chinese Chamber of Commerce of New York (CCCNY).
During the presentation, which was shown on Zoom and screened in-person at CCBA, Rina Gurung, an associate court attorney at the New York State Unified Court System and co-chair of the GSPI Committee; Kensing Ng, a staff attorney at the Legal Aid Society in East Harlem; and Meghan Liu, a Cleary Gottlieb pro bono fellow at Legal Services NYC, discussed different types of cases that are brought in housing court, such as nonpayment, holdover, and housing part cases. They also explained which eviction moratoria are in effect due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and emphasized that these laws can change at any time. This was especially relevant, given the imminent expiration of the COVID-19 Emergency Eviction and Foreclosure Prevention Act on August 31, 2021; the expiration of the CDC’s moratorium on October 3, 2021; and the U.S. Supreme Court’s August 12, 2021 opinion striking down part of the New York moratorium.
Gurung, Liu, and Ng also provided resources that tenants could contact to file hardship declarations and explained the basics of the Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP), which provides rental arrears, temporary rental assistance, and utility arrears assistance to low- and moderate-income households at risk of experiencing homelessness or housing instability. They also explained that landlords seeking to sue their tenants should hire a lawyer and for those who received a marshal’s notice to go to court. In addition, the presenters explained differences in procedures for cases involving commercial tenants and provided resources for both landlords and tenants, phone numbers for free consultations for income-eligible individuals, and a guide to landlord disputes. Bei Yang, a contract attorney at On Call Counsel, interpreted the presentation live into Mandarin Chinese.
Eighteen clients attended the clinic for one-on-one legal consultations with AABANY volunteers, including 12 who had registered beforehand, one virtual caller, and five walk-ins. Topics ranged from housing and matrimonial law to immigration, fraud, medical malpractice, and personal injury. All available client consultation slots were successfully filled.
One client, an older man who only spoke Cantonese, came to the clinic because he had been scammed by a woman who claimed to be interested in pursuing a romantic relationship with him online. She then asked him to send her a significant sum of money, and he did so before realizing that she was a fraud. Such occurrences are not uncommon, especially among elders, and individuals who have been or who know victims of similar types of fraud should not feel ashamed to tell their stories or speak to an attorney. Sharing these stories promotes awareness of these types of scams and helps others avoid them.
While AABANY volunteers were conducting one-on-one consultations, several clients watched the presentation in the CCBA sitting area. One client asked for the PBCS email to see if she could get a recording of the presentation and re-watch it, as she missed a portion of the live presentation. She also was impressed by clips from the Anti-Asian Violence PSA that explained what hate crimes were and how they can be reported, and asked for the link to the YouTube video, even though she spoke no English. After the one-on-one consultations concluded, volunteers debriefed the clinic and got to know each other over a post-clinic meal at Canton Lounge.
The PBCS Committee thanks Rina Gurung, Kensing Ng, and Meghan Liu for lending their expertise in rent arrears, eviction moratoria, and landlord and tenant rights and Bei Yang for providing a live interpretation of the presentation. The Committee would also like to thank Beatrice Leong, Francis Chin, Guiying Ji, Jae Hyung Ryu, Judy (Ming Chu) Lee, Karen Kithan Yau, Kwok Ng, Samantha Sumilang, and Shengyang Wu for providing clients with legal information and resources during one-on-one consultations; Kloe Chiu and Esther Choi for providing language interpretation during one-on-one consultations; Luna Fu and Wai Yip from AAFE for language interpretation and other assistance; Zhixian (Jessie) Liu and Poonam Gupta for acting as standby consultants for immigration-related questions; and Asako Aiba, Karen Lin, Kevin Hsi, Kwok Ng, May Wong, Megan Gao, and Olympia Moy for coordinating and staffing the clinic. AABANY would also like to thank CCBA, CCCNY, and AAFE for co-sponsoring this event. We are also grateful to the staff at Charles B. Wang for providing video resources on mental health and anti-Asian hate during the COVID-19 pandemic.
To learn more about the PBCS Committee and its work, click here and here. The PBCS Committee is tentatively planning to hold its next hybrid legal clinic on Saturday, September 18, 2021 between 12:30 PM – 3:30 PM. For up-to-date details about the clinic and registration information, please click here.
