(April 29-May 6, 2004)

Sam Chen (SDAFF Artistic Programmer) here with a quick report on VC Film Festival 2004. On April 29, SDAFF represented at the 20th Anniversary of the Visual Communication Film Festival at the Director's Guild of America (DGA) Theater in West Hollywood. After checking in at the surprisingly hospitable and affordable digs at the Saharan Motor Hotel on the Sunset Strip, Grace Lee (SDAFF Guest Services Coordinator) and I headed on over to the DGA and met up with fellow programmer Arnold Marquez to kick off another year of SDAFF @ the VC Film Fest.

Opening night started off with the VIP reception at the DGA Atrium where many old friends reunited and new friends introduced. Immediately upon arrival, I caught up with SDAFF alumni Kuang Lee ("Hae Lu,"Eastside") who has a new music video of his band in the fest and newcomer Karen Lin who has an excellent short called "Perfection" featuring Ming Na in the leading role. Look out for these 2 talented filmmakers cuz their films are standouts. It's always great when the filmmakers are as cool as their films. Other notable friends of SDAFF spotted and chatted were Karin Anna Cheung & Sung Kang ("Better Luck Tomorrow"), Anderson Le (Hawaii Int'l Film Festival), Cynthia Liu ("Red Thread"), Chansoo Kim ("Woman in the Attic"), James Hou ("Masters of the Pillow"), among many other familiar faces.

As part of VC's tribute to Asian-American pioneer filmmaker Wayne Wang, the festival kicked off with the 1982 classic film "Chan is Missing." Sound designer Curtis Choy along with Cinematographer Michael Chin were on hand to reminisce about what the early days of Asian American filmmaking was like in the post-film Q&A session. After watching "Chan is Missing," I could not help thinking how far Asian American cinema has progressed in relation to recent works such as "Better Luck Tomorrow." What's interesting is that Curtis Choy worked on both, along with many other classics in between such as "The Joy Luck Club" and "Three Seasons." Chatting with Curtis was interesting as he reflected upon what it was like to work on each.

On Friday, the fest kicked off with a great lineup of films in a shorts program entitled, "The World Can Be A Heavy Burden," which included a Sundance Official Selection, a Palm Springs winner, a short by a past Academy Award winner, one with Sung Kang ("Better Luck Tomorrow") and another with Ming Na ("The Joy Luck Club"), and my own film "Eternal Gaze." VC was kind enough to program us in the 600-seat DGA Theater 1 with all films screened in glorious 35mm. As more and more shorts are now shot in DV and projected in video, this was a treat. Everything looked and sounded great as expected. After a short Q&A session, there was even a casual reception thrown for the filmmakers in the DGA Atrium where further discussions ensued. I was proud to be part of this strong program and the audience responses were great.

Other programs that were of interest were: "Freaky Campfire Stories" - a collection of mind-bending films; "Ride Hard, Play Soft" - an eclectic collection of films about cultural extremes; and "Skypods" - a series of shorts containing the common element of the Apple iPod in the spirit of the BMW shorts and featuring actors from "Better Luck Tomorrow." 

One of the highlights of the VC film festival was their filmmaker's luncheon, sponsored by the DGA. Held at the very LA'ish restaurant called Pinot Hollywood, the filmmakers were treated to a great lunch and lots of free succulents - the key to any filmmaker-friendly event. There, I was able to meet all the filmmakers in one shot and trade business cards. Of course this was a golden opportunity to pass out SDAFF Call for Entries postcards and to remind them to submit. It was encouraging to see a handful of women filmmakers present in the normally male-dominant industry as well as the presence of fellow animators with strong films in the festival.

Towards the end of the festival, I caught a couple of shorts that were gems. First there was "Jesus Henry Christ" about a boy's unconventional convictions in a strict Catholic school, written and directed by Dennis Lee. It was well-crafted and surprisingly resonant and deserving of its Golden Reel nomination. Then there was the hip and artful "American Seoul," written by Grace Rowe as a proof of concept for a feature length version about the lives of four young Asian American girls living in LA. This "teaser" had a great look and feel, and features some colorful characters caught in very relevant identity issues facing kids today.

When all was said and done, VC concluded the festival with their entertaining and humorous closing feature "Zatoichi" by Takeshi Kitano who incidentally also stars in it. Preceding the film was a VIP reception where Lee Ann and myself got to mingle with filmmakers and chow down some yummy sushi. I was able to say a few quick hellos with John Cho, who has a mainstream Hollywood film coming out called "Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle." Its hilarious trailer has been showing all week, and from the looks of it, it could be the Asian "Dumb & Dumber" of 2004. After doing a quick interview with an upcoming film festival TV show about my film "Eternal Gaze," and grabbing bites of sushi whenever there was a chance, Justin Lin (director of "Better Luck Tomorrow") came over to say hi.

Before the closing film, there was a very short awards ceremony where 3 awards were given out. I'm honored to say that my film "Eternal Gaze" nabbed the VC Golden Reel Award for best overall short film. It was presented to me by Justin Lin which made it even cooler. The other 2 awards were for the Linda Mabalot New Filmmakers/New Vision Awards given to "Jesus Henry Christ" and Karen Lin's "Perfection," both extremely well crafted films. What an honor it was for me to win this award in front of my friends and peers, and especially since I've been coming to VC for so many years. I thought it was encouraging that VC gave their top award to an animated short that did not have an Asian theme.

So the night ended with a dessert reception in the courtyard of the Aratani Japan America Theatre. This was the last chance to say byes before the next Asian film festival... which will most likely be our own in October. Hats off to VC for another successful year of programming and bringing Asian Americans together to celebrate indie cinema. This year was significant in that it's VC Film Festival's 20th anniversary, and the first year not under the leadership of the late and much-loved Linda Mabalot. Their new executive director Leslie Ito did a fine job holding down the fort. As attendees bid their farewells, everyone expressed their enthusiastic anticipation of SDAFF 2004 in October. We're psyched because everyone's psyched. So until next time, peace out!

...Sam Chen