Last year featured work from Bay Area talent, such as music videos by H.P. Mendoza and Rich Wong — who both premiered feature-length films at SFIAAFF30 — as well as Valerie Soe and and Russell Jeung’s OAK PARK, a documentary about the challenges faced by a tenant community in East Oakland.

What’s in store for this year? “For the 2nd Annual AHSC Cinema Showcase, it’s our intention to celebrate the breadth of talent we have here in the Bay Area,” says Masashi Niwano, Festival Director for CAAM. “We have selected a collection of fantastic shorts films & music videos from many local cities including San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, Fremont and Palo Alto. These emerging mediamakers have new stories and voices that will surely entertain and inspire the audience.” Additionally, we are excited to have this year’s programming curated in collaboration with our friends at the Third I Film Festival.

The Asian Heritage Street Celebration Cinema Showcase will be held at the Asian Art Museum’s Samsung Hall on Saturday May 19^th from 2PM to 4PM. Admission to the museum will be free all day, courtesy of Target and there will be no cost to watch the films.

This event is held also in celebration of Asian Contemporary Art Week.

CAAM presents AHSC CINEMA SHOWCASE (FREE)

Date: May 19, 2011
Time: 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Location: Asian Art Museum, Samsung Hall, 100 Larkin St., San Francisco.

Join us for a special happy hour from 4-6pm at O3 Bistro and Lounge!
CAAM Fam Happy Hour Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/459268717421912/ 

MY NAME IS SEVEN dir. by D. B. Cheng

TERRA COTTA dir. Yasmine Gomez

PROGRAM GUIDE: 

MY NAME IS SEVEN, Dir. D.B. Cheng, 7 min.
Seven is a true B-boy deep inside, but will his moves impress the girl of his dreams? Steven Terada and Brian Hirano, members of QuestCrew, join the cast of this fun short film.

TERRA COTTA, Dir. Yasmine Gomez, 6 min.
“Maybe sometimes… you need something to unsettle. Maybe that something is the best part.” Watch what happens when one roommate gets fed up with the status quo.

ROOTS OF LOVE, Dir. Harjant Gill, 30 min.
Told through the stories of six different men ranging in age from fourteen to eighty-six,Roots of Love documents the changing significance of hair and the turban among Sikhs in India. The choice of cutting one’s hair is one that not only concerns the individual and his family, but an entire community.

MELODY WALKS, by DreamDate, Produced by Heather MacLean, 3 min.
Set at the scenic Pacifica Pier, this music video features a live performance from the indie/folk-trio.

LOVE HACKING, Dir. Jenni Nelson, 21 min.
A virtual relationship becomes a reality when a robot inventor falls in love online and journeys to Nepal to meet his fiancé for the first time.

MAKING NOISE IN SILENCE, Dir. Mina T. Son, 3 min.
Class is in session at the California School for the Deaf; it’s a typical American high school, with jocks, nerds, misfits, cheerleaders, and new kids. In Making Noise in Silence, follow two Korean American teens as they discover what it means to be both deaf and Korean.

IT’S BEAUTIFUL, By Hopie ft. Luckylam, Dir. Stretch, 5 min.
Northern California meets Southern California on this fun, upbeat music video featuring Living Legends rapper, LuckyIAm.

LADY RAZORBACK, Dir. Laura Green, 4 min.
When a group of Pacific Islander women struggles to start a rugby team in East Palo Alto, they find the field to be an unexpected sanctuary.

RELATED LINKS

Asian Heritage Street Celebration website
http://asianfairsf.com/

2012 Fair Information
http://asianfairsf.com/fair-info/

About 3rd i
http://www.thirdi.org/about/

About the Asian Art Museum
http://www.asianart.org

Asian Contemporary Art Week
http://www.asiancontemporarysf.org/acaw/

From this year’s Present Future Summit, we heard from two trailblazers in media making who are telling stories from the APA community through sustainable platforms. The first speaker is Na’alehu Anthony, CEO of OiwiTV in Hawaii, the only all-Hawaiian culture & language station in Hawaii. The second is Shinae Yoon, the Executive Director of Visual Communications, which produces the Los Angeles Asian American Film Festival (taking place May 10 – 20!)

Former SFIAAFF Director Chi-hui Yang introduces the speakers, and begins with Lehu who is on the forefront of developing tools to look at audiences and how to reach them.

From the organization framework of Visual Communications, Shinae Yoon discusses how VC has had to adjust and “re-make” themselves.

Below is the Q&A with  Na’alehu Anthony and Shinae Yoon.

The first question is from Phil Yu (aka Angry Asian Man) who asks if film festivals are still relevant.

Other questions pondered:
Do filmmakers need a win from Sundance?
Do we need “feature films”?
Where should filmmakers find validation?

See all of the blog posts on Present/Future
Present/Future playlist on our YouTube CAAM Channel

WARRIORS OF THE RAINBOW: SEEDIQ BALE

Friday, April 27
AMC Metreon 16 in San Francisco
Director: Wei Te-Sheng, Executive Producer: John Woo

Wei Te-sheng’s epic film reclaims an extraordinary episode from 20th-century history which is little-known, even in Taiwan. Between 1895 and 1945, the island was a Japanese colony inhabited not only by the majority (Han Chinese Immigrants) but also by the remnants of the aboriginal tribes who first settled the mountainous land. In 1930 Mouna Rudo, the leader of the Seediq tribe settled on and around Mount Chilai, forged a coalition with other Seediq tribal leaders and plotted a rebellion against their Japanese colonial masters. It was to begin at a sports day meeting where the assembled tribesmen were to attach and kill the Japanese officials and would then broaden to sieges on police stations and local government offices in the region. The initial uprising took the Japanese by surprise and was almost entirely successful. But the Japanese soon sent in their army to crush the rebellion, using aircraft and poison gas.

Mouna Rudo knew from the start that the relatively small force of Seediq tribesmen stood no chance of defeating the might of Japan. But he and his allies were sustained by the beliefs and myths which had nourished their tribes since time immemorial. Young males in the tribes had to undergo a rite of passage to become adult men, which gave them the right to have their faces tattooed. In the tribal language, they became Seediq Bale – heroes of the tribe. Their belief was that their ancestors would lead the spirits of the Seediq Bale across a rainbow bridge to the summit of the mountain when their time came. And so whatever the result of their uprising against Japan, they would march in victory across the rainbow bridge. The heroism and fortitude of the Seediq warriors and their womenfolk shocked even the Japanese, and won them enduring respect.

WARRIORS OF THE RAINBOW: SEEDIQ BALE
Opening Night, co-presented by CAAM: Friday, April 27 | 7:00PM
Limited theater run following opening night. Please visit the AMC Metreon site for screening days/times.

*psst: want to win a pair of tickets to Opening Night? Visit our Facebook page for contest details!

Related Links:

WARRIORS OF THE RAINBOW
View the trailer and more information about the film
http://www.warriorsoftherainbow.wellgomovies.com/

Executive Producer Quan Phung of Whitney (the #2 comedy on NBC behind the Office) and Internet Curator, Technologist, & Enthusiast Kenyatta Cheese discuss where YouTubers and Television shows converge. Here is their Q&A, preceded by thoughts from Steve Tao, President of CAPE (Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment):

Before their Q&A, Quan Phung discussed his show “Whitney” and how developing authenticity in your programs leads to long-term viewership and audiences.

Meanwhile, Kenyatta explained the importance of reaching your personal networks to expand your audience.

“Your network is so much bigger than you think it is”

See all of the blog posts on Present/Future
Present/Future playlist on our YouTube CAAM Channel

A month ago, the Center for Asian American Media hosted the Present Future Summit, a one-day conclave that brought together content creators and curators from across the media spectrum. The goal of this TED Talk-meets-townhall was to promote thought and discussion about new directions, challenges, and opportunities facing storytelling practitioners across a wide range of disciplines. Much of the conversation focused on the maturation of online content and its impact upon the industry.

What was striking, at least to me, was the idea that online content is now achieving a cultural primacy that is beginning to displace television and film.

Youtube and its ilk have been around for years. However, until recently these outlets were only seen as sources of content and talent for “old media,” a sort of digital farm system. For producers and development execs, vblogs and lo-fi alien invasion films were just one more arena to scour for fresh voices. Indeed, a few years ago, when I had the opportunity to ask some studio executives about what they could possibly glean from a three-minute web video, the answer was, surprisingly, hits. To these execs, the specific content was actually less important than the number of times it had been viewed. A couple of million views was a useful statistic, a metric that they could take to their studio overlords in the quest to obtain the ever-coveted greenlight.

Even as recently as two weeks ago, Wired magazine reported a story about James Erwin, a software manual author and amateur history buff whose Reddit posts about a fictional encounter between a modern US Marine Corp unit and the Roman Empire had resulted in a bona fide screenwriting deal. Erwin had won the lotto, and Reddit had been legitimized, because old media had plucked him from obscurity and sent him up to the big leagues.

photo by Eric Ignacio

The idea that digital content is now the main event, no longer a hip marketing add-on or an early, pay-your-dues phase in one’s career, can take a little getting used to. At the Present Future Summit, even the new media wunderkinds in the room, Wesley Chan, Ted Fu, and Philip Wang of Wong Fu Productions, professed a desire to be accepted by the larger industry, even while they and their contemporaries are forging a new marketplace that is truly independent in a way that longform narrative filmmakers such as myself can only dream about.

Listening to them talk about their accomplishments, it was hard not to compare the choices that I’ve made in my career. What if, instead of building content for the last eight years, I had chosen to build a large, unmediated, independently accessible audience instead? It’s an unsettling thought, particularly when paired with the idea that the film industry, which I’ve been trying to scratch and claw my way into for better part of the last decade, is waning, at least in its current form.

Many of the speakers at Present Future raised questions about potential next steps and offered, if not solutions, then at least ideas that about where to begin looking. One of the most reassuring came from Wendy Levy, senior strategist at Tomorrow Partners and former creative director at the Bay Area Video Coalition. She reminded the audience that in spite of technology’s increasing impact, content creators must still begin with the story and only then select the specific digital tools to deploy in the service of that narrative. “Creative ideation,” she warned, “needs to platform agnostic.”

As one who worked in other creative disciplines prior to filmmaking, the emphasis on finding the right stories – the ones that we’re passionate about and believe will serve our audiences – was well worth hearing again. Great stories told with good craft will always rise to the top, no matter where they are shown. However, thought and attention must still be given to distribution and how it creates parameters around narrative content.

While stories should pick their platforms and not the other way around, platforms do inherently promote specific formats, which in turn inform story types and arcs. Just as live theater is naturally a verbal medium while film is primarily visual, there are stark differences between the types of stories that can be explored in a three to five minute webisode versus those told over the course of a 90-minute feature length film. Many of the storytellers finding success in new media are doing so as on-camera, personally branded performers. My own personal awkwardness notwithstanding, there are many reasons that I want to be behind the camera and not in front of it.

In thinking about the questions raised at Present Future, I would echo a thought and prayer voiced by many from the “old media” side of the aisle:

How, in this new paradigm, do we continue to successfully and sustainably make author-driven
longform narrative content?

The solutions, I suspect, will be as diverse as the questions.

Here’s the video from Wendy Levy:

More: Here’s a blog from CAAM Student Delegate Samantha Yu on Wong Fu Productions at Present/Future Summit
See all of the blog posts on Present/Future
Present/Future playlist on our YouTube CAAM Channel

Get caught up by watching the videos at the Present/Future Playlist on YouTube
Re-live the event through our Storify, which captured the fury of tweets (fueled by our event’s Twitter wall!):  http://sfy.co/m7j

Here’s CAAM’s Executive Director Stephen Gong, and the brains behind the Present/Future Summit, Producer Karin Chien, explaining the origins behind the Summit and kicking things off:

Speaker: Gary Chou (Union Square Ventures)  http://garychou.com/
Lee Ann Kim (San Diego Film Foundation) http://www.sdaff.org

From his perspective as an investor, Gary shares his thoughts on the current paradigm shift from hierarchies to networks.

Speaker: Wendy Levy, http://www.tomorrowpartners.com/wendy.php

Wendy Levy has spent a good part of her career utilizing networks. But she explains why ultimately, it’s not about the technology, but the story.

Q&A with Gary Chou and Wendy Levy

See a re-cap blog from 2012 CAAM Fellow Geoffrey Quan on his takeaways on storytelling at the Summit!
See all of the blog posts on Present/Future
Present/Future playlist on our YouTube CAAM Channel

The Present/Future Summit (March 11) brought together Asian Americans from all corners of media to confront the present and future of Asian Americans onscreen and online.  We had such a lively discussion afterwards, that we thought it would be fun to jot down some of our exchange as an informal Q&A with one another.

Check out these interviews with CAAM Fellows Johanna Lee (participating as a television writer) and Harry Yoon (participating as a featured film editor)!

RESPONSES FROM JOHANNA LEE (TV writer):

What did you take away from the conference?

I’d been aware of the new directions in online video for a while but I was wondering how people are monetizing it. One thing that I didn’t realize, was that people were making money through merchandising. Also, I was reminded how much these videos are driven by a “cult of personality” for their appeal. The summit prompted me to watch a lot of YouTube when I got home and I was again struck by what I saw. A lot of these YouTube stars were young men. They are good-looking, entertaining, Asian men and we’re not getting that on television. It makes sense that there’s a huge audience of Asian Americans watching these stars because they are finding faces they don’t see elsewhere. It’s not like there are a ton of people tuning into YouTube clips of 80 year-olds talking about politics.

Is there any way that this conference made you think about what you want to do with your career writing for television?

It made me come home and ask my animator husband about why we weren’t creating a web series! That said, Quan Phung talked about how in a longer format like an hour-long drama on television, you have more time to explore stories and character arcs, and that really appeals to me. At the end of the day, for me, it’s the content. I think there’s a lot of people tuning into some of the shorter content online because there are characters and subject matter that’s not being represented via traditional television. There may be stories that I want to tell that are perfect for shorter work online, and there are stories that are more suited for TV. So my desire to work in television hasn’t changed, but I could see myself also creating web series and shorter work in addition to what I am doing now.

See Quan Phung speak at Present/Future

(Our discussion led us to the topic of comedian Louis C.K.’s enormously successful self-funded release of his “Live at the Beacon Theater” concert video online.)

For me, the reason I bought the show was that I knew his work and loved it. He’s one of the only comedians out there that’s doing material on the down and dirty details of raising kids at his age and it’s hilarious. I also think that his price point was key. I thought for five bucks, that’s an easy decision. If it was twenty dollars, I wouldn’t have done it. Finally, I think Louis was successful because he’d already had two shows on major networks along with a long stand-up career. He didn’t just come out of nowhere.

Pictured: (Karin Chien, Quan Phung)  Photos by: Jain Thapa.

RESPONSES FROM HARRY YOON (feature film editor)

What did you take away from the conference?

As someone who works primarily in feature films, it was a little ominous to be reminded that the audience for features might be disappearing, and that next generation audiences are watching content in general, online. I mean, I stream movies from Netflix on my Roku box all the time but I think the discussion made me think about what was really different and compelling to audiences online. And if that work is the future then what is my place in it as editor?

Is there any way that this conference made you think about what you want to do with your career?

To make an independent film you have to go through all these gatekeepers – producers and funders who will help you make your film, and then once the film is made the distributors who will help you get your film seen by an audience. What’s really powerful about what these guys are doing online is that they have direct access to their audience. They don’t need to go through gatekeepers to reach them. And I think that’s why so much of their content feels intimate and personal. It makes it feel like the people making the videos could be your friends – people you could have a beer with. I mean, that’s what makes Facebook so compelling is that it’s not content created by a faceless news or entertainment organization but by your friends. I like that it has that intimate, personal feel.

I also liked the presentation given by Na’alehu Anthony on his Oiwi TV channel in Hawaii. The way he was creating on demand programs for a community that he felt close to, and using the set-top box as a way of getting very specific feedback on what his audiences were watching. This feels “intimate” in its own way. Again, it’s about removing the barriers between you as the filmmaker and your audience.

See Na’alehu Anthony speak at Present/Future

(Our discussion led us to the topic of comedian Louis C.K.’s enormously successful self-funded release of his “Live at the Beacon Theater” concert video online.)

I think it made a huge difference that Louis funded it, directed it, and edited it himself. I don’t know if I would have bought the video if it was being offered by some big media company. It made a difference to me that he had made it and uploaded it. I loved the letter he wrote about wanting to share his profits with his staff and with worthy charities really humanized the whole experience for people buying the video. It reminded you of the kind of guy you were giving money to. I hate to call that “branding” because it sounds so commercial but I think it’s branding in the best sense. I think Louis’example is a great model for filmmaker’s to shoot for. He’s established a personal brand with his audience and is reaping the rewards from it. I think the future of indie films is going to demand that from its makers.

Pictured:  (Rana Cho, Na’alehu Anthony)  Photos by: Jain Thapa.

See all of the blog posts on Present/Future
Present/Future playlist on our YouTube CAAM Channel

Drumroll Please….

Due to popular demand, and after a sold out world premiere last night at the Kabuki Theater, we are pleased to announce that our surprise screening will be NICE GIRLS CREW! So, if you missed it the first time, do check out this raunchy Bridesmaids‐meets-Arrested Development, no-holds-barred comedy series starring the ever-popular Sheetal Sheth, Michelle Krusiec and Lynn Chen!

NICE GIRLS CREW
March 15, 2012 4:30 pm
Sundance Kabuki Cinemas
Buy Tickets »

Assembling an all-star cast of actresses, Nice Girls Crew pushes the boundaries of traditional comedy…and then some. This five-episode, CAAM-produced series was created/written by CAAM staffer Christine Kwon and directed/written by award-winning filmmaker Tanuj Chopra (Punching at the Sun).

RELATED LINKS:

Do Nice Girls Really Finish Last?

After living in NYC for more than a decade, it’s funny that I would begin my journey in Asian American Media on the other side of the country. As a part of the student delegate program, we have the privilege of flashing our badges to awkwardly begin a conversation with filmmakers and industry workers, through some of these meetings, I have gained a new perspective on the role Asian American Media plays in my life.

For 12 hours a day, over the course of 5 days, we attend 4 scheduled screenings. Now you might think, “Half a day watching movies? How hard can that be?” Well, let me tell first hand that it’s actually quite exhausting. Partially due to jetlag, by the time we reach the last screening of the day, I am ready to check out and hit the hay. When so many films are watched back to back, we don’t receive a lot of opportunities to reflect on everything we’ve just taken in. But at the end of the day, when I really absorb and think about all of the screenings, it only brings me to further appreciate the diversity within the Asian American culture.

WongFu at Present/Future / photo by Jain Thapa

Yesterday during our breaks in between screenings, myself and another delegate had an opportunity to attend parts of the Present/Future panel, a conversation about Asian American Media. We received the opportunity to hear many different speakers present, including the guys from WongFu Productions, about where they feel the Asian American media should be headed towards. Phil Wang of WongFu was quick to point out that in the room full of audience, there weren’t many “young people” present, referring to high school students. In fact, since I am the youngest of the student delegates, I am pretty sure I was the youngest one at the presentation. Phil raised a concern that in the midst of trying to reach the younger generation of media consumers, it is incredibly important to begin engaging them at a young age, and the age demographic of the room reflected such concern. It isn’t so much that young Asian Americans aren’t consuming media, because they sure are, but when it comes to caring about the matter and actively participating in and seeking it out, there is still much room for growth.’

Packed room at Present/Future Summit. Photo by Jain Thapa

For reasons unknown to me, I have always kept my Taiwanese identity separate from my American identity, it wasn’t until this past winter when I visited family in Taiwan and realized through my aging grandparents that I could no longer live in the States without embracing my Taiwanese self. Soon after, “Linsanity” hit the Big Apple and the globe, and for the first time ever, it became relevant to talk about Asian American presentation on national television. I have encountered so many people who feel that the conversation is long overdue, but the fact is that it has begun nonetheless. We can’t predict where Asian American Media will end up in the next few years, but these months of relevant conversations are extremely important, and I am grateful to be a part of SFIAAFF this year and participate in some of these conversations. These past few days have led me to a world I never much about, and the fact that I was able to do so through engaging myself in the film medium only adds on to its impact on me.

Chosen from a competitive pool of undergraduate and graduate students, the Student Delegates are a small but diverse group of students who undergo Festival “boot camp.” Guided by Festival staff, students participate in a rigorous schedule of film screenings, discussions, and exclusive meetings with filmmakers and special guests. The program aims to cultivate the next generation of filmmakers, activists, educators, and community leaders. See all of the 2012 Student Delegates here and their blog!

Sponsored by Southwest Airlines.

PRESENT/FUTURE

Sunday, March 11, 1-4PM
Hotel Kabuki, Sakura Room
1625 Post Street in Japantown, San Francisco
Please RSVP with Davin Agatep: dagatep@caamedia.org

FREE!

It’s undeniable. The Asian American media landscape is changing rapidly. In the past five years, a tidal wave of viewers has emerged on YouTube, watching videos made by and starring Asian Americans. These days, the most recognizable Asian American faces may no longer come from Hollywood or network shows, yet the spotlight of “success” still remains on feature films and broadcast television. We have to ask ourselves: are we still looking in the right direction?

What better way to explore this question than with a community conversation! Think one-part TED talk, one-part Townhall and we have the PRESENT/FUTURE Summit. In a fast-paced, provocative dialogue engaging today’s most interesting thinkers and creators, presentations by five featured speakers will be answered by five designated respondents and audience talk back. We’ll cover specific topics -  technology, new content production, television, socially conscious media, and exhibition – with speakers ranging from popular YouTube stars to acclaimed academic voices. The aim is to gather the best minds in the business to generate ideas and debate. There is much we can learn from each other. And there is much we can support and challenge each other on. We hope you will join us for this one-of-a-kind gathering!

Official twitter hashtag: #pfsummit

Check out our incredible line-up of participants!

Nā’ālehu Anthony, http://www.oiwi.tv / @PalikuDocFilms
Kenyatta Cheese, http://www.kenyattacheese.net / @kenyatta
Gary Chou, http://garychou.com / @garychou
Lee Ann Kim, http://www.sdaff.org / @SDAFF
Wendy Levy, http://www.tomorrowpartners.com/wendy.php / @twendywendy
Quan Phung, television producer / @quanphung
Ana Serrano, http://cfccreates.com / @acserrano
Celine Parrenas-Shimizu, http://www.asamst.ucsb.edu/people/academic/celine-parreñ-shimizu
Musa Syeed, http://musasyeed.com / @musasyeed
Wong Fu Productions, http://wongfuproductions.com / @wongfupro
Chi-hui Yang, independent curator and media professor / @chihuiyang
Shinae Yoon, www.vconline.org / @vconline
Rana Cho, www.cca.edu/academics/faculty/rcho /@ranacho

Organized by Karin Chien, http://www.dgeneratefilms.com @producerkarin

For updates and event details, please visit:

The Present/Future Summit Tumblr Blog
Present/Future Program Page

Preceding this event at Hotel Kabuki, Imperial Room A, 10am-11:30am: Ready, Set, Pitch!

The Center for Asian American Media is excited to host the first-ever READY, SET, PITCH! panel at SFIAAFF! This is a free event for the public. Join us and cheer on our competing producers as they pitch their project for a $5,000 Research and Development award to be decided by the jury.