CAAM 2016 Open House Welcomed Sponsors and Members

Festival Director Masashi Niwano shows a clip from TYRUS, CAAMFest 2016's Opening Night film directed by Pamela Tom. Photo by Leanne Koh.
Twelve years ago, CAAM and our anchor partners, Frameline and Jewish Film Institute, mounted a capital campaign that allowed us to purchase and renovate the building. Ninth Street today is a home for independent media arts and is a national model.

Last Wednesday, we invited CAAM sponsors and members to an Open House at our office in San Francisco.

CAAM is one of the anchor owners of the Ninth Street Independent Film Center, which houses a dozen organizations, mostly independent media nonprofits. As attendees arrived, they were treated to small bites from Pampalasa, a Filipino restaurant nearby. Executive Director Stephen Gong welcomed folks and our staff began office tours on the third floor. They then stopped on the second floor to see our Memories to Light: Asian American Home Movies initiative and our new digital scanner in action. Afterwards, guests headed back downstairs to our screening room and to watch a sneak peek clip from TYRUS, our Opening Night documentary about the incredible life of 105 year-old artist Tyrus Wong.

We receive great comments and questions about our work, our building, CAAMFeast, home movies and digital scanning, and the upcoming CAAMFest. Attendees also had a chance to purchase CAAMFest Opening Night and CAAMFeast tickets directly from our box office that evening.

Tickets for CAAMFeast, TYRUS (Opening Night) + Gala, Daze of Justice (Centerpiece Documentary) and A tale of Two Cities (Centerpiece Narrative) are now available for advanced purchase on our website.

In addition, we shared some fun facts about CAAM:

IMG_8075
The Founding Conference poster from UC Berkeley is framed in our lobby.

How old is CAAM? (Read about our history here).
CAAM is 36 years old and we were founded in 1980.

When did the festival start?
1982. It is formerly known as the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival. The festival is 34 years old. A tribute installation to James T. Yee, Janice Sakamoto, Loni Ding, founders of CAAM in our 3rd floor lobby.

How long have you been in the Ninth Street Independent Film Center?
Twelve years ago, CAAM and our anchor partners, Frameline and Jewish Film Institute, mounted a capital campaign that allowed us to purchase and renovate this building. Ninth Street is a home for media arts and is a national model.

How many tenants are in the Ninth Street Independent Film Center now?
There are 11 organizations, majority of which are media arts nonprofits, like the Silent Film Festival, Green Film Festival, Jewish Film Institute and Frameline.

What is CAAMFeast?
The 3rd annual CAAMFeast is our Asian American culinary awards event. It takes place on March 5, 2016 from 6-9pm at One Kearny Club in downtown SF. This year we are honoring 3 generations of Chinese American cuisine– Cecilia Chiang, George Chen and Brandon Jew. Event details: http://caamedia.org/caamfeast-awards-stories-food-you/

When is CAAMFest?
March 10-20, 2016

How many films or programs are you showing?
Over 100 films, panels and events

How many people come to CAAMFest?
28,000 each year

When are you announcing the films?
On Feb 11th, the full schedule will be online at caamedia.org. Tonight, you can sign up for CAAM Connect, our e-newsletter,  and you’ll receive the latest information.

Tags from the story
, ,