Only a few days left until AAAFF 2021 comes to a close. ICYMI: Our short programs are free or by donations. This year we had 10 documentary shorts and 20 narrative shorts spanning from many different countries. Take a look at our shorts guide here and look no further than this post to get to know our filmmakers better. Explore more about the people behind our narrative selections:
HELLO FROM TAIWAN
After a year of separation, a young Taiwanese American girl and her mom struggle to reconnect with her dad and two older sisters across familial and cultural divides.
What connections do you want the audience to make with your film?
Tiffany Frances, Director: I wrote a single scene from one of my earliest childhood memories, when I re-met my sisters and dad at the San Jose Airport after a year of being separated from them. I was so young that I only vaguely remembered them, and we could only say the words “hi” and “hello” to each other, because they had gotten used to speaking Mandarin. Then my dad passed away a few years ago, and I felt a drive to explore who my parents were, even before I was born. The story evolved to something I desired to see on screen because I felt strongly other people could relate to this too. I really wanted to capture a specific immigrant experience but also the struggles we all had within my family, even in different ways. As minorities in the US, there was an additional layer through our upbringing and as a family going through a divorce.
LUCY DREAMS
A woman experiments with lucid dreaming to find her missing daughter.
What inspired you to make this film?
Elaine Chu, Director: I spent a month Sheltering in Place in a home with a long, creepy hallway that gave me nightmares at night. I channeled this anxiety into my writing. Eventually the idea of Lucy Dreams came to me while I was searching for relaxing music, and I stumbled upon some music for lucid dreaming.
IKAW AT AKO (YOU AND I)
Marco and Elisa meet for one night in Los Angeles after not seeing each other for over twenty years, sparking dormant feelings they never confronted in their youth.
What inspired you to make this film?
Melanie Lim, Director:Second chances are rare. For most of the things we regret, there's a prepared script in our heads that we've rehearsed over and over just in case we're given the opportunity to redeem ourselves. Ikaw at Ako is dedicated to anyone who hopes for a final encounter with the love they let slip through their fingers.
BLUE SUIT
When a surprise party interrupts his plans, an anxious man has to find a private moment to confess his feelings for his friend before he moves away the next day.
How do you personally connect with Asian/Asian American culture?
Kevin J. Nguyễn, Writer & Director: I'm a Vietnamese son of immigrants. Every part of who I am has been informed by Asian culture. It's personally important to me to continue to uphold the values and experiences that my ancestors have laid the foundation for while building on top of it with my own story being Asian American.
UNPOT
A woman with Alzheimer's disease describes her last day before she is sent to a nursing home. For her children and others around her, she is a problematic old lady, but she has her own world and her last desires.
Why did you decide to submit to AAAFF?
Huieun Park, Director: Back in 2015, I met some staff from AAAFF when I visited Austin for the screening of my film, Two Lunes, at the Austin Film Festival. I had a great time with them and that experience made me want to become a part of the AAAFF community.
SIXTEEN
Yaejin Kim lives in a gauzy, hormonal daydream, dilly-dallying on the streets and in the sheets, with her boyfriend Wes However as their one year anniversary looms, things crumble into chaos.
How do you personally connect with Asian/Asian American culture?
Nahyeon Lee, Director: I personally feel a lot of strain with my Korean heritage. I grew up in Aotearoa/ New Zealand for the majority of my life, and my relationship has been in constant flux. There are areas that I adore, like the food and pop culture, but elements like language and conservative and filial world views that I struggle with. This film is an exploration of my experiences growing up in New Zealand as a Korean teenager.
PARABOLA
Makoto, a Japanese American single mother struggles to reconcile with her estranged father, Musashi, following his recent release from prison. But Musashi's former life as an enforcer for the Yakuza casts a long shadow over both their lives and history has a way of repeating itself.
What inspired you to make this film?
Lee Shorten, Writer/Director: We’ve often seen the Yakuza in American films but they’re usually one dimensional villains. I grew up watching a lot of Italian American Crime Dramas and the characters were always so rich and complex so I wanted to humanize Asian American crime families in a similar way. I also wanted to give Mayumi Yoshida and Hiro Kanagawa a chance to explore roles they don’t usually get to, to play against type or in Hiro’s case subvert his body of work.
OUT OF ORDER
When a man awakens, hungover, in a hotel room and realizes he cheated during a drunken night, a sinister stairwell forces him to tell the truth or risk everything.
What are your hopes for the future of Asian/Asian American cinema?
Trevor Zhou, Director/Writer/Actor: I hope Asian cinema continues to be recognized on the world stage. I hope that Asian American cinema will be as celebrated and visible as white cinema. I see both pushing the boundaries of the art form and confront the rigidity of Hollywood.
THE UNSEEN RIVER
Stories told along the river: a woman reunites with her ex-lover at a hydroelectric plant; meanwhile, a young man travels downstream to a temple in search of a cure for his insomnia.
What inspired you to make this film?
Phạm Ngọc Lân, Director: The Unseen River examines the metaphorical connection between the Mekong River, time, and sleep: In various art forms, the river is often compared to the flow of time. In that way, the characters’ journeys downstream and upstream are metaphors for their journey through time. In this short film, MRS. NGUYỆN travels upstream to visit her former place of work (an old hydroelectric plant). Based on the reading above, her journey can be understood as moving backward through time to an event in the past that shaped her subsequent life, just like how the hydroelectric dam blocked and redirected the river. In the other storyline: a young couple – THỰC and his GIRLFRIEND, in the same way, travels to the future in search of a cure for a present ailment (insomnia). An absurd and illogical choice of youth, but just as one character says: the worst thing about not being able to sleep is not being able to dream. And without dreams, it’s difficult to see the past and feel the touch of the future.
FAR FROM ABROAD
A young woman from Korea struggles to settle down in her new home in Germany due to her lacking language skills. When she befriends a Korean-German woman she sees a way to escape her helplessness and loneliness. But her new friend doesn't seem to be as helpful as she pretends to be...
What connections do you want the audience to make with your film?
Hyung-Guhn "Hugo" Yi, Writer/Director: I hope that I can connect with the people who are going through exactly the same situation like the protagonist in my short film, telling them that they are not alone in their struggles. I also want to create an awareness to be patient and sympathetic to the people trying to assimilate in a foreign country.
FITNESS! or a story about SWEAT
A titillating spiritual comedy about seeking your joyful, deepest nature through technology, human connection...and sweat.
What inspired you to make this film?
Kana Hatakeyama,Writer/Director/Producer/Actor: The initial inspiration came from a day at the gym where it was a particular vibe and I couldn't stop giggling at all the different sounds people were making as they were working out, especially the men lifting the heavy weights, because they all sounded very sexual and it was everywhere, so I saw comedic potential there. Then I thought about how the trainer-client dynamic can be so interesting, depending on both the trainer's style and the client's needs, as well as the chemistry between them, and from there, I started thinking about modern American culture around fitness, how often times it becomes part of one's identity/brand, posting about workouts/diets/progress on social media, this crafting of our image on social media depending on what we want to project to other people, how much time everyone spends on these apps and how they are used (successfully or not) as attempts to fulfill certain needs, how sometimes more time spent on these apps can lead us further from ourselves and fulfillment and joy, and on and on, until all the pieces came together to explore these ideas in the weird way that I wanted to.
SORRY FOR THE INCONVENIENCE
In Los Angeles Chinatown, a lonely teenager tries to help her parents keep their seafood restaurant afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic. Between chopping green beans and packing takeout orders, she attempts to hang on to a semblance of normalcy by studying for her driver’s permit and prepping for her high school Zoom theater debut in “The Tempest”.
How do you personally connect with Asian/Asian American culture?
Jane Chow, Director: I was born and raised in Hong Kong, and my family is Cantonese. Now that I live in Los Angeles, I love spending time in places like Chinatown and the San Gabriel Valley, where I get to speak Cantonese and eat my favorite foods from home. I feel like I have a foot in both Hong Kong and Asian American culture, and I’m passionate about figuring out how best to serve these communities in my work and daily life.
SURVIVAL
Min Xian, a young pop idol, goes back to her hometown when her career is stalled by a scandal suddenly. However, she finds her fear does not lose at all.
What connections do you want the audience to make with your film?
Manyu Yang, Director: To some extent, idol culture makes idol's lose their freedom. It is a product of Asian culture and capitalism. I wish the audience could think about how they control people in modern times.
A PERIOD PIECE
Geetha, a control and order loving Indian-American woman, finally has sex with Vehd one afternoon but things quickly turn messy when period blood stains her pristine couch and a fight erupts mid-coitus, causing her pent-up feelings to spill over.
What are your hopes for the future of Asian/Asian American cinema?
Shuchi Talat,i Director/Writer: I want Asian and Asian American filmmakers to be allowed to tell many more stories that are not just about our identity. I want us to be able to make films that are simply about love, grief, disillusionment, envy. As an Indian woman filmmaker especially, I want the freedom to tell stories that are not just about our oppression.
LATA
Follow the life of a 22 year old domestic worker as she navigates her way through an upper class home in South Mumbai.
What is your film about?
Alisha Tejpal, Director/Co-Writer/Editor: LATA follows a 23 year old domestic worker as she navigates her way through an upper class home in South Mumbai. Doors consistently open and close, giving Lata selective access to the various contending realities that occupy this space. The film establishes an architectural blueprint of the ways in which space divides and restricts access. Lata quietly navigates these divides asserting her own, often unnoticed, agency.
BECOMING WATER
During her holidays, a girl saves a panda and takes care of the family's prayer shrine when she notices that a Buddha figure has disappeared.
What inspired you to make this film?
Claudia Tuyết Scheffel, Director/Writer/Producer: The Vietnamese language is influenced by the Confucian system. These hierarchies are reflected in everyday terms. For example, in a hetero-relationship, the woman is commonly referred to as the "younger" - and therefore lower in rank, while the man - regardless of his natural age - is considered the "elder". That was my first impulse when I built up the story around a girl who falls in love with a younger boy.
EXCUSE ME, MISS, MISS, MISS
Vangie, a miserable contractual sales lady, is about to lose her job. But in her desperate attempt to convince her boss not to sack her, Vangie uncovers the ultimate jaw-dropping secret to regularization.
What are your hopes for the future of Asian/Asian American cinema?
Sonny Calvento, Director: I hope it continues to flourish in all directions, but particularly in the independent space, where we're not trying to replicate tired, generic stories but rather introduce audiences to new perspectives, new ideas, and new ways of storytelling. Our cinema should be as diverse and as complicated as we are.
Watch these short films for free by signing up here.. As a reminder, you still also have time to catch feature films in our virtual festival or attend one of our upcoming outdoor/drive-in screenings. Tickets and more info here.
