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The 9th Annual San Diego Asian Film Festival by Alicia Glass Hosted as always at the wonderful Hazard Center Ultrastar movie theaters the 9th Annual San Diego Asian Film Festival flies back into action with the most awesome movie extravaganza around! The SDAFF usually goes for a week solid, there’s nothing new about that. But this year, apparently the popularity of the SDAFF has abounded so that they actually had a second show, up in Riverside! Congratulations to the SDAFF, for all their hard work and perseverance finally paying off! I always enjoy the heck out of the SDAFF and this years’ event was no different. I think I saw at least a dozen different films, probably considerably more than that, and here’s the movie reviews to go with them! Matter of fact, there were almost double the amount of movie-goers than last year as I saw, and even more sponsors and parties and fun! Sumptuous buffets for certain movies and events were often provided by Sushi on a Roll, L & L Hawaiian Barbeque, Tommy Bahamas, SanSai Japanese Grill, Gekkeikan, Chipotle, and Michelob Ultra, among many others!
Toyota Matrix went really crazed with the advertising they did as a sponsor this time around, they had a booth near the theater and almost every night were offering free solid keychains featuring the “monster”, free car air fresheners, free silk screening on t-shirts in choose from four different designs, and of course a different painted model of the Matrix driven in every night to look at. Presented by Crunchy Sandwich, a special feature shown at this years’ SDAFF was Artists Alley, featuring fine art in live format from up and coming Asian-American artists here in San Diego!
I actually decided to skip the celebrity panel that the SDAFF always has this year. There were just too many other movies I had to go see right at the same time! I did make a point of attending the panel called From Comics to Film, featuring Korean-American artists Jim Lee of DC fame and Greg Pak from Marvel! These panels are always quite interesting, full of insider information and fairly informal, where you can ask the artists just about anything! This year, due to financial constraints, I chose to skip the Award Ceremony and Dinner Gala. A bit disappointing, considering there was a new location for the Gala this year, the Town and Country Hotel ballroom. Regardless, here is the list of awards and their recipients: Best Animation – Meat Days directed by Joe Hsieh Special Jury Honor – Damn the Past! directed by Julie Kang Best Dramatic Narrative Short – Moon Lady directed by Wendy Cheng Best Feature Documentary – Shame directed by Mohammed Naqvi Best Narrative Feature – Santa Mesa directed by Ron Morales Grand Jury Award – Dirty Hands: The Art and Crime of David Choe directed by Harry Kim Reel In The Vote PSA Contest – Henry Ahn Lifetime Achievement Award – Soon-Tek Oh |
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