Category: Manhattan

An AAIFF Follow Up

Asian American Int’l Film Festival in NYC:

Thursday – missed seeing “Paper Heart.” 🙁 It got sold out.

Friday – 72 Hour Shootout – on YouTube. The Asian American Film Lab announced the Top Ten. (with a cross-posting by Angry Asian Man).

The winner:

“Time’s [Not] Up” – I liked it. Poignant.

Number Two was “Grace and the Staten Island Fairy” – I really liked it. But, I’m a sucker for funny and crisp looking films.

“Just a Burger” was fourth, but hilarious.

Later, I might post more on the ones I watched that didn’t make top 10. The screening was at the renovated MoCA – well, during the soft opening anyway. I like that the space is so spacious!

Saturday – as noted, I watched “Karma Calling” and “You Don’t Know Jack“.

“Karma Calling” was fun – The Raj family of Hoboken deals with this thing called “life.” The eldest daughter falls for this outsourced call center operator – played by Samrat Chakrabarti (who I enjoyed seeing in last year’s “Kissing Cousins” – what an actor to switch accents!), who tells her that he’s from Connecticut (rather than several thousand miles away in India). The brother falls for a girl who came all the way from India to marry the 99 cent store owner. The baby of the family wants a bat mitzvah. And, the elephant god Ganesh is voiced by the guy from The Sopranos (Tony Sirico; “G” apparently has a NJ accent because he’s in Hoboken). I like romantic comedies, with a touch of fantasy. I also liked the Q&A afterward, where the director Sarba Das talked about how she was inspired to make a movie that touched on Asian America (and her love of 1980’s movies).

“You Don’t Know Jack” – filmmaker Jeff Adachi (who previously made “The Slanted Screen” about Asian American actors) on Jack Soo, a pioneer – and to think I barely remember the guy as the Asian one in the Barney Miller series. They don’t make actors like Soo (or tv series like Barney Miller for that matter). During the Q&A, Adachi touched on how it was difficult to get the info, but it certainly seemed worth it. Adachi also mentioned his other life – that of being Public Defender in San Francisco. Lawyers and their creative sides – wow.

Sunday – saw “Pastry” – a young woman’s love of egg custard tarts – the dan taat – and how it revolves around her family life and her love life. I thought the movie started strong – but thought it end was a little different than the amused tone at the beginning seemed to suggest about the movie.

Wanted to see “Fruit Fly” (its own website)(because I’m a sucker for musical comedies), but didn’t get to see it. I think FC did?

Winners of AAIFF announced – documentary “Whatever It Takes” (its own website) won Audience Choice; hmm, maybe I’ll catch it another time.

Pretty enjoyable, even though AAIFF seemed quieter than previously (recession seems to be affecting a lot of non-profits); still I’m glad to have been a part of it.

A Very Merry AAIFF Weekend in July

Stand on the Soapbox time: I read this Michael Daly column in the (dead tree) Daily News newspaper. He made good points: NYC is not South Dakota, nor should we apologize for having some questions for people who carry concealed weapons (for instance – why is your weapon concealed? Are you up to something other than to defend yourself? And, even if you’re defending yourself, do you really want to leave yourself liable for other possible causes of action?…).

As we’re past the half-way point of 2009, it’s good to note that apparently, year 2009 is good for something – especially for being the year to remember everything that happened in 1969 (what a year that was).

Fascinating item: Thought this was a good read – even as California’s trying to deal with the budget problems, at least they take the opportunity to apologize for past racist laws against Chinese Americans. I kind of applaud that they’re acknowledging past wrongs, and that this can be a teachable moment than anything else (the article notes that too). We might not see the US Government apologize for the Exclusion Act, but you never know.

It’s that time of year again – Asian American International Film Festival! I had really enjoyed it last year indeed. Plus, FC – who had participated in past 72 Hour Shootouts (see here for example) – invited me to help with writing the dialog for the latest entry – Team Triscribe’s own five minute film! Theme: Time’s Up. I think we did a great job – especially kudos to FC, YKC (they acted and wrote, and FC did much blood, sweat and stuff), and AS (who did a hilarious voiceover, I thought). We did not win, but – hey, cool! – two scenes of FC and YKC ended up in the 72 Hour Shootout trailer! (ok, I can’t find a link or an on-line version of the trailer, but we saw it on Friday, honest!).

Saturday – I saw two movies at AAIFF – Karma Calling and You Don’t Know Jack. I’ll say more on another post; suffice to say for the time being: they were both excellent.

Some great articles and pictures of the High Line, inspired me to check it out on Saturday, after I enjoyed the AAIFF movies. Here from NY Times – a great article on how the public reaction is going well so far; and this NY Times slide show by Bill Cunningham, on the fashion on the High Line (so true, so far as I could tell when I was walking along the High Line), and the video from Time magazine’s Richard Lacayo interviewing the architect Ricardo Scofidio – which was so great:

I’ll see if I’ll post pictures. I took a lot of pictures, but I’m not quite sure how well they turned out (there was haze and humidity to some extent).

More AAIFF on Sunday.

Mid-July Stuff

Okay, I’m slightly behind, but as far as I’m concerned, it’s still the 40th Anniversary of Apollo 11 and the moon landing. Great Time article about the astronauts.

Saw “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” on Sunday at the Cobble Hill theater. It was a decent adaptation. It’s not going to satisfy everybody, but it was good enough. (well, I had mixed feelings about the book in the first place, which was sad and left me really unsure about Dumbledore).

Alan Rickman – he was priceless as ever as Prof. Snape (but was barely on-screen). Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter is improving his acting chops – and I think he and Rupert Grint as Ron Weasley could be the future Hugh Dancy or Hugh Grant, if they dare want to pursue romantic comedies (which I wouldn’t necessarily recommend if they do want to go down that route of a British acting career; they might want to consult with Damian Lewis or the current King of British actors in America, Hugh Laurie). Emma Watson as Hermione Granger was also very solid. I liked Michael Gambon – I kind of resented what Dumbledore did in Book 6, but Gambon played the humanity of Dumbledore very well. (and if you’re looking for the great tragedy of Book 6 to be exactly in the movie – well, don’t. Just don’t do it; adaptations are just that: they’re adaptations).

I did enjoy the trailer for the Sherlock Holmes movie with Robert Downey, Jr., as Holmes. It just looked really good – even if it might not be a great movie, it looks like silly fun (well, okay, I am fond of silly Holmes movies – now there are tons of adaptations of that stuff!). Guess we got to wait until Christmas for this one.

The passing of Frank McCourt, author of “Angela’s Ashes” – and a memorable teacher who wrote (or writer who taught) – with a lasting impact for what he did for others.