2022 Festival Schedule Announced For BOSTON ASIAN AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL

ArtsEmerson, Boston's leading presenter of contemporary world theater and film and the professional presenting and producing organization of Emerson College, recently announced the film schedule for Boston Asian American Film Festival (BAAFF).

The festival will run October 20 - 23, 2022 in person with an extended streaming period for the virtual shorts programs from October 21 - 31, 2022. All in person events will be held at the Emerson Paramount Center except for Opening Night which will be held at the Brattle Theatre. BAAFF builds community and empowers Asian Americans through film by showcasing Asian American experiences and serving as a resource to filmmakers and the Greater Boston Community.

This year, BAAFF will present twelve film presentations that include both live and recorded filmmaker Q&A's as well as five Shorts programs which includes the popular Queer & Here series. The features program includes opener Tom Huang's Dealing with Dad with Huang in attendance for an in-person Q&A at the Brattle Theatre, Deann Borshay Liem's moving documentary feature Crossings, the four shorts film Centerpiece program "Boston Chinatown Artivism" featuring films Arts, Community & Boston Chinatown; Dear Corky; Convergent Waves: Boston; and Wise Words from an Old Friend and closing night film Bad Axe-which will also have a screening in Lowell, MA on Saturday, October 22 as part of the inaugural Lowell Asian American Film Festival, with filmmaker Daid Siev and his parents.

The five shorts programs for the festival are "Here I Am", "Queer & Here", "Looking Back, Moving Forward", "After Dark", and "Family Ties".

"This year's festival reflects our adaptation to a COVID world, with offerings both in-person and online, and themes reflective of the diversity of Asian American experiences today," says BAAFF director Susan Chinsen. "We are excited to open with humor and heart in Dealing With Dad and Reyna, and close with a moving time capsule of life during COVID in Bad Axe."

Tickets range from $10-$15 for each feature film or shorts program and may be purchased 24/7 at ArtsEmerson.org, or by calling 617-824-8400 (Tue-Sat from 12:00PM ET - 6:00PM ET). The Paramount Center Box Office (559 Washington Street, Boston) is open for walk-up service Thu-Sat from Noon - 6:00 PM ET. (Tickets for Opening Night are $15 and can be purchased HERE).

BAAFF FESTIVAL SCHEDULE - FEATURE FILMS

Dealing with Dad (preceded by Reyna)

OPENING NIGHT FILM - Narrative

Directed by Tom Huang

$15 | 106 minutes

Thursday, October 20 at 7:00PM ET

at the Brattle Theatre

LIVE Q&A with filmmaker Tom Huang

Synopsis: MARGARET CHANG is rocked from her perfect alpha-mom-corporate-manager life when she has to go back to her hometown to deal with her overbearing dad, JIALUO. Her dad is kind of an outspoken jerk but is now despondent and won't leave the house. Since she can't deal with her parents by herself, she drags along her older sad sack brother, ROY to help her. When they arrive to their childhood home, they discover that their mom SOPHIE (equally overbearing) and youngest angry comic book nerd brother LARRY (still living with parents) are happy with this situation... as it turns out, their dad is much more pleasant depressed than well. The siblings struggle to deal with his depression, and wonder if it's even worth getting him better. In the meantime, they reconnect as a family by bickering and reminiscing about the bad times with Dad, discovering that their familial bond is stronger than they ever realized.

Reyna

Animated

Directed by Jenielle Ramos Salarda

5 minutes

Synopsis: Reyna is a 2D animated short film about Vina, this year's lead Queen in the Santacruzan festival, who struggles to get ready after members in the community make negative comments about her appearance. Joy, Vina's supportive sister, helps her to get ready and encourages Vina to embrace herself as she is by discussing the historical context and origin of these harmful comments before leading the festivities.

Crossings

Documentary

Directed by Deann Borshay Liem

$12 | 94 minutes

Friday, October 21 at 5:30PM ET

at the Emerson Paramount Center Bright Family Screening Room

LIVE Q&A with filmmaker Deann Borshay Liem

Synopsis: In CROSSINGS, a group of international women peacemakers sets out on a risky journey across the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea, calling for an end to a 70-year war that has divided the Korean peninsula and its people. The groundbreaking mission of Women Cross DMZ is captured in an intimate cinema vérité style, framed with historic newsreels of the Korean War and punctuated with dramatic contemporary news coverage. Undeterred, Women Cross DMZ expands their global campaign to educate and advocate for a peace treaty. Thousands join worldwide as they forge a path with their Korean sisters toward peace and reconciliation.

Dawning (preceded by A Father's Son)

Narrative

Directed by Young Min Kim

$12 | 75 minutes

Friday, October 21 at 8:30PM ET

at the Emerson Paramount Center Bright Family Screening Room

Synopsis: A trauma therapist, Haejin Park, is forced to face her family's darkest past after she returns to her childhood countryside-farm to console her heartbroken younger sister. During Haejin's visit, the family farm's familiarity and haunting past begins to conjure up the trauma that she had repressed for years. A Korean-English spoken drama/psychological thriller that explores mental health, family trauma, abuse and familial responsibilities.

A Father's Son

Narrative

Directed by Patrick Chen

28 minutes

Synopsis: A story-spinoff based on author Henry Chang's crime novel series of NYPD Detective Jack Yu. Set in the early '90s when local street gangs terrorized Manhattan's Chinatown, our story centers on Jack Yu investigating the murder of a teenage boy involved in a turf war. Amidst the broad distrust and racial divide between the Chinatown community and NYPD, our lone lawman searches for a nondescript immigrant family to deliver a shattering message that also brings forth his own conflicted relationship with Jack's father.

LIVE Q&A with filmmakers Young Min Kim and Patrick Chen

BOSTON CHINATOWN ARTIVISM

Four Short Films - CENTERPIECE

$15

Saturday, October 22 at 2:00PM ET

at the Emerson Paramount Center Bright Family Screening Room

LIVE Q&A with all four filmmakers

Arts, Community & Boston Chinatown

Documentary

Directed by Xinyan Fu

17 minutes

Synopsis: A documentary about community artists who use their platforms and projects to uplift Chinatown community voices and Asian American experiences in the Greater Boston area.

Dear Corky

Documentary

Directed by Curtis Chin

Produced by BAAFF alum Kenneth Eng

17 minutes

Synopsis: Documentary short on famed street photographer, Corky Lee, who recently passed away from COVID. Over the course of fifty years, he covered the most important events in Asian American history, including issues of hate crimes.

Convergent Waves: Boston

Experimental Art

Directed by Lenora Lee

52 minutes

Synopsis: "Convergent Waves: Boston" by Lenora Lee Dance, in collaboration with Pao Arts Center, celebrates the contributions of activists and non-profit leaders, reclaiming space by eliciting stories of community agency, resilience, and transformation. Inspired by rich narrative, this work represents a powerful call for community oriented development in the face of rapid change, making a collective statement for the preservation of community as neighborhoods across the country inhabited for generations face cultural erosion, loss of businesses, and displacement through gentrification. "Convergent Waves: Boston" highlights successes in preserving the cultural fabric and accomplishments of these communities.

Wise Words from an Old Friend

Documentary

Directed by Kenneth Eng

4 minutes

Synopsis: Our old friend Tunney Lee offers words of advice for the next generation.

In Search of Bengali Harlem

Documentary

Directed by Vivek Bald & Alaudin Ullah

$12 | 85 minutes

Saturday, October 22 at 5:30PM ET

at the Emerson Paramount Center Bright Family Screening Room

LIVE Q&A with filmmaker Vivek Bald and Alaudin Ullah

Synopsis: As a teenager in 1980s Harlem, Alaudin Ullah was swept up in the revolutionary energy of early hip-hop. He rejected his working-class Bangladeshi parents and turned his back on everything South Asian and Muslim. Now, as an actor and playwright in post-9/11 America, Alaudin wants to tell his parents' stories, but has no idea of the lives they led as Muslim immigrants of an earlier era. In Search of Bengali Harlem follows Ullah from the streets of New York City to the villages of Bangladesh to uncover the pasts of his father, Habib, and mother, Mohima. Alaudin discovers that Habib was part of a rich lost history of mid-20th century Harlem, in which Bengali Muslim men, dodging racist Asian Exclusion laws, married into New York's African American and Puerto Rican communities.

QUEER & HERE SHORTS PROGRAM

$12 | 79 minutes

Saturday, October 22 at 8:30PM ET

at the Emerson Paramount Center Bright Family Screening Room

A staple every BAAFF season, Queer and Here is self-expression and identity beyond orientation.

Featuring:

Hotter Up Close - Directed by Leland Montgomery

Skin Can Breathe - Directed by Chheangkea Ieng

Danse Macabre - Directed by Randal Lee Kamradt, Maria Luna Kamradt

Maneki - Directed by Brandon Okumura

I Can't Forget Him - Directed by Kevin Kai Wing Yiu

All I Want is Everything- Directed by Allie Cuerdo

This Shorts Program will be included as a virtual offering from October 21 - 31, 2022 as well at ArtsEmerson.org.

Golden Delicious

Narrative

Directed by Jason Karman

$12 | 120 minutes

Sunday, October 23 at 2:00PM ET

at the Emerson Paramount Center Bright Family Screening Room

LIVE Virtual Q&A with filmmaker Jason Karman

Synopsis: When basketball-obsessed Aleks moves in across the street, Asian-Canadian teen Jake finds himself trying out for the basketball team to get his attention in this classic coming-of-age drama set in the digital age.

LIVE Virtual Q&A with filmmaker Jason Karman

Bad Axe

CLOSING NIGHT FILM - Documentary

Directed by David Siev

$15 | 100 minutes

Sunday, October 23 at 5:30PM ET

at the Emerson Paramount Center Bright Family Screening Room

LIVE Q&A with filmmaker David Siev, and parents Chun & Rachel Siev

Synopsis: After leaving NYC for his rural hometown of Bad Axe, MI at the start of the pandemic, an Asian-American filmmaker documents his family's struggles to keep their restaurant open. As fears of the virus grow, deep generational scars dating back to the Cambodian Killing Fields unearth between the family's patriarch, Chun, and his daughter, Jaclyn. When the BLM movement takes center stage in America, the family uses their voice to speak out in their town where Trumpism runs deep. What unfolds is a real-time portrait of 2020 through the lens of this multicultural family's fight to keep their American dream alive in the face of a pandemic, Neo-Nazis, and the trauma of having survived a genocide.

BAAFF FESTIVAL SCHEDULE - SHORTS PROGRAM

All Shorts Programs are streaming virtually October 21 - 31, 2022 at artsemerson.org at ArtsEmerson.org and tickets cost $12.

HERE I AM - Shorts Program

Navigating through childhood innocence to teenage angst to adulthood responsibilities, these series of shorts explore the journey to self-expression and self-discovery.

74 minutes

Featuring:

Reyna

DEFY

Found

w(ho)

de Closin Night

SUBSCRIBE/FOLLOW

Gem & Shaz

AFTER DARK - Shorts Program

Filmmakers show us their vision of what our malleable realities can become and what possibilities we may evoke. After Dark sets no barriers as it takes a look at the dark side of those realities.

74 min

Featuring:

Mental Health Girls

Eyes on Me

Big Trouble in Little America

The Phoenix

Biased

A Father's Son

FAMILY TIES - Shorts Program

Family Ties is a family friendly exploration that traverses continents, languages, and cultures to connect us all.

71 minutes

Featuring:

A Lonely Afternoon

Power Forward

Joss Lotuses to Grandma

My Mother's Daughter

Gai Mou Sou Rap

Super Duper

JOOK

Wei Lai

LOOKING BACK, MOVING FORWARD - Shorts Program

The past informs our future. Take a look back through the lens of both short documentaries and narrative dramas as we contemplate tomorrow's potential.

78 minutes

Featuring:

The Fourth March

Ka-hoi: The Return

EUREKA

1992

MINK!

The Boston Asian American Film Festival (BAAFF) empowers Asian Americans through film by showcasing Asian American experiences and serving as a resource to filmmakers and the Greater Boston Community. BAAFF is a production of the Asian American Resource Workshop. BAAFF.org

The Asian American Resource Workshop (AARW) is a political home for pan-Asian communities in Greater Boston. We are a member-led organization committed to building grassroots power through political education, creative expression, and issue-based and neighborhood organizing. AARW.org

ArtsEmerson is the professional presenting and producing organization at Emerson College, and its mission is to bring people together to experience powerful performances that delight, provoke, and inspire, celebrating both our differences and common humanity. Founded in 2010 by Robert J. Orchard - the year the U.S. Census confirmed there was no single cultural majority in Boston - ArtsEmerson is committed to building a cultural institution that reflects the diversity of our city. Our imaginative and globe-spanning live and virtual performances, films, and conversations invites each of us to be part of a Boston that is more creative, equitable, and connected. ArtsEmerson is led by Executive Director, David Howse. For more information visit ArtsEmerson.org.

ArtsEmerson and HowlRound Theatre Commons both operate from within the Emerson College Office of the Arts. Based in Boston, Massachusetts, opposite the historic Boston Common and in the heart of the city's Theater District, Emerson College educates individuals who will solve problems and change the world through engaged leadership in communication and the arts, a mission informed by liberal learning. The College has 3,700 undergraduates and 1,400 graduate students from across the United States and 50 countries. Supported by state-of-the-art facilities and a renowned faculty, students participate in more than 90 student organizations and performance groups. Emerson is known for its experiential learning programs in Los Angeles, Washington, DC, the Netherlands, London, China, and the Czech Republic as well as its new Global Portals. The College has an active network of 51,000 alumni who hold leadership positions in communication and the arts. For more information, visit Emerson.edu.

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