The Boston Asian American Film Festival (BAAFF), a production of the Asian American Resource Workshop (AARW), announces a provocative and entertaining program of independent cinema highlighting recent, significant works by and/or about Asian Americans and the Asian diaspora. The festival theme is Home in America, celebrating the diverse stories about how and why America is home.
This year, the festival takes place October 22 to 25, 2015 in Boston at ArtsEmerson’s Bright Family Screening Room in the Paramount Center and in Cambridge at the Brattle Theatre.
The Boston Asian American Film Festival (BAAFF) 2015 will open with a special presentation of the ‘80s teen comedy from filmmaker Benson Lee (Planet B-Boy, Battle of the Year): Seoul Searching, an official Sundance Selection, LA Film Festival Gala Presenation and winner of the CAAMFest Audience Award.
The coming-of-age film stars Justin Chon (Twilight Saga series, 21 and Over), Esteban Ahn, a.k.a Hispanic Korean musical artist Sanchobeatz from the popular YouTube channel CoreanoLoco, and features actors Uatchet Jin Juch & Nekhebet Kum Juch of Beverly, MA. Seoul Searching is a 1980s John Hughes inspired romantic teen comedy about a group of Korean misfits from around the world forced by their parents to attend a cultural propaganda camp in Seoul resulting in the best summer of their lives.
The opening film will screen at 7:30PM on Thursday, October 22nd at the Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle Street Cambridge, MA. Writer and Director Benson Lee, will be in attendance.
The festival’s centerpiece film will feature The Killing Fields of Dr. Haing S. Ngor, produced, directed, written, and edited by Oscar®-nominated and triple-Sundance award-winning filmmaker Arthur Dong (Hollywood Chinese, Forbidden City USA), The Killing Fields of Dr. Haing S. Ngor is a singular documentary on one of the most well-known survivors of the Cambodian genocide.
Arthur Dong will be present for this screening (Saturday, October 24 at 6:15pm, Paramount Center) The Boston Asian American Film Festival will close with the film Miss India America, a comedy by Ravi Kapoor, where Election and Legally Blonde meets the world of Indian-American beauty pageants. An ambitious teenager whose lifelong plans are ruined when her boyfriend falls for the reigning Miss India National beauty queen, leaving her no choice but to try to become Miss India National herself. The film is both a South Asian story, and an American story about the way we define success. Miss India America won the CAAMFest Comcast Narrative Jury Award, and LA Asian Pacific Film Festival Best Screenplay Award. Meera Simhan, writer, creative producer, and actress; whose one-woman stage show, Miss India America, provided the basis for the film, will also be in attendance (Sunday, October 25 at 5pm, Paramount Center).
Photography opportunities will take place prior to each screening, and following the screening there will be a conversation/Q&A with film talent in attendance.
For more information visit: www.baaff.org or www.facebook.com/baaff
THE BOSTON ASIAN AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL SCHEDULE:
Thursday, October 22
7:30 PM Seoul Searching [Opening Night Film] @Brattle Theatre, Harvard Square
Friday, October 23
7:00 PM My Life in China 9:00 PM Shorts: Redefining Home (7 Shorts) East of Hollywood / D. Asian / My Hot Mom Gandhi / My Sister Swallowed the Zoo / The Same / Next Like / Distance Between
Saturday, October 24
12:00 PM FREE Panel: Asian Americans and New Media @ Wolff Auditorium, Tufts Medical Center 1:30 PM Help Us Find Sunil Tripathi 4:00 PM Shorts: Queer at Home (7 Shorts)
Dol / Paper Wrap Fire / Ordinary Family / FU377 / Coming
Home / Draft Day / Brokeback that Ass Up
6:15 PM The Killing Fields of Dr. Haing S. Ngor
[Centerpiece Film] 9:00 PM Crush the Skull
Sunday, October 25
1:00 PM Shorts: Home in America (6 Shorts)
Closeness / Leadway / Giap’s Last Day at the Ironing Board
Factory / Fall Seven Times, Get Up Eight) / El Chino
3:00 PM Off the Menu / Preceded by Sugarless Tea
5:00 PM Miss India America [Closing Night Film]
