Festival:
The 40th Asian American International Film Festival
Dates:
July 26-August 5
About:
The first and longest-running Asian/Asian American fest presents more than 25 new features – docs making up half that number.
Among the nonfiction offerings at the anniversary event are the world premiere of Lucy Ostrander and Don Sellers’ PROOF OF LOYALTY: KAZUO YAMANE AND THE NISEI SOLDIERS OF HAWAII (pictured), an exploration of the Japanese-American experience in wartime Hawaii; the international premiere of Matthew Root and Neil George’s AFTER THE SEWOL, a look at Korean society in the wake of a tragic ferry accident; and the US premiere of Wan-Jo Wang’s A FOLEY ARTIST, a profile of Taiwan’s master film sound effects specialist.
New York City premieres include Jeff Chiba Stearns’ MIXED MATCH, about the particular challenges mixed-race cancer patients have to find donors; Alejandro Yoshizawa’s ALL OUR FATHER’S RELATIONS (pictured), which follows siblings as they make sense of their mixed Asian and Canadian First Nations heritage; and Shikha Makan’s BACHELOR GIRLS, on the stigma faced by unmarried young women in India.
what (not) to doc 