Seattle Asian American Film Festival

Origins The Seattle Asian American Film Festival was founded in 1985 by KingStreet Media, a community-based Asian American media production and advocacy group based in Seattle's International District. Kingstreet Media was an offshoot of the International Examiner newspaper as almost all its members were either photographers, writers or graphic artists for the paper. The festival came about after the group helped complete "Beacon Hill Boys" - the first ever dramatic film about Asian American youth. The film had caused a sensation locally when it premiered a few months earlier, had been nominated for a student Academy Award, and was beginning to make the festival rounds nationally and internationally. Capitalizing on the film's success and looking to expand their commitment to raising the profile of Asian American cinema the group put together the city's first all Asian American film festival. To emphasize recent breakthroughs in Asian American filmmaking, which up until that time had been almost completely dominated by documentary work, the festival featured programs made up entirely of narrative films (dramas, comedies, etc.). In addition to "Beacon Hill Boys," the line-up included Wayne Wang's acclaimed sleeper hit "Chan Is Missing," Visual Communications' historical epic "Hito Hata: Raise The Banner," Stephen Ning's coming-of-age tale "Freckled Rice," Robert Nakamura's multi-ethnic comedy "Fool's Dance," and Steven Okazaki's mother/daughter profile "The Only Language She Knows" among others. The festival was held at Seattle's historic Nippon Kan Theater with the International Examiner acting as media sponsor. The festival's founders and staff included Dean Wong, William Satake Blauvelt, Sumi Hayashi, Dean Hayasaka, Ken Mochizuki, Jeff Hanada, Greg Tuai, and Jesse Reyes. 2012–2013 revival After the festival concluded in 2007 and took a five-year hiatus, the festival was revived under its original name of the "Seattle Asian American Film Festival" in 2012–2013. Former director Wes Kim still serves as an Advisor on the Festival. ==2013 inaugural festival==

The inaugural 2013 film festival featured Eliachi Kimaro's documentary A Lot Like You as Opening Night film (the film also won Best Documentary at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, and was a Top 10 Audience Choice Award at the Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF)). The festival also featured a short film program entitled Cinematropolis curated by Seattle-based hip hop group Blue Scholars, and named after their album of the same name. Other films included a film written and produced by Yuji Okumoto and directed by Blaine Ludy entitled Out, and Andrew Ahn's Dol (First Birthday) (Official Selection of the 2012 Sundance Film Festival). Other films include the documentary Manilatown Is In the Heart, short films such as Scott Eriksson's How War Ends, Jocelyn Saddi-Lenhardt's Mother and Child (a Visual Communications "Armed With a Camera" fellowship film), Steve Nguyen and Choz Belen's Hibakusha, Valerie Soe's short film The Chinese Gardens, Akira Boch's The Crumbles (winner of an Audience Award at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival), Iris Shim's multiple-award-winning documentary, The House of Suh, Yumiko Gamo Romer's Mrs. Judo: Be Strong, Be Gentle, Be Beautiful, several short documentaries that were also Visual Communications "Armed With A Camera" fellowship films such as Basketball, Meri Jaan by Veena Hampapur, That Particular Time by Jeff Man, and ''Magellan Doesn't Live Here'' by Micki Davis. The final day of the festival screened Tadashi Nakamura's documentary, Jake Shimabukuro: A Life on Four Strings, S. Leo Chiang's Mr. Cao Goes to Washington, (Best Documentary at the DC Asian Pacific American Film Festival and the Audience Award for Documentary Feature at the New Orleans Film Festival), Porter Erisman's Crocodile in the Yangtze, and Closing Night film was Timothy Tau's Keye Luke, a short film bio-pic on the actor and the artist who grew up in Seattle that was most known for being the first on-screen Kato in the 1940s Green Hornet film serials before Bruce Lee and the All-American "Number One Son," Lee Chan, in the popular Charlie Chan films of the 1930s. ==External links==