Stars shined at SDAFF Gala Awards
Charles Nguyen, Staff Writer
Photographs by Daniel K. Lew
It was all glitz and glamour as the San Diego Asian Film Festival unveiled its sixth annual gala award winners: a mix of emotional and poignant works.
The “Best Dramatic Narrative” award went to Michael Kang’s THE MOTEL, fresh from selection at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. Kang’s tale melds together an emotional rogue (Sung Kang) and obese outcast (Jeffrey Chyau) into an unlikely father-son relationship that is both tender and oddly humorous.
The highest acclaims went again to a film about parent-child bonds, but this time to Alice Wu’s exploration of the love between mother and daughter. As writer and director of SAVING FACE, Wu received SDAFF’s “Visionary Award” for her socially conscious story of Wilhelmina (Michelle Krusiec) and Ma (Joan Chen), whose relationship begins to wilt under the pressure of heavy secrets. Wil is a closet lesbian, while Ma, a 48-year-old widow, is pregnant.
“As a filmmaker, Wu has broken barriers and upped the bar for Asian-American film,” Festival Executive Director Lee Ann Kim said.
The film also played at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. Additionally, Chen won SDAFF’s “Lifetime Achievement” award, marking an influential career spanning decades and showing no signs of slowing down. Born in Shanghai, Chen first acted as a child in a propagandizing government film, but soon moved onto deeper roles, including THE LAST EMPEROR and the TV series “Twin Peaks.” Despite racial obstacles, Chen has worn all film industry hats as writer, director, producer and actor.
“Film is a hard business for reasons of gender and race,” she said. “We as [Asian Pacific Islanders] are seen as a silent minority, with creativity that is non-existent and ideas that are not appealing. But this award is an affirmation that I have made a difference in that.”
Young-Ja Wike, the subject of “Feature Documentary” award-winner AND THEREAFTER, also experienced racism, but at the hands of her own people. Director Hosup Lee focused on Wike, who, already burdened by the memories of war, faced a difficult transition to life in America, ungrateful children and Koreans that spurned her for marrying an American G.I.
“I made a new family creating this film,” Lee said.
SDAFF’s “Grand Jury” award went to SEIBUTSU (STILL: LIFE) from the festival’s “Fresh Off the Love Boat” program. The 18-minute short, by director Joe Turner Lin, exposes love within a photo lab, as an isolated man deals with heartache. Lin himself was torn by his own casting choices.
“I had originally cast a white man as the lead character, because I was afraid of what it would mean to have an Asian lead with an Asian director,” he said. “But in re-writes and the process of production, I realized that I am Asian-American, and I had better like it one way or another.”
As one of the first festivals in the nation to incorporate the animation medium into its programming, SDAFF presented its “Animation” award to Tak Hoon Kim’s PUBLIC BATH. The Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) piece is only eight minutes long, but manages to weave together a complex saga of a boy with the ability to see into the future.
Other winners at the Sixth Annual SDAFF Gala Awards included 5 X 90: THE WAKE for the “Experimental” category, PSYCHOKINETICS – THE VAULT for best “Music Video,” SUMMER OF THE SERPENT in the “Dramatic Short Narrative” and DASTAAR: DEFENDING SIKH IDENTITY for best “Short Documentary.” The gala audience selected Roman Cortez's CASTING COUCH as the winner of the Michelob Light Short Flicks competition.
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Link to original article: San Diego Asian Film Festival
