The 3-day 2010 ID Film Fest kicks off tonight in Little Tokyo and it features a weekend of Asian/Asian American films and workshops. Opening with the Los Angeles premiere of the critically acclaimed film Kit Hui’s Fog (starring Terrence Yin and Eugenia Wan), the festival will also feature Hirokazu Koreeda’s much talked about film Air Doll is as the festival’s Centerpiece film. Ian McCrudden’s The Things We Carry will close out the three-day movie feast.
“Los Angeles is a postmodern collage of cultures and identity,” says founder/filmmaker Quentin Lee. “Even within the broader umbrella of the ‘Asian American’ community, there are Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Filipino, Vietnamese, Laotian and Cambodian Americans. Further diversifying the community are the divisions between first generation immigrants and those who were born here. A crisis of identity is inevitable and necessary even though we fantasize a more utopian unity. ID Film Fest is proud to present contemporary works that examine, explore or celebrate the identity crisis in our diverse global Asian community.” This year’s ID Film Fest filmmakers and actors will include: PJ Raval, Jessica Sanders, Brent Anbe, William Lu, Feodor Chin, James Huang, Kerwin Berk, Hirokazu Koreeda, Kit Hui, Ming Lai, Eugenia Wan and Terrence Yin.
Some of this year’s ID Film Fest free programs (for audiences) will be the “The Filmmaker’s Crash Course Session,” providing 7-15 minute crash courses pertaining to the business and artistry of filmmaking. More interesting events include the “Battle of the Pitches 2” where filmmakers will get a chance to participate in a live screenwriting pitch session with industry execs. The finalists for the “API Pilot Shoot Out” will present trailers of their work in competition.
Alongside the public programs, the Asian American Independent Feature Conference (AAIFC) is another component of ID Film Fest. A one-day think tank and networking conference for a select group of 30 filmmakers on the state of creating Asian American independent feature content will take place on Saturday, October 9, 2010.
A program of the Japanese American National Museum, ID Film Fest was founded in 2008 by filmmakers Koji Steven Sakai and Quentin Lee to screen compelling Asian and Asian American works that have not yet had a chance to show in Los Angeles. ID Film Fest will run October 8 through October 10, with all events taking place at the at downtown Los Angeles’ National Center for the Preservation of Democracy located at 111 N. Central Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90012. For more information on the festival and ticket information, please visit the ID Film Fest 2010 site.
