What’s Going On?

Legacy Through Giving is a non-profit organization that partners with other non-profit organization to help promote information and fundraising to benefit each organization.

The Giving Through Fashion Gala/Show is comprised of models throughout the Bay Area (including those from regional pageants), fashion designers, and make-up artists.

The evening began with guests mingling in the lobby, the opportunity to grab information at various tables, an opportunity to take pictures at a small photo booth, and bidding in a silent auction. Dinner was to follow the cocktail hour with a fashion show and recognition to the participating non-profit organizations.

Participating Organizations for this event are:

Association For Chinese Families Of The Disabled

Charity Cars For Kids

Alameda County Medical Center Cancer Navigator Program

International Technological University

Legacy Through Giving Foundation

Maum Meditation

Sino Burmese Buddhist Association Of America

San Mateo Lions Club

Your Cambodian Street Children Organization

Agape Mission (IL) Foundation

Participating Fashion Artists for this event are:

Far East Living by Esther Shih

Cicada by Monique Zhang

Ethnic Fashion of those of the Queens

West Coast Leather by Skip Pas

Weston Wear by Julienne Weston

Starlite Jewelry by Naomi King

Cocoa Jeans by Steve Televski

The fashion show and entertainment segments occurred throughout dinner service with the night ending in dancing on the ballroom floor.

Pictures of the “Giving Through Fashion” Gala can be seen by clicking on the picture link above. If this post was informative and helpful, please feel free to leave me a comment or donation below. Thank you.

Sorry folks, lately I’ve been really busy. Something that a few friends and I filmed was a short film called X Dresser: A Cry For Help (Burger Boy). The story was written and directed by Adrian Li, cinematography by Cal Chan and Michael Jeong, edited by Justin Fong, and starring Warren Lee.

All feedback is welcome, check it out and leave a comment.

The San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival (SFIAAFF) is the largest Asian American Film Venue in the country. The Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) played host for it in San Francisco and this year CAAM celebrates it’s 30th year as an established Asian American organization.

The San Jose opening night feature film, Au Revoir Taipei, written and directed by Arvin Chen, kicked off the film festivities for the festival at the Camera 12 Cinemas. The cast and crew that were present at the screening were filmmaker Arvin Chen, producers In-Ah Lee and Philipp Steffens, behind the scenes videographer John Wu, and actor Lawrence Ko.

The film was a comedic creative piece about a guy who falls in love for this girl that works in a bookstore, the cat and mouse adventures of wannabe gangsters led on by their boss, and the food, scenes, and other sights around the city of Taipei.

After the San Jose opening night film guests walked over to the former San Jose Museum of Modern Art, now just called the San Jose Museum of Art. Filmmakers, actors, and guests came to celebrate the night away with drinks, snacks, music, mingling, dancing, and a stroll through the galleries.

The festival lasted throughout the weekend with screenings on Saturday and Sunday. Many made the festival in San Francisco and San Jose a great success. Next year plan on supporting Asian American media and watch a screening of some amazing pieces. Until next year’s festival, keep posted for other events that the Center for Asian American Media put on throughout the year. More information can be found on their website at www.asianamericanmedia.org

Pictures of the holiday party can be seen by clicking on the picture link above. If this post was informative and helpful, please feel free to leave me a comment or donation below. Thank you.

The San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival (SFIAAFF) is the largest Asian American Film Venue in the country. The Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) played host for it in San Francisco and this year CAAM celebrates it’s 30th year as an established Asian American organization.

The closing night feature film, Au Revoir Taipei, written and directed by Arvin Chen, ended the film festivities for the festival. The cast and crew that were present at the screening were filmmaker Arvin Chen, producers In-Ah Lee and Philipp Steffens, co-producer Michelle Cho, editor Justin Guerrieri, cinematographer Michael Fimognari, and actor Lawrence Ko.

The film was a comedic creative piece about a guy who falls in love for this girl that works in a bookstore, the cat and mouse adventures of wannabe gangsters led on by their boss, and the food, scenes, and other sights around the city of Taipei.

Prior to the screening of Au Revoir Taipei, special awards went out to:

Narrative Competition Best Narrative Feature: DEAR LEMON LIMA, Dir. Suzi Yoonessi

Special Jury Award: THE MOUNTAIN THIEF, Dir. Gerry Balasta

Jury Recognition for Visual Achievement: FOG, Dir. Kit Hui

Best Documentary Feature: WO AI NI MOMMY, Directed by Stephanie Wang-Breal

Following the film guests moved on over to Temple Nightclub to end the festivities here in San Francisco. Filmmakers, actors, and guests came to celebrate the night away with drinks, music, mingling, and dancing.

Pictures of the closing night can be seen by clicking on the picture link above. If this post was informative and helpful, please feel free to leave me a comment or donation below. Thank you.

The Center for Asian American Media celebrates it’s 30th anniversary this year with a fabulous gala held at the amazing Fisherman’s Wharf location of the Ana Madera Restaurant. The evening started off with a small welcome and introduction to guests from special celebrity MCs Roger Fan (Fast & The Furious) and Tamlyn Tomita (Joy Luck Club).

Following introductions, delicious food from seven restaurants brought guests mouth watering tastes of Asian Cuisine. The tastes of Asia came from Khai Duong with Ana Mandara, Lawrence C.C. Chu with Chef Chu’s, Dennis Wong with Le Soleil, Jackson Yu with Live Sushi Bar, Peter Chan with South Sea Seafood Village, Hung Le with Three Seasons, and last but not least Jeff Hubbard and Roy Yamaguchi with Roy’s Hawaiian Fusion.

The evening’s special tribute was in honor of filmmaker Loni Ding who was one of few that helped Asians pave the way for Asian American media. Family members of Loni Ding, David Welsh and May Ying Welsh were also honored on behalf of the Center of Asian American Media who were pleased to support the idea of the Loni Ding Award which is honor of her passionate documentary filmmaking that gives voice to underrepresented communities.

Pictures of the gala can be seen by clicking on the picture link above. If this post was informative and helpful, please feel free to leave me a comment or donation below. Thank you.

The San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival (SFIAAFF) is the largest Asian American Film Venue in the country. The Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) played host for it in San Francisco and this year CAAM celebrates it’s 30th year as an established Asian American organization.

This year as in the couple of years back the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas played home to the majority of films that were selected to be played at this year’s festival. Other various venues were the Castro Theatre, Viz Cinema, Japantown Peace Plaza, Landmark Clay Theatre, and the Pacific Film Archive Theater.

With the festival in full swing, guests purchased tickets online or at the theaters. Festival goers who are members of the Center of Asian American Media are given special priority in purchasing tickets about a week before ticket sales are open to the public. A highly encouraged way to make sure you get tickets is to join the organization. More information can be found on their website here.

On location of the theaters guests arrive at least 20 minutes prior to seating to ensure the first come first served policy. People that do not have tickets are encouraged to get to the theater much more in advance and try to buy tickets at the box office or take their chances in the rush line. The rush line is a no guarantee chance at purchasing a seat in the theater. Ticket holders that do not attend the screening basically forfeit their seat and ticket and a guest waiting in the rush line can purchase an open seat if available. Highly stressful to be in such a line because there are no guarantees and one can be standing in line and end up being turned away.

Throughout the festival there were about 108 films shown. Films were rated by patrons to determine the best films of the festival and are also judged by a small select panel of judges for special jury awards in a couple of categories.

The following are the results of the top festival award winners in their respective categories:

Narrative Competition Best Narrative Feature: DEAR LEMON LIMA, Dir. Suzi Yoonessi

Special Jury Award: THE MOUNTAIN THIEF, Dir. Gerry Balasta

Jury Recognition for Visual Achievement: FOG, Dir. Kit Hui

Best Documentary Feature: WO AI NI MOMMY, Directed by Stephanie Wang-Breal

COMCAST AUDIENCE AWARD:

Best Narrative Feature: AU REVOIR TAIPEI, Dir. Arvin Chen

Best Documentary Feature (tie):  IN THE MATTER OF CHA JUNG HEE, Directed by Deann Borshay Liem

and A VILLAGE CALLED VERSAILLES, Directed by S. Leo Chiang

The San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival (SFIAAFF) is the largest Asian American Film Venue in the country. The Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) played host for it in San Francisco and this year CAAM celebrates it’s 30th year as an established Asian American organization.

Directions in Sound is an event that is put on by the festival. It showcases Asian American talent through music. The musical talent range from DJs, musicians, singers and rappers. The venue for Directions in Sound this year took place at the Mighty Night Club. This year the festival kicked off with mixes from DJ Nako. She is known for playing indie rock, 80s, and Brit Pop Sound.

Followed DJ Nako was a performance by Kero One and Green Tea. Kero One is a hip hop artist that got the crowd going with his unique flows accompanied with music played by Green Tea. Kero One presents his audience with a jazzy soulful flavor and an upbeat synth-driven sound.

Following Kero One, DJ Shortkut mixed the sound up by incorporating a video-mixing set, using music videos by various artists.  DJ Shortkut kept the crowd going for a good amount of time enough to prepare the group for the next performance.

Hot Tub is a Bay Area group that came up on the stage to rile up the crowd to insanity. The performance is given by three ladies in spandex who throw out flows like no other to upbeat hip hop beats. Hot Tub involved the crowd in a couple of ways that if you were there you would not forget. The ladies of Hot Tub jumped into the crowd to get people pumped up, they even piggy backed some of the party goers to get them to go crazy. Towards the end of their set they brought onto the stage several audience members to dance up on the stage to liven up the crowd.

To finish up the night, DJ Navdeep mixed it up with music of a South Asian flare and Bhangra rhythms.

Pictures of the Directions in Sound can be seen by clicking on the picture link above. If this post was informative and helpful, please feel free to leave me a comment or donation below. Thank you.

The San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival (SFIAAFF) is the largest Asian American Film Venue in the country. The Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) played host for it in San Francisco and this year CAAM celebrates it’s 30th year as an established Asian American organization.

The festival was very entertaining and enjoyable that I cannot remember a time when I wasn’t as excited to have attended the screenings and the parties. The festival covers a little over a week with screenings in San Francisco and Berkeley and following the festival in SF the film festival moves down to San Jose for an additional three days with limited screenings.

The beginning of festival kicked off with Opening Night at the Castro theater with the feature film “Today’s Special” Directed by David Kaplan, produced by Lillian LaSalle and Nimitt Mankad, featuring Aasif Mandvi and Madhur Jaffrey. The film is a romantic comedy that deals with family and food in New York City. The film was very humorously entertaining and left the crowd literally hungry for more.

Following the film, festival goers attended a gala held at the Asian Art Museum located in the city’s Civic Center. There local vendors distributed some delicious food and drink, while ticket holders were allowed to wander the halls of the museum, mingle in the open spaces, and dance in an upper gallery.

Pictures of opening night can be seen by clicking on the picture link above. If this post was informative and helpful, please feel free to leave me a comment or donation below. Thank you.

Bazaar Bizarre hosted its second arts and crafts show and was held in San Francisco’s New People building in Japantown. Twelve vendors at the fair came out to sell some amazing things; items such as jewelry, felt animals, clothing, and other various items. The fair ran from 12-8pm with a sponsored cocktail and snack time running from 5-8pm in the art gallery on the third floor. Throughout the show a guest DJ came to spin some records which filled music throughout the entire building.

Entry to the fair was free with each guest allowed to enter a free raffle with some great door prizes. Each show hopefully will bring newly interested, as well as artsy people together in the hopes that buyers could support local craft makers. If you know others that may be interested in checking an arts & crafts fair with local vendors please check out the Bazaar Bizarre blog link at www.bazaarbizarre.org/sanfrancisco/blog for future shows.

Pictures of the Bazaar can be seen by clicking on the picture link above. If you enjoyed this post and it was informative and helpful, please feel free to leave me a comment or donation below. Thank you.

The San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival (SFIAAFF) Launch Party was held at 111 Minna Gallery located in Downtown San Francisco. The festival is in it’s 28th year and this year also marks the 30th anniversary of the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM).

The party kicked off officially at 8pm and lasted a little past midnight. CAAM members, fans of Asian American media, and the general public were invited out for a night of fun. The night was filled with music from guest DJs, music videos shown on the silver screen, and live performances from local bands who performed on stage. Hundreds of people showed up to be apart of this celebration and guests showed up ready to party on a Thursday night.

This year’s festival will host about 109 short films, feature length films, music videos, and other various types of media. For more information about the festival and Asian American media please check out CAAM’s website by clicking here. Please support Asian American film makers and actors by watch a film or two at this year’s festival and to be more involved throughout the year please join membership with CAAM to be kept in touch with future festival events, private movie screenings, and discounts from local vendors.

Pictures of the launch party can be seen by clicking on the picture link above. If you enjoyed this post and it was informative and helpful, please feel free to leave me a comment or donation below. Thank you.