Sundance around the corner

Today the schedule for the Sundance Festival was released. This means several things to us as an organization, the first being that NAATA, ACV, and VC are hosting a filmmaker reception at Sundance.

The second being how the films accepted into Sundance affect our programming for the Festival. Chi-hui and Taro are looking forward to confirming a number of films this week, so we'll have a better grasp of the themes of the Festival. As we move into December, we're shoring up the programming and (hopefully) the sponsorship too!

Launch Party!

Mark your calendar for the SFIAAFF Launch Party! The kind folks at 111 Minna Gallery host our annual launch party on Thursday, February 10, 2005. The party will premiere our 2005 trailer and catalogs will be available to the public. The event is usually packed. The party will be 8pm - 11:30pm, the admission is $20 general and $15 for members. Come join the party ad be the first on your block to pick up the 2005 catalog!

Sticky SFIAAFF

File Under: Festival Planning

Recently came across this article from Sticky Sauce that addresses what we're hoping to accomplish with the Festival blog/site duality. Every year we update our site to mirror the marketing campaign/ programmatic themes of that particular SFIAAFF. But what happens the other 9 1/2 months of the year that the updated SFIAAFF site isn't up?

So this year we decided to maintain a blog to create a year-round presence of what we're doing in preparation for the event. To create transparency in our efforts. But we're mired in knee-deep work sometimes and we forget to update, please excuse us we're still looking for the sweetspot of our "regular" work and our posting habits about that work.

In recently writing the employee manual for the In-Kind Coordinator position (recently filled by the awesome Farah Shaikh) I was reminded that writing itself is a learning process. That being able to analyze how you got, or planning how to get to a certain goal, position, etc... looked at in a document/written form actually allows you to step away from the topic and re-approach it differently. In short: looking at things in meta-form can actually help give alternate perspectives when you pull away and look at it wholistically.

We're at a point with the SFIAAFF where this is crucial in going forward. We're 23 this year and our presenting organization, NAATA, is 25. We've still got a lot of work to do as we continue "Projecting Asian America."

Asian Art Museum

File Under: Opening Night Sponsor

The SFIAAFF has been lucky enough to have the Asian Art Museum return as sponsor of the 23rd SFIAAFF Opening Night Gala. The marketing team (particularly Ami Tseng and Tim Hallman) at the Asian Art Museum has always been very suppportive of the work we at NAATA have accomplished over the years. It is only fitting that they host our gala during our NAATA's 25th anniversary.

If you haven't yet been to the new Asian Art Museum at the Civic Center then you're missing out. Check out the current exhibit at asianart.org. We look forward to seeing you on March 10th!

Save the dates! SFIAAFF

The 23rd San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival (SFIAAFF) will take place March 10-20, 2005.

The Festival will take place in San Francisco at the Castro Theatre, the AMC Kabuki 8 Theatres, the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley, and the Camera 12 Cinemas in San Jose.

March 10 - 17: San Francisco, Berkeley
March 18 - 20: San Jose

And more

File Under: Film Festival Planning

We at the SFIAAFF have hit that phase called "laying the groundwork" also known as "more of the same". This is the unglamorous, but so very important part of the Festival process. We (the staff) have made our asks and proposals and we wait. And all of us are waiting, albeit for different things. Taro and Chi-hui wait for the films to confirm after we invite them, I wait for the sponsors to get back to me with answers to my proposals and Lynne waits for potential employees to send in their resumes. The four of us hold our collective breath, until January when answers come in and then we start running with the catalog. :) (Which should be another post.)