8th Annual Boston Asian American Film Festival Oct 20-23

The 8th annual Boston Asian American Film Festival runs from October 20th to 23rd. This year's festival has films from a Japanese American filmmaker, a Japanese-Brazilian filmmaker, a Japanese animator, and a film about a local Japanese American mental health activist. Check out the other films here.

I'm really excited that Emerson College alum Matthew Hashiguchi's film Good Luck Soup will be screened for free at BAAFF! The film is being co-presented with Emerson's Bright Lights Series. Good Luck Soup is a transmedia documentary. Check out the film's interactive site. This is Matthew's second film at BAAFF. People Aren't All Bad with Yutaka Kobayashi was in the 2012 Shorts Program.

Good Luck Soup

Tuesday, October 18, 2016, 7:00 - 9:00pm (admission is free but you need to RSVP for tickets) 
Bright Family Screening Room @ The Paramount Center, 559 Washington Street, Boston, MA 02111
Film screening will be followed by a Q&A with Matthew.

Directed by Matthew Hashiguchi
2016 | 70 mins | USA | Documentary 

After years of rejecting his Japanese heritage, filmmaker Matthew Hashiguchi sets out on a humorous yet insightful journey to discover if his joyful grandmother and other family members also struggled with their Japanese American identities, just as he did while growing up in a predominantly white neighborhood in the Midwest. Along the way, Matthew uncovers the family’s decades-long struggle to assimilate into the Midwest and obtains insightful, yet humorous wisdom from his grandmother on how she overcame racial adversity after leaving the WWII Japanese American Internment Camps.

Shorts: Be True

Saturday, October 22, 2016, 1:30pm (tickets)
Bright Family Screening Room @ The Paramount Center, 559 Washington Street, Boston, MA 02111
Followed by Q&A with various filmmakers.

Leandro Tadashi, a Japanese-Brazilian filmmaker, filmed Bá in Brazil. The full film can be seen on Vimeo (click the blue "CC" for subtitles in English, Japanese, Spanish, French and Portuguese!). I emailed with Leandro and learned that his grandmother, Yuriko Miamoto Shimata, plays Bruno's Bá. She also starred in his 2011 short Oyasuminasai. Unfortunately, Leandro won't be able to make it for the Q&A.

Bá
Written & directed by Leandro Tadashi
2015 | 14 mins | Brazil | Drama

Tells the story of a little Japanese-Brazilian boy named Bruno, whose life is turned upside down when his "Bá" (from Bāchan, grandma in Japanese) is brought to live in his house.

Shorts: It's Complicated

Sunday, October 23, 2016, 1:00pm (tickets)
Bright Family Screening Room @ The Paramount Center, 559 Washington Street, Boston, MA 02111
Followed by Q&A with various filmmakers.

Pata
Directed by Kathryn Klingle
2016 | USA | 9 mins | Documentary

"Pata" explores what role chronic depression has played in the life of Pata Suyemoto--teacher, artist, mental health activist.

Asian CineVision has an interesting interview with Masayuki Kusaka, the producer of Harry on the Clouds. The film was originally produced as a music video for the Japanese band, RAM WIRE, with the title 僕らの手には何もないけど (Bokura no te ni wa nani mo naikedo) "Although there is nothing in our hands". They changed the soundtrack and sent it off to film festivals around the world. [Special thanks to Sachiko T for translation help!]

Harry on the Clouds
Directed by Aya Shiroi (城井文)
2016 | Japan | 4 mins | Drama (Animated)

Mother sheep can't wake up because Harry was gone. But Harry is looking his mother from the clouds.

See trailers for 16 films in this year's festival: