FILM

Aurora Picture Show presents 11th Annual Slant Film Festival: Bold Asian American Images, Thursday, August 11 at 7:30pm at River Oaks Theater, 2009 West Gray.  Curator Melissa Hung and Filmmaker Soham Mehta in attendance.

This annual Aurora program showcases an eclectic mix of the best short films made by emerging and mid-career Asian American artists. Curated by Melissa Hung, founding editor of Hyphen, the festival features all genres including narrative, experimental, documentary, and animation and reflects personal and cultural issues of Asian Americans.

Works include Fatakra by New York-based, Houston-bred Soham Mehta, winner of a 2011 Student Academy Award. The film, about an immigrant family reuniting after years apart, screened earlier this year at South By Southwest (SXSW). Jaime Lo, small and shy, a charming animation by Toronto-based Lillian Chan, also tells a similar story about a family where one parent works abroad, but from a child’s point of view.

J.P. Chan’s Digital Antiquities and Tanuj Chopra’s PIA are both science fiction films set in the future, but their characters are searching for the past. The program closes with Asian American Jesus, directed by Yasmine Gomez and featuring performer Samantha Chanse as six different characters in a hilarious mockumentary exploring post-racial art and excuses for bad poetry.

Slant was established in 2001 by Melissa Hung, the founding editor of Hyphen, a magazine about Asian American culture. In presenting this festival, Aurora Picture Show participates in exploring the power of moving images in crafting identity and community.

SELECTED FILMS:

Jaime Lo, small and shy by Lillian Chan
Jaime Lo, a shy Chinese Canadian girl, observes the world around her through her drawings. When Jaime’s father is sent to Hong Kong for a year-long work assignment, Jaime must use her creativity to cope with his absence.

Fatakra by Soham Mehta
Naveen left India to chase his dreams in America. Three years and a recession later, his wife and son join him. Sparks fly as a family reunites.

PIA by Tanuj Chopra
In San Francisco, in the year 2063, much of human labor has been replaced with service androids called PIAs. One night, a mysterious and malfunctioning PIA appears at Syama Raval’s front door.

Digital Antiquities by J.P. Chan
In the year 2036, a woman in an antique electronics shop meets a desperate young man seeking to recover data from an old CD.

Asian American Jesus by Yasmine Gomez
In this mockumentary, performer Samantha Chanse plays six different characters including Truth is Real, a self-professed ‘mad scientist of the spoken word,’ and the subject of college freshman Suzette Law’s final project for her ethnic studies class.

Special thanks to Hyphen Magazine, The Azuma Group, Azuma Sushi & Robata and River Oaks Theater for their support of this program.

Melissa Hung is the creator of Slant and the founding editor of Hyphen, a magazine about Asian American culture. She occasionally writes food reviews in haiku at NomNomNomHaiku.com and even more occasionally makes films ? her animation Bulldozer has screened nationwide. A native Texan, she now lives in San Francisco, where she directs a creative writing program for youth. Follow her adventures at fluffysharp.com.