Continue reading "Spelling Bees and Other Controversies"

Posted by melissa at 12:22 PM | Comments (1)

So often when you boil down a question, it becomes one of those perennial unaswerable ones: nature or nurture? heart or mind? chicken or fish? And it's so annoying, because we asked those questions in high school english and I already know that you're just in for endless debate with murky morality and rationalizations all around.

Another one of those questions came up for me last night at, where else: the SF Asian American Film Festival.

Continue reading "Blue Jeans and Ethical Dilemmas"

Posted by jennifer at 9:29 AM | Comments (5)

Did anyone watch this film tonight? I heard the theatre was packed.

Continue reading "Colma: The Musical"

Posted by momo at 12:45 AM | Comments (7)

...Whose Children Are These? and Dastaar are films I've seen within a 48-hour span.

So I have been watching a bunch of documentaries at the SFIAAFF. I'm not sure why I'm drawn towards documentaries, and Asian American documentaries at that. Perhaps I feel like it's my job, since Hyphen is an Asian American magazine.

Continue reading "Sentenced Home, Punching at the Sun, Grassroots Rising..."

Posted by momo at 9:33 AM | Comments (1)

Omigosh you'll never guess who I saw yesterday! It was after a screening of 'Conventioneers' at the SFIAAF* and the filmmaker, the gorgeous Mora Mi-Ok Stephens, was talking to a guy with cheekbones out to HERE. "that guy looks totally familiar," i said. "he's someone famous," my date confirmed.
... "Daniel Dae Kim!" i said rather indiscreetly (but i didn't yell it, and of that I'm am proud). and i did feel a little giddy. a lot giddy. I have been called a starf&%cker in the past, and I can't deny it. well, I can deny it in a literal sense... but not necessarily by personal choice.

Anyway, ahem, moving right along...
That's not why i've pulled my head out of the sand to blog today, not at all.

Continue reading "Quixotic Film Shorts"

Posted by jennifer at 11:02 AM | Comments (6)

The San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival continues with week - check out www.asianamericanfilmfestival.org for a full list of films and events in San Francisco, Berkeley and San Jose. And visit Hyphen’s SFIAAFF page!

Continue reading "[API EVENTS MARCH 20-26]"

Posted by momo at 9:17 AM | Comments (0)

I know the festival is already in full-swing, but I just wanted to point out some awesome South Asian picks for you to attend in the next few days. And the best thing about the South Asian films is that if you miss them this weekend or this week, you can make a field trip out of it next weekend and head down to San Jose and maybe stop for some yummy South Indian food on the way.

Continue reading "The Best South Asian American Film Ever -- and other desi picks from the SFIAAFF"

Posted by neela at 10:43 PM | Comments (5)

For those of you who came to the Opening night movie last night, here's your chance to give your opinions some air time. Again, no proper review from me. Is it that I'm just lazy? Maybe. Whatever it is, I'm jumping to the fun part: the So What'd You Think?

Continue reading "Americanese"

Posted by erin at 10:39 AM | Comments (14)

Only one day til the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival starts! I'll be at the opening night film, Americanese by Eric Byler. (Byler was the director of Charlotte Sometimes, which screened at the festival three years ago.) The film is based on Shawn Wong's novel American Knees. I'm curious to see how this novel will be translated on to the screen.

Here's a story in the Chron about our friends who run the festival: Asian American Vision Expands.

Better get your tickets now because screenings tend to sell out, especially on the weekends. That goes for me too. I've usually mapped out what I will be seeing by this point, but this year I'm behind and haven't read the catalog yet! Any recommendations? What do you plan to see?

Posted by melissa at 11:12 AM | Comments (1)

The countdown to opening night of the film festival being only a few days now, I'm going to kick off Hyphen's SFIAAFF movie blogging -- with the closing night film.

But this is not going to be a review, the way you expect films to be reviewed. There's a fine review by Ravi Chandra (Hyphen subscriber & friend :) ) all wrapped up and ready to roll, which you can find here. No need for me to reinvent that wheel.

This is more of a meditation on what "Journey from the Fall" surfaces for me and perhaps other 2nd-generation Vietnamese Americans like me. This is a movie my parents saw before I did. This is a film they asked me to see. Because through it, they hope I will see a war I never witnessed, and have never quite known how to form my own opinion about.

Continue reading "Journey From The Fall"

Posted by erin at 2:41 PM | Comments (4)

The SF International Asian American Film Festival (SFIAAFF) launches this week, plus Philly arts events…

Continue reading "[API Events March 13-19]"

Posted by momo at 12:11 PM | Comments (1)

Some of us here at Hyphen love us some Project Runway. Last night Chloe Dao won season 2.

Now, I don't have cable so I haven't been following along exactly. I had no idea she's from Houston (my hometown!) nor that she owned this boutique called Lot 8 (which I had already heard about from my friends in Houston before the show). I'm totally dropping by the store next time I'm in town. I want to hear more about her story. About how she's one of 8 sisters, how her family fled following the fall of Saigon, how they ended up in Houston.

Here's an interview with Dao before her win. Anyways, now we can add her to our chart of Asian American reality show stars that ran a few issues back. Whoo hoo!

Posted by melissa at 3:10 PM | Comments (1)

By William Wong

It may be churlish to insert a dissonant note in the lilting symphony of praise that the Oscar-winning best picture, Crash, is getting these days, but here it is: As impressive as Crash is in showing the multidimensional humanity – the good, the bad, and the gray in-betweens – of Los Angelenos of different ethnic backgrounds, the movie continues a Hollywood tradition of mostly one-dimensional portrayals of Asians.

Oh, no, you say: Not another yellowish whine! If Crash weren’t about complex racial and ethnic relationships, then my complaint would, indeed, be inappropriate, paranoid even.

But that was exactly the point of Crash, to portray the nuances of Los Angeles’s – and by extension, America’s – racial and ethnic relationships. So why would it portray East Asians in such an inept and unflattering way?

Continue reading "The Problem With Crash"

Posted by melissa at 11:36 AM | Comments (33)

It was probably little noticed in most sports pages other than an agate listing, but NFL player Dat Nguyen retired last week after an eight-year career.

Continue reading "Football Player Dat Nguyen Retires"

Posted by harry at 10:48 AM | Comments (38)

Sam Chu Lin, one of the first Asian American reporters on network TV, died Sunday. He was 67.

Continue reading "Groundbreaking Journalist Sam Chu Lin Dead at 67"

Posted by harry at 8:56 AM | Comments (5)

API events this week!

Continue reading "[March 6-12]"

Posted by momo at 12:26 PM | Comments (0)

Pulitzer-prize winning author Jumpha Lahiri talks about her bi-cultural upbringing as part of the "The New India" package that graces the cover of Newsweek this week, probably to coincide with Dubya trip to South Asia.

Continue reading "Either Side of the Hyphen"

Posted by neela at 11:52 AM | Comments (0)

There's a lot of Hyphen folks who are from the Midwest and South, it seems. Theories?

I'm taking an informal poll of where Asian Americans are from, or currently live. There are API folks across the country - in places where you'd least expect it - paving the way in many, well, ways.

I have always wondered what it would've been like to grow up in multicultural, urban hubs like NYC or SF. I lived in South Carolina for 10 years.

Continue reading "Where Ya'll From?"

Posted by momo at 7:51 PM | Comments (33)

We're little late on this, but radio show host Adam Carolla apologized last week to the "Asian community" for a skit in January that consisted mostly of someone saying "ching chong" over and over.

Continue reading "Carolla Apologizes for Ching-Chong Skit"

Posted by harry at 10:27 AM | Comments (0)