IF I WERE YOU ...By Jimmy Lee

This is Jimmy, your friendly Community Outreach Coordinator for the San Diego Asian Film Festival.

I can’t believe we only have four more days till our Festival begins!! I can’t wait!!

Recently, I was posed the question “What would you do and what films would you watch if you were an attendee to the SD Asian Film Festival?”

To this question, I initially thought, “Pfft, what a simple question!” But I soon found out that because of such awesome programming by our Programming staffs this year, it was going to be a very difficult question to answer…

Well I decided to take a stab at it anyway, so here is my “dream” festival for the first week (Oct 15-18) with occasional comments sprinkled in between.

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DAY 1: THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15TH

7:00PM Children of Invention (Note: OPENING NIGHT FILM & Party)

9:40PM Thirst

First day of the Film Festival, so I’m not going to miss out on the Opening Night film and the festivities that follow. If I’m still good-to-go after the Opening Night Party, I’m definitely watching this latest film by director Park Chan-Wook (of Oldboy)

DAY 2: FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16TH

4:00 PM American Dreams and Reflections

5:45 PM Patsy Mink: Ahead of the Majority (Note: Director Kimberlee Bassford in attendance)

7:00 PM White on Rice (Note: Cast and crew scheduled to attend)

10:00 PM Help Me Eros (Note: 18 and up only)

I’m going to start my day with a free film program, American Dreams and Reflections. Afterwards, I’m attending PATSY MINK and WHITE ON RICE to hopefully meet with the filmmakers and the actors. Jimmy (played by Hiroshi Watanabe) is such a character! Final film of the night will be an 18+ up screening, so it will definitely turn up the heat in the theater.

Day 3: SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17TH

12:45 PM Long Story Short (Note: Actress Jodi Long in attendance)

2:00 PM All About Dad (Note: Director Mark Tran/actor Chi Pham in attendance)

5:00 PM The Concrete Jungle (Note: followed by filmmaker Q&A)

7:00 PM We're Here, We're Queer (Note: followed by filmmaker Q&A)

10:05 PM Neko Rahmen Taisho

Third day -- I’m going to start my day with some coffee and watch a series of film programs which are going to have awesome Q&As afterwards. The Q&A with Jodi Long will be such a blast, and I can’t wait to meet Mr. Do (from ALL ABOUT DAD). I will end the day with a film from our Extreme Films lineup, NEKO RAHMEN TAISO.

DAY 4: SUNDAY, OCTOBER 18TH

12:30 PM You Tube Can Be A Celebrity panel

2:30 PM Fight Scenes and Fall Guys

4:15 PM Antoine

7:00 PM Red Cliff

I survived a week!! (Well, technically four days…) This Sunday = Panel Day for me. I’m going to be attending the You Tube panel (David Choi! Paul Dateh!) and the kick-ass Fight panel. Then transition into one of my favorite documentaries of this year, ANTOINE. I can’t wait to get to talk to director Laura Bari and ask her all about the film and Antoine Houang. After the film, I’m going to quickly freshen up, buy some popcorn and soda, and get ready for the 2+ hour epic by John Woo, RED CLIFF. What a week…