SDAFF 2009: Animation Program: Illusion Sheds Light on Reality

The days have blended together and I’m having a hard time keeping things straight. I remember going to the ANIMATION: ILLUSION OF LIFE program last night. And it was really good. Shout out to our animation curator, Sam Chen, for doing another kick ass job. He asked me last night which was my favorite, and honestly, there are so many good ones, I can’t decide. The range of artistic style and story line and themes are so diverse, I’m soo glad I’m not on the festival jury to pick BEST ANIMATION. I think when people hear the word “animation,” they think it’s something for children. In reality, it is not; animation is a form of art. I could sit here and talk about each animated short, but that would defeat the purpose of having you go see it. Last chance to catch it is Tuesday, October 27 at 7pm.

I will, however, highlight THE VEILED COMMODITY, directed by Dickson Chow and Vinh Chung. Not only is the art amazing, but for a six minute film, THE VEILED COMMODITY speaks volumes. Most people think that slavery is a thing of the past, but just because it is no longer an open market, does not make it nonexistent. Modern day slavery is a very real thing and it usually comes in the forms of forced labor and/or prostitution. It’s not something people want to think or talk about, making it difficult to market, and for Chow and Chung to make a film about it deserves some recognition. For that, I’m really glad that Dickson Chow was present for last night’s screening and was gracious enough to do a Q&A afterwards. He described how he decided to take on this project, why he chose the topic of modern day slavery, the mediums he used, the length of time it took to complete the project, his role in the film, scoring the film, and so forth. I don’t remember if he talked about the Frederick Douglass Family Foundation, but I remember seeing it in the credits. The foundation promotes awareness about modern day slavery, and for more information, please visit www.fdff.org.

I also want to mention Becky’s Fund, sort of in response to BREATHLESS, since it completely slipped my mind the other day. Becky’s Fund, www.beckysfund.org, is a non-profit organization that serves the victims of domestic violence and strives to end violence in the home. There are other organizations just like this one, but I want to highlight Becky’s Fund because it caters more specifically towards the API community. A lot of domestic violence victims do not come forward and seek help, and with the way the API culture is structured, API victims are even less likely to speak about it. If you, or someone you know is involved in domestic violence, don’t be afraid to ask for help. There are people who will help and will provide safety.

Here is a link to the San Diego Regional Domestic Violence Phone Guide:
http://www.sdcounty.ca.gov/hhsa/programs/phs/documents/SanDiegoRegionalDVResourcesList.pdf

Connecting audiences to the human experience.