SDAFF 2009: Gala: You Can’t Shut Us Down!

I am so exhausted. So for today’s post, I’m only going to cover the gala and things to look out for on Monday.

So I got to Town and Country and things are already underway. Volunteers running around transporting silent auction items, making the displays look sexy, counting raffle tickets to be sold, preparing signage, putting centerpieces together and on the tables, and everything in between. Set up was good, no heart attack inducing situations.

Changed into evening wear and started selling raffle tickets. Surprisingly, I wasn’t bummed that I missed the whole red carpet, paparazzi status affair. I think it’s because this is my second festival and second gala so it wasn’t as big of a deal to me. But it was still pretty cool being in the presence of some big namers.

The program was AWESOME! Performances by Bollywood Dance Step, David Choi, and Paul FREAKIN’ AMAZING Dateh; the cancer awareness campaign entailing a cancer survivor telling his story and PSAs by Sharp Health Care; receiving a proclamation by the City of San Diego about the San Diego Asian Film Festival; Reel Voices scholarships presentation; and of course, the awards program.

Grand Jury Award: CHILDREN OF INVENTION- Tze Chun (He was so surprised that he was speechless! Literally and figuratively! Too cute)
Best Narrative Feature: CHILDREN OF INVENTION - Tze Chun
Best Feature Documentary: WHATEVER IT TAKES- Christopher Wong
Jury Special Award: ANTOINE - Laura Bari (Yay! ANTOINE was awesome! And Laura is freakin’ cool)
Best Dramatic Narrative Short: AGREEN MOUNTAIN IN THE DRAWER - Hwa Jun Lee
Best Short Documentary: ROUGH CUT- Firouzeh Khosrovani
Jury Special Award: A SONG FOR OUSELVES- Tadashi Nakamura
Best Animation: KUDAN - Taku Kimura (I can’t wait to see the animation program)
George C. Lin Emerging Filmmaker Award: ALL ABOUT DAD - Mark Tran (Yay!)

Post gala was pretty chill. This is probably a bit TMI but I think it’ll make you smile and shake your head, if not laugh. (You can skip to the next paragraph if you’re not interested.) Right after I got out of the banquet hall, I grabbed my stuff from under one of our silent auction tables and walked all the way to the parking lot to stash in my car. On the way back, I desperately needed to find a restroom. I seriously thought I was going to pee myself. So I dashed upstairs to the closest one, despite the fact that it was dark and deserted up there, into one that I thought I had used earlier that afternoon to change and clean up. Except right away, I noticed it wasn’t the same restroom; the tiles were a different color. Whatever, I’m in the restroom. Then as I’m going into the stall, I realized that there was a urinal. I thought to myself, I didn’t know they had co-ed restrooms here. Then inside the stall, I had to pull the seat down, thinking the cleaning people forgot to do it. Whatever, I needed to go. It wasn’t until I was sitting down that it finally crossed my mind that maybe I was in the men’s room. Hmm. I finish my business, wash my hands, and open the door and only then do I notice that there’s a giant MENS sign on the door. Good job, Pamela! Good freaking job.

So after that “I wish I could say I was drunk” moment, I went back to help with clean up. After tear down, I went on a scavenger hunt with a couple people. That was an interesting way to spend your post gala. Heard that the gala after party was so crazy that security called the cops and the party got shut down before midnight. Oh what?! The party don’t stop til they call the cops?! Well scratch that last part. It’s now officially THE PARTY DON’T STOP. I was kickin it in the parking lot when we heard about a party that was going on in one of the rooms at the Town and Country after the party got shut down. But we ended up chilling out for so long that we got another call an hour or so later about another party at the Doubltree Hotel. So finally jetted over there around 1:30, 2am and it was STILL kicking. I got off the elevator and I could already hear the party. And the room was at the end of the hallway too. Love it! So quick highlights from the party (sorry, most of these are “had to be there/this becomes an inside joke” moments):

“HR Button!!”
Sample lap dance
Talking shit to each other’s faces and starting rumors about each other
Closet status
“Do you want me to punch her in the boobs?”
Meeting Dawen and talking about San Diego
“I LOVE RANDALL PARK! I F*CKING LOVE RANDALL PARK!”
Finding out that people outside of the staff and my circle of friends actually read my blogs

Yeah. Everyone started to trickle out after 3:30am. On my drive home, I was at a stoplight and my eyes are burning so I close them. This car pulls up next to me and I hear something. This guy in the passenger seat has his window rolled down and is yelling “WAKE UP!” I’m like whatever, the light’s red. The guy’s like what? And I’m so tired I don’t even know why I told him the light was red. The light turns green and I pull away and the guy’s like “I love you!” WHAT?! That was such a random confession of love. But a good way to end the night.

Things to note for Monday:
Tribute to George Lin at 6pm – Free at the theater. Reception follows.
BEFORE WE CLOSE screening at 7pm, produced by George Lin and all proceeds from the screening will go to the George C. Lin Memorial Fund.
LEGEND IS ALIVE screening at 9:15pm! We finally got the print! Yay!

Don’t forget to get some sleep you party animals!