My Favorite 2010 SDAFF Moments

Hello Everyone, my name is Eric Lallana and I am one of the Festival Programmers for SDAFF. Of course the year has gone by so fast as we kiss goodbye to 2010 and open the door to new beginnings for 2011. I am so excited and looking forward to the new year especially what's in store for SDAFF 2011. I would like to share with all of you a few of my favorite SDAFF moments of 2010.



1. Quarterly Screenings
-Even though my personal favorite was viewing Ji-woon Kim's "The Good, The Bad , The Weird" back in May at the Landmark's Ken Cinema I still feel one of the best moments was the standing room only crowd who showed up for the "Enter The Dragon" screening that kicked off the free films at the Piazza Carmel shopping center back in August. The special treat was having co-star Jim Kelly give an opening talk before the film. Just watching the young kids respond with excitement anytime Jim was on screen was precious.

2. 48 Hour Film Project - Team SDAFF's "A Minor Detail"
-I had the great honor and pleasure to observe staff members feverishly work on putting together a seven minute short film titled "A Minor Detail" for the 48 Hour Film Project. My personal access gave me such great insight on all the hard work that's put into a film in such a short period of time. Everyone behind the project made SDAFF very proud.

3. "One Big Hapa Family" - Intro/Q&A (2010 San Diego Asian Film Festival)
-Thanks to SDAFF I was granted the priviledge to give introductions and facilitate Question & Answer sessions for various film programs during the festival. My favorite moments of the festival are with Jeff Chiba Stearns and his documentary "One Big Happa Family". Jeff is a familiar face with past festivals at SDAFF especially with his animation work. For 2010 his documentary was making it's U.S. premeire here in San Diego. As a big fan I was over the moon in excitement to do the introduction and Q&A following the film. It felt like everything came full circle when I viewed his animated documentary short "What Are You Anyways" back in 2005 to now being side by side with Jeff for SDAFF 2010. The icing on the cake moment came during the intro when NBC San Diego (7/39) news reporter Mari Payton was to speak briefly about the local station's sponsorship and support for the festival. Just before we were cued to speak she told me she didn't know what to talk about and sought my advice. I realized from her bio with NBC San Diego that she is Half-Asian (Hapa!!!) so I told her to talk about it with the audience and the rest is history.