ID FILM FEST TO FOCUS ON GLOBAL ASIAN IDENTITY

The inaugural ID Film Fest, a new festival dedicated to contemporary digital films that explore and celebrate identity crisis in the diverse Asian/Pacific Islander communities, will showcase an international line-up of new and first-time locally-screened documentaries from Thursday, Sept. 25 through Sunday, Sept. 28, at the Japanese American National Museum’s Democracy Forum. The screenings are free to National Museum members and tickets are $5 for each film for non-members, with advanced ticket purchases recommended.

Organized by co-programmers Quentin Lee and the National Museum’s Koji Sakai, the ID Film Fest will feature several Los Angeles premieres of documentaries that present poignant stories and comedic looks at the diverse Asian communities living on the Pacific Rim.

Observed Lee, "What Ridley Scott has imagined in Blade Runner is already a reality. Los Angeles is a postmodern collage of cultures and identity. Even within the broader umbrella of the 'Asian American' community, there are Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese, Laotian, Cambodian Americans. Further diversifying the community are the division between first generation immigrants and those who were born here. A crisis of identity is inevitable and necessary even though we fantasize a more utopian unity. ID Film Fest is proud to present contemporary digital films that examine, explore or celebrate the identity crisis in our diverse global Asian community."

Opening night, Sept. 25, features the Los Angeles premiere of Michael Frank’s rarely seen Ra Choi, a drama about four Asian street kids, torn by poverty and drug use, trying to make a life for themselves in Sydney, Australia. Preceding the feature is Aldo Velasco’s hilarious short "Jenny Tran (Not Her Real Name)" based on a real life Asian American female ecstasy dealer.

On Friday, Sept. 26, the Los Angeles premiere of Quentin Lee’s first documentary feature, 0506HK, will be screened. The documentary takes a humorous and touching study of the vanishing identity of his generation of "Hong Kong people" who were all born when it was still a colony of Great Britain. Since the 1997 handover, that Hong Kong has ceased to exist. The evening will also feature three shorts—"All of Me", "Reverse Discri-Mission" and "Dimsum & Racetrack"—as part of the program, "Conflicting Passions".

Wee Li Lin’s comedic drama, Gone Shopping (Los Angeles premiere), will highlight the screenings on Saturday, Sept. 27. This presentation centers on a Singaporean housewife who faces her mid-life crisis by escaping to a 24-hour shopping mall. The evening also features Ann Kaneko’s comical and experimental sci-fi short, "Outer Limits Redux", which will be shown first.

To close the inaugural festival with the theme, "Fiction/Non-Fiction", Tony Toka’s energetic skate poetry short, "Skate Free", will open the evening’s program. That will be followed by three half-hour documentaries, including Marlyn M. Bilas’ "Shanti", one of the first films about Fiji Indian Americans and the story of a 21-year-old prearranged bride who is diagnosed with cancer; "Running Dragon", exploring the life of an aspiring Vietnamese Los Angeles actor who was adopted as an infant by an American family; and, Ling Liu’s "Officer Tsukamoto", a gripping documentary that follows the cold case investigation of the murder of Japanese American police officer Ron Tsukamoto, who was shot and killed during a routine traffic stop in Berkeley in the 1970s.

"In America, we tend to lump different Asians into one group, both for the informed and uniformed. This festival is founded to explore both the complexity and diversity of the global Asian identities," explained Sakai, who is public programs manager at the Japanese American National Museum. "We are proud to present the first edition of the festival and its films in our Democracy Forum."

All screenings begin at 7:30 p.m. every night at the Democracy Forum in the National Center for the Preservation of Democracy. The building is located at 111 N. Central Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90012 (directly across the National Museum’s courtyard). Tickets can be purchased on-site, but cash only.