The country’s longest-running celebration of Asian cinema is about to roll into Queens.
The Asian American International Film Festival returns to Flushing Town Hall for three nights of screenings, parties, and panel discussions next week. Plus, the closing night movie and award ceremony are scheduled for the Museum of the Moving Image in the Kaufman Arts District. (This 39th annual extravaganza, which runs from July 21 to July 30, mostly takes place at Manhattan venues such as Asia Society and Museum of Chinese in America.)
Flushing Town Hall’s opening movie, which shows on July 26, is People Are the Sky: A Journey to North Korea by Dai Sil Kim-Gibson, who returns to her birth country for the first time in nearly 70 years. The director explores her personal feelings about the meaning of “home,” while also tackling history, politics, and North Korean hatred of the United States. Then it’s off to The One Boutique Hotel for the after party.
Made in Flushing: Bright Sun Mansion is up next on July 27. This movie follows Peking Opera superstar Yuling Fang on his journey to New York City. He can only find work in a nail salon, so he organizes an amateur opera production to satisfy his creative needs. Beforehand, Asian immigrants, whose ages range from 65 to 83 years of age, present shorts they made during a media workshop in a Flushing senior center.
A special 30-year tribute screening of Big Trouble in China takes place on July 28. Kurt Russell plays a truck driver who tries to rescue his best friend’s fiancée, who’s been kidnapped by a crime lord in San Francisco’s Chinatown. To add to the bizarre situation, the mobster is also a Chinese prince who issues curses. The night ends at an after party at the Leaf Bar & Lounge.
On July 30, the Museum of the Moving Image presents Front Cover, a romantic comedy about a gay fashion stylist for a famous actor. After the sex symbol is exposed as being gay, the two go on a wild emotional journey together.
The night includes a panel on LGBT issues, an awards ceremony, and some closing festivities.
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- Big Trouble in China
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- Front Cover
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- Made in Flushing: Bright Sun Mansion
