Five Essential Films at the Austin Asian American Film Festival
Across nations and diasporas, AAAFF explores the most intriguing, experimental, and entertaining movies from Asian filmmakers
By Richard Whittaker, Fri., June 23, 2023
“When You Left Me on That Boulevard”
Austin-based filmmaker Kayla Abuda Galang brings her Sundance award-winning and SXSW-selected short back to her current hometown. Yet she goes back to her formative years in San Diego for this delightfully awkward and heartfelt tribute to teen crushes, Filipino aunts, and the healing power of karaoke. Screening as part of the Texas Shorts Program.
Thu., June 22, 6:05pmThe Fifth Thoracic Vertebra
South Korean filmmaker Syeyoung Park's been building a reputation as a director of impressionistic and enigmatic shorts, and in his critically acclaimed, innovative feature debut he fills out a wider but no less weird world – one the size of a mattress. The debris of a dysfunctional relationship metastasizes into a new kind of creature feature.
Sat., June 24, 3:10pmFremont
Asia is not a single place, and Babak Jalali's debut concentrates on two intersecting diasporas as an Afghan migrant finds herself crafting the bon mots encased in fortune cookies that are then scattered across tables and into people's minds. It's all anchored by an astonishing performance by Anaita Wali Zada as Afghan translator Donya.
Sat., June 24, 7:20pmThe Taste of Mango
British Sri Lankan moving image artist Chloe Abrahams has long played with questions of family, female bonds, and identity, such as in her 2018 piece, "Mama," in which she and her sister played their mother and aunt. Here she broadens her canvas and subject matter with an experimental documentary juxtaposing her own life with that of her mother and grandmother, twisting and manipulating camcorder footage to revelatory extremes.
Sat., June 24, 5pmArnold Is a Model Student
In 2020, teens in Thailand struck back at the repressive and authoritarian education system in what became known as the Bad Student movement. Much as Train to Busan director Yeon Sang-ho exposed Korean educational malpractice in his 2011 animated debut The King of Pigs, so Sorayos Prapapan gives that struggle dramatic form in the story of a student who returns from the U.S. to question all his options.
Sun., June 25, 7:40pmThe Austin Asian American Film Festival runs through June 25, AFS Cinema, 6259 Middle Fiskville. Tickets and passes at aaafilmfest.org.
