Bay Area’s Center for Asian American Media’s CAAMFest 2024 Lineup Announced
The Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) has announced its program for CAAMFest 2024, taking place May 9-19, 2024 in San Francisco and Oakland. This year’s festival will include over 35 programs that will spotlight film, food, music, and ideas.
The Opening Night film screening of Hao Wu’s Admissions Granted will take place at the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre—followed by the Gala at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. CAAMFest is also unveiling an expanded Industry Hub at Four One Nine Gallery in San Francisco, hosting three days of programs for filmmakers, creatives, and community leaders.
“Our CAAMFest programs this year take a deeper look into our vast and infinite Asian American stories, unearthing truths that are complicated, sometimes strange, and at times revelatory,” says Festival and Exhibitions Director Thúy Trần. “As we are entering an election year in a socio-politically shapeshifting world that can feel uncertain, we look to artists and storytellers to ground us and remind us of the responsibility of our shared humanity. With this year’s CAAMFest, we are proud to lift the voices of these brave and tender storytellers.”
“The Industry Hub at CAAMFest reflects our roots in nurturing Asian American storytellers, including our 2024 Fellows and filmmakers whose projects we support on the path to public media and beyond,” says CAAM Executive Director Stephen Gong. “By bringing together events for filmmakers in this space, we hope CAAMFest will become even more of a place for Asian American creatives to get energized.”
Screenings will take place at SFMOMA, the Roxie and the Great Star Theater. Our Centerpiece Documentary, Centerpiece Narrative and SF Closing Night presentations will take place at SFMOMA. The festival will wrap up at New Parkway Theater in Oakland, for a day of screenings and a collaboration with the People’s Kitchen Collective. This year’s food and music programs will be held at various restaurants and venues, including Damansara restaurant and the Yerba Buena Gardens.
GALA AND SHOWCASES
OPENING NIGHT FILM: Admissions Granted
Directed by Hao Wu (2022 CAAM Mentor) & Miao Wang
Thursday, May 9, 6:30 p.m. | Palace of Fine Arts
In the run-up to the landmark Supreme Court case pitting Asian American plaintiffs against Harvard University, controversial legal strategist Edward Blum took direct aim at dismantling affirmative action, energizing activists on both sides. Admissions Granted tracks the case’s emotional, high-stakes journey to the Supreme Court through interviews, news archive, and verité footage combined with dynamic animated sequences. It takes an honest and thoughtful look at the complexity of the affirmative action debate, and reveals the divisions within the Asian American community and our nation’s increasing polarization on matters of race, equity, and inclusion. The film features Calvin Yang, one of the plaintiffs in the Supreme Court case and current UC Berkeley student; Michael Wang, who previously filed a discrimination complaint to the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights; and Sally Chen, Harvard graduate and member of the San Francisco-based organization Chinese for Affirmative Action.
Expected Guests: Directors Hao Wu and Miao Wang
OPENING NIGHT GALA
Thursday, May 9, 9:30 PM | Asian Art Museum
Join us at the Asian Art Museum for an evening of celebration with delicious bites from some of the most exciting Asian American restaurants and music to dance away to. Be among the first to experience Phoenix Kingdoms with its extraordinary artworks from a bronze age society vanquished by imperial power and forgotten by history. Enjoy the Museum’s newly opened rooftop pavilion and art experience on the East West Bank Art Terrace.
CENTERPIECE DOCUMENTARY: Q
Directed by Jude Chehab (2020 CAAM Fellow)
Saturday, May 11, 2:20 PM | SFMOMA
Where do we draw the line between love and devotion? An intimate and haunting portrayal of a quest for love and acceptance at any cost, Q depicts the pervasive influence of a secretive matriarchal religious order in Lebanon on three generations of women in the Chehab family. Filmmaker Jude Chehab potently documents the unspoken ties and consequences of loyalty that have bonded her mother, grandmother, and herself to the mysterious organization. A masterful portrait of the toll that decades of unrequited love, lost hope, abuse, and despair takes on a person, Q is a multigenerational tale of the eternal search for meaning. A love story of a different kind, this documentary delicately portrays the complexities of unseen power that intermesh the lives of those who love a woman whose heart is in the hands of someone else. This film was made with support from CAAM’s Documentaries for Social Change Fund.
Expected Guest: Director Jude Chehab
CENTERPIECE NARRATIVE: Girls Will Be Girls
Directed by Shuchi Talati
Saturday, May 18, 2:35 PM | SFMOMA
In a strict boarding school nestled in the Himalayas, 16-year-old Mira discovers desire and romance. But her sexual, rebellious awakening is disrupted by her mother who never got to come of age herself.
Expected Guest: Director Shuchi Talati
CLOSING NIGHT FILM: And So It Begins
Directed by Ramona S. Diaz (2020 CAAM Mentor)
Saturday, May 18, 6:30 PM | SFMOMA
Amidst the traditional pomp and circumstance of Filipino elections, a quirky people’s movement rises to defend the nation against deepening threats to truth and democracy. In a collective act of joy as a form of resistance, hope flickers against the backdrop of increasing autocracy. In a decades-long nonfiction saga of the Philippines, director Ramona Diaz presents the latest chapter on her homeland as the despotic reign of President Rodrigo Duterte is coming to an end. In the months leading up to the country’s 2022 presidential election, And So It Begins proffers unbridled access to all the key players including former Vice President of the Philippines and current presidential candidate Leni Robredo and Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa. With her keen observational eye and deep knowledge of the socio-political history and landscape, Diaz continues to find her own forms of storytelling as political disruption. This film was made with support from CAAM.
Expected Guests: Director Ramona Diaz, Associate Producer Allana De Guzman, and Editor Aaron Soffin
HONG KONG CINEMA SHOWCASE
With support from the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in San Francisco, CAAMFest 2024 presents the best in contemporary narrative film from Hong Kong.
All Shall Be Well, directed by Ray Yeung
Saturday, May 11, 7:30 PM | SFMOMA
Angie and Pat are a lesbian couple living in Hong Kong who have been together for over four decades. After Pat’s unexpected death, Angie finds herself at the mercy of Pat’s extended family as she struggles to retain both her dignity and the home that they shared for over thirty years. The film won the Teddy Award for best LGBTQ-themed feature film at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival.
The Lyricist Wannabe, directed by Norris Wong
Saturday, May 18, 11:30 AM | SFMOMA
Believing that writing Cantopop is her God-given talent, Law Wing-sze decides to make it her lifelong career. But as hard as Sze tries to polish her lyrics writing skills and expand her social circle, nothing seems to go her way. What if there’s a will, but there’s no way? The first major motion picture about Cantopop lyrics writing, Norris Wong’s long-awaited follow-up to her acclaimed debut My Prince Edward is an unsentimental autobiographical dramedy that reminds us no dream is guaranteed to come true. Ironically, the film’s star, up-and-coming actress Chung Suet-ying, is actually a real-life Cantopop lyricist.
Expected guests: Director Norris Wong and Producer Wong Hoi
PACIFIC SHOWCASE
This series of film programs is a collaboration with CAAM’s National Multicultural Alliance (NMCA) partner, Pacific Islanders in Communications (PIC). PIC supports, advances, and develops Pacific Island media content and talent that results in a deeper understanding of Pacific Island history, culture, and contemporary challenges.
ROOTS AND ROUTES: INDIGENOUS LEGACIES
Sunday, May 19, 3:30 PM | New Parkway Theater 2
Still We Rise, directed by John Harvey
The planting of a beach umbrella by young Aboriginal activists in front of Parliament House in 1972 in Canberra, Australia, sparked a fire across the country. Sitting strong and proud on Ngunnawal country, the Aboriginal Tent Embassy is an iconic marker for First Nations justice, uniting Indigenous people in their fight for land rights. This all archive documentary is a bold dive into the incendiary year of 1972 – the first pivotal year in the Tent Embassy story. Fifty years on, the Aboriginal Tent Embassy is the oldest continuing protest occupation site in the world. This is an ode to celebrate the young activists who fought so hard and to the many who have passed and to inspire the next generation.
Hōkūleʻa: Finding the Language of the Navigator, directed by Ty Sanga
In 2006, renowned navigator Nainoa Thompson sailed with cultural anthropologist Wade Davis to discuss the art of wayfinding – and they only scratched the surface. Fifteen years later the two explorers contemplate the mysteries of traditional navigation and a future inspired by the language of the navigator. The legendary Polynesian voyaging canoe Hōkūleʻa (“Star of Gladness”) visited San Francisco’s Aquatic Park Cove last September as part of its four-year circumnavigation of the Pacific called the Moananuiākea Voyage.
SHORTS PROGRAM: PACIFIC VOICES
Sunday, May 12, 7:30 PM | Roxie Theater
Traversing American and Australian geographies, the diverse conditions and contexts shaping diasporic Pacific identities come into view through these films. As they navigate the frictions between their inner worlds and their environments, the characters and figures in these films find inner strength and innovate new creative cultural forms by drawing from their indigenous, Pacific heritage.
Butterfly / Bataplai, directed by Veialu Aila-Unsworth
Kai Hali’a (Sea of Memory), directed by Angelique Kalani Axelrode
Pasifika Drift, directed by Kym Louise-Barton
The Ali’i King, directed by Christine Kunewa Walker
Tradewinds, directed by Nico Serneo and Kyle Perron
FILM – DOCUMENTARIES
36 Seconds, Portrait Of A Hate Crime, directed by Tarek Albaba
Saturday, May 11, 5:00 PM | Roxie Theater
In 2015, three Muslim American students were executed while eating dinner in their home in Chapel Hill, NC. In 36 Seconds: Portrait of a Hate Crime, filmmaker Tarek Albaba makes an impassioned case for justice for these innocents and for his community. The film charts the victims’ families’ agonizing overnight pivot from trauma to advocacy as they struggle to prevent their loved ones’ deaths from being dismissed as the result of an alleged parking dispute. They courageously speak the truth about the hate crime that has destroyed their lives, about the overt and insidious ways racism plays out in our society and about the need to reform a hate crime system that is broken. This is a project about grace and the will to fight for the truth in the worst of circumstances.
Expected Guest: Director Tarek Albaba
Above and Below the Ground, directed by Emily Hong (2019 CAAM Fellow)
Saturday, May 11, 11:00 AM | Roxie Theater
In Myanmar’s first and only country-wide environmental movement, Indigenous women activists and punk rock pastors defend a sacred river from a Chinese-built megadam through protest, prayer, and Karaoke music videos. Above and Below the Ground follows these individuals through their journey of activism, from their underground beginnings during Myanmar’s military junta rule, to supposed “democratic” reforms and a sudden military coup. During such periods of fledgling democracy and dictatorship–in Myanmar and globally–the film asks how ordinary people can use the power of music, community organizing and women’s leadership to challenge authoritarianism. This film was made with support from CAAM’s Documentaries for Social Change Fund.
Expected Guest: Director Emily Hong
Ashima, directed by Kenji Tsukamoto
Saturday, May 11, 11:45 AM | SFMOMA
Ashima is an intimate portrait of young elite rock climber Ashima Shiraishi as she travels to South Africa to try to become the youngest person in the world to climb a V14 graded boulder problem. Accompanying Ashima is Poppo, an eccentric, hermit-like, retired avante-garde dancer, who also happens to be her father. Emotional and rooted in character, Ashima is a love letter not only to climbing, but to immigrant parents and the realization of the American Dream.
Expected Guests: Director Kenji Tsukamoto, Producer Minji Chang, and Sound Mixer Stephen Urata
Home Court, directed by Erica Tanamachi
Sunday, May 12, 12:30 PM | Great Star Theater
Ashley Chea is a Cambodian American basketball phenom. Home Court, filmed over three years, is a coming-of-age story that relays the highs and lows of her immigrant family, surmounting racial and class differences, as well as personal trials that include a devastating knee injury. Despite the intensity of basketball recruiting, Ashley’s humor shines through and her natural talent inspires the support of those around her. This film was made with support from CAAM.
Expected Guests: Director Erica Tanamachi, Producer Jenn Lee Smith, Executive Producer Diane Quon, and Writer/Editor Jean Kawahara
Light of the Setting Sun, directed by Vicky Du (2019 CAAM Fellow)
Sunday, May 12, 3:30 PM | Great Star Theater
A Taiwanese American filmmaker questions her family’s silence around the cycles of violence that have persisted since the Chinese Communist Revolution of 1949. Light of the Setting Sun is a poetic family portrait of what’s been left unsaid. This film was made with support from CAAM.
Expected Guest: Director Vicky Du
Nobuko Miyamoto: A Song In Movement, directed by Quyên Nguyen-Le & Tadashi Nakamura (2024 CAAM Mentor)
Saturday, May 11, 5:05 PM | SFMOMA
Nobuko Miyamoto: A Song In Movement is a sweeping documentary that follows the life of visionary artist-activist Nobuko Miyamoto and her work that changed Asian America forever. After decades of groundbreaking cultural work that unites communities and sets the bar for Asian American storytelling, Miyamoto reflects on a life that has bridged coasts, industries, families, and history. Featuring rare archival footage, NOBUKO MIYAMOTO: A SONG IN MOVEMENT is a story of a changing community told through the singular life of one of its most beloved storytellers. The film was made with support from CAAM.
Expected Guests: Co-Director/Producer Tadashi Nakamura, Co-Director Quyên Nguyen-le, Subject Nobuko Miyamoto, and Composer Derek Nakamoto
The Taste of Mango, directed by Chloe Abrahams
Sunday, May 12, 5:30 PM | Roxie Theater
The Taste of Mango, Chloe Abrahams’ debut feature, is an enveloping, hypnotic, urgently personal meditation on family, memory, identity, violence, and love. At its center are three extraordinary women: the director’s mother, Rozana; her grandmother, Jean; and the director herself. Their stories, by turns difficult and jubilant, testify to the entangled and ever-changing nature of inheritance and the ways in which we both hurt and protect the ones we love.
FILM – NARRATIVES
A Great Divide, directed by Jean Shim
Sunday, May 12, 6:30 PM | Great Star Theater
Seen through the eyes of a Korean American family that leaves the Bay Area for small-town Wyoming after experiencing devastating loss, A Great Divide – starring Ken Jeong and Jae Suh Park – addresses the emotional and psychological impact of racism and xenophobia on Asian Americans, the loneliness and sacrifice of immigrant sojourners and the generational burden of expectations that weigh on their children. But it’s also a story about a family repairing itself after tragedy, about a young man breaking out of his shell and finding love, about reconciliation and redemption.
Expected Guests: Director Jean Shim and Writer Jeff Yang.
Extremely Unique Dynamic, directed by Harrison Xu & Ivan Leung
Saturday, May 11, 8:00 PM | Roxie Theater
Ryan and Daniel, two childhood best friends and aspiring actors, spend one final weekend together before Ryan moves to Canada with his fiancé. Wanting to create one lasting memory, they decide to make a movie… about two guys making a movie, about two guys making a movie. Along the way, bottled-up secrets arise as they unpack their decades-long friendship and put their extremely unique dynamic to the test. In their filmmaking debut, directors Harrison Xu and Ivan Leung bring over ten years of acting experience to the screen by playing heightened versions of themselves in a genre-bending, meta-move that tackles taboo conversations head-on.
Expected Guests: Harrison Xu (Producer, Director, Writer, Actor), Ivan Leung (Producer, Director, Writer, Actor), and Noel Do-Murakami (Producer)
Meeting You, Meeting Me, directed by Lina Suh
Sunday, May 19, 3:00 PM | New Parkway Theater 1
An unexpected, much-needed friendship arrives at your doorstep. Two women from different walks of life – a Korean American divorce attorney who is very rooted in her immigrant family’s upbringing, and a Californian college dropout searching for herself after being canceled online – both desperately need a friend in this moment, when they cross paths by chance and form an unlikely friendship.
Nikah, directed by Mukaddas Mijit & Bastien Ehouzan
Sunday, May 19, 12:30 PM | New Parkway Theater 2
It is 2017 in the Uyghur Region. Dilber is a 27 year-old single woman whose little sister Rena is getting married. Her relatives never miss a chance to point it out, and her mother is set to find Dilber a husband quickly. As Rena settles down with her new family, she confesses to Dilber that her husband has been questioned by the district committee. Moreover Uyghurs are arrested every day, without people knowing why. Dilber faces increasing pressures to get married, and she resigns herself to find a husband. Every day she video-calls with her friend Gulnur in Paris, who offers her a solution.
Owl, directed by Julian Pham
Sunday, May 19, 6:30 PM | New Parkway Theater 2
After a few years away, Jean Kaneko returns home to Oakland, CA to help her ailing father with his locksmithing business. She soon finds out that his inability to work and mounting medical bills could cause him to lose everything. To keep the two afloat, she reluctantly starts to work, running into some interesting characters along the way. Eventually, she gets a job for a mysterious woman that presents an opportunity she hopes will save her father. But at what cost?
Expected Guests: Julian Pham (Director, Writer); Marica Petrey (Producer, Writer, Lead Actor)
Smoking Tigers, directed by So Young Shelly Yo
Saturday, May 18, 2:00 PM | Roxie Theater
Over one summer spent at an elite academic bootcamp, a lonely Korean American teenager hides her true identity to fit in with her new friends, only to discover the bittersweet pains of adulthood. In Smoking Tigers, director Shelly Yo explores ideas of family, identity and success through an intimate story of a Korean American teenager named Hayoung. As she explores different relationships and navigates new worlds, Hayoung discovers the beauty in her brokenness and crystallizes her own understandings of family and love.
FILM – SHORTS PROGRAMS
CARNAGE
Saturday, May 18, 8:00 PM | Roxie Theater
The body keeps the score in more ways than one. From the epidermal surface to our inner depths, these bodies are charged sites where identities, furtive desires, and masked anxieties get negotiated. Variously humorous and haunting, these films use horror genre elements to draw out the ways in which social and cultural relations manifest as embodied intensities.
Boy Band, directed by Benedict Chiu
Every Man A King, directed by Nikhil Ganesh
Lullaby, directed by Chi Thai
Mosquito Lady, directed by Kristine Gerolaga
Stitched, directed by Lorena Lourenco
Expected Guests: Director Benedict Chiu (Boy Band), Director Kristine Gerolaga (Mosquito Lady)
NAVIGATING INTIMACY
Saturday, May 18, 5:00 PM | Roxie Theater
Despite the smooth-as-silk sensuality we so often see on screen, intimacy is anything but straightforward. Tense urges, tricky inheritances, unspoken trauma, and tentative curiosity punctuate the private lives of these characters. As they stumble through fits of shame, fiery encounters, and hazy memories, their stories speak to both the messiness and joys that come from connection at such proximity.
After Sunset, Dawn Arrives, directed by Andy Yi Li
homecoming, directed by Monica Mai
Next of Kin, directed by Timothy Guion Smith
Seventeen, directed by Geqi Li
Something Blue, directed by Jinsui Song
Thirstygirl, directed by Alexandra Qin
Expected Guests: Director/Writer Alex Qin (Thirstygirl), Director Timothy Guion Smith (Next of Kin), Cinematographer Nathaniel Elgino (Next of Kin), Director Monica Mai (homecoming), Director Jinsui Song (Something Blue), Producer Shen Wei (Something Blue), Cinematographer Jacqueline Chan (Something Blue)
ECOLOGIES OF SUSTENANCE
Saturday, May 11, 2:00 PM | Roxie Theater
What sustains our communities? Constellating food politics and land use as vital factors of social life, these films trace the woven relations between human and more-than-human ecologies with spotlights on the ways land and food mediate our coexistence.
Between Earth & Sky, directed by Andrew Nadkarni
Boca Chica, directed by Ái Vuong & Samuel Díaz Fernández (This film was made as part of Hindsight, a documentary short film series funded by CAAM.)
Order for Pickup, directed by Jackie! Zhou
Preserving Taste, directed by Gelareh Kiazand
Unpacking Immigration, directed by Harleen Kaur Bal
Wild Hogs & Saffron, directed by Andy Sarjahani (Former CAAM Fellow)
Expected Guests: Producer Nick Price (Boca Chica), Director Ái Vuong (Boca Chica), Director/Writer Jackie! Zhou (Order for Pickup)
MATTERS OF BELIEF
Sunday, May 19, 12:00 PM | New Parkway Theater 1
Faith, ritual, conjuring, dreams – the investments that assemble our belief systems are expansively diverse. These films show how rituals mark the rhythm of our lives and speak to our ability to manifest change around us through the power of belief.
Ayat, directed by Samina Saifee
Chan is Fishing, directed by Jacqueline Chan
Dawn of Skates, directed by Mitch Truong
i’m in love with edgar allan poe, directed by Andrea Walter
The Fanatics, directed by Laura Skokan
White Butterfly, directed by Catherine T. Nguyen
Expected Guests: Director Jacqueline Can (Chan is Fishing), Editor/Production Designer Jinsui Song (Chan is Fishing), Director Mitch Truong (Dawn of Skates), Director of Photography Sean Visser (Dawn of Skates), Grip Hector Sanchez (Dawn of Skates), Actor Angela Nguyễn (Dawn of Skates), Actor Tiffany Rothman (Dawn of Skates), Director/Writer Andrea Walter (i’m in love with edgar allan poe), Actor Ella Jay Basco (i’m in love with edgar allan poe), Producer Bianca Catbagan (i’m in love with edgar allan poe), Assistant Director Liv Li (i’m in love with edgar allan poe), Editor Brian H Merrick (i’m in love with edgar allan poe)
OUT/HERE
Sunday, May 12, 2:35 PM | Roxie Theater
Out/Here has been a vital institution celebrating queer stories and storytellers at CAAMFest for a decade. This year, we’re thinking about the social and emotional landscape of gender. How do feelings about gender shape our relationship to ourselves and others?
Mooncake, directed by Rraine Hanson
Retrieval, directed by Fatimah Asghar
Squeegee Boy, directed by Chung-Wei Huang
The Performance, directed by Claire Zhou
Wouldn’t Make It Any Other Way, directed by Hao Zhou (Director Hao Zhou has previously received funding from CAAM through Homegrown: Future Visions, a documentary short series.)
默 (To Write from Memory), directed by Emory Chao Johnson
Expected guests: Director Emory Chao Johnson (默 (To Write from Memory)), Director Hao Zhou (Wouldn’t Make it Any Other Way), Marc Marcos (Wouldn’t Make it Any Other Way)
ANIMONTAGE
Saturday, May 18, 11:00 AM | Roxie Theater
Frame by frame, layer by layer, these works bring the attractions of animation – movement, texture, materiality – to bear on core questions of Asian American experience: Familiar representations of martial arts stars disintegrate with its celluloid film substrate, miniatures recreate the smallness of a childhood adrift, and graphite smudges emulate the feeling of estrangement.
“I’m Good.”, directed by Xindi Zhang
Bridge to Everywhere, directed by Spencer Tsang
hao hao wan wan, directed by Em Yue
I Would’ve Been Happy, directed by Jordan Wong
like a stone or flower, directed by Kaiya Ming Jordan
Lion in the Wind, directed by TT Takemoto
So That Tonight We Might See, directed by Bea Hesselbart
The Roaring of the Carabao, directed by Angeline Marie Michael Meitzler
Thời Thơ Ấu (Childhood), directed by Vi Tuong Bui
Expected Guests: Director Spencer Tsang (Bridge to Everywhere), Director Angeline Marie Michael Meitzler (The Roaring of the Carabao), Director Xindi Zhang (“I’m Good.”), Producer Xiaowen Wu (“I’m Good.”), Sound Designer Sarah Ma (“I’m Good.”),Director Em Yue (hao hao wan wan), Director TT Takemoto (Lion in the Wind)
LIONHEARTED
Sunday, May 12, 12:00 PM | Roxie Theater
These leaders in dance, law, politics, and youth organizing, take brave steps toward their highest ideals. From performance prowess to professional leadership and praiseworthy mentorship excellence is on view. Following individuals through journeys of becoming, these films inspire reflection on our collective aspirations and what it means to lead.
Duckworthy, directed by MG Evangelista
Leading, directed by Grace Lee
Mia’s Mission, directed by Jireh Deng
Ten Times Better, directed by Jennifer Rita Lin
Expected guests: Director Jennifer Lin (Ten Times Better), Producer Jon Funabiki (Ten Times Better), Assistant Director Bridgette Yang (Mia’s Mission)
IDEAS
FILMMAKER SUMMIT
Friday, May 10, 10 AM – 1 PM & Saturday, May 11, 10 AM – 2 PM | Four One Nine Gallery
This year’s Filmmaker Summit at CAAMFest will feature two days of industry and community conversations that lean into the power of storytelling. The Summit brings together an intergenerational cross section of filmmakers, mentors, fellows and industry leaders to honor the beauty and impact of individual stories. The Summit space uplifts storytelling practices across the many communities we are part of, and supports one another in a shifting media and cultural landscape. CAAM’s Filmmaker Summit is made possible with support from: Comcast NBCUniversal, Asian American Documentary Network (A-Doc), Jessie Cheng Charitable Foundation, Film SF, Firelight Media, and American Documentary + WORLD.
INDUSTRY PANELS
CAAMFest 2024 is excited to highlight industry partners that are leading the charge in developing dynamic content and elevating diverse creatives in front of and behind the camera.
NBCU LAUNCH TALKS
Friday, May 10, 1 – 2 PM | Four One Nine Gallery
NBCU LAUNCH, the team for inclusion efforts across NBCUniversal’s entertainment television portfolio, discuss the importance of telling intersectional stories and their approach to showcasing nuanced perspectives of different communities. Learn about NBCU’s talent development programs and opportunities to grow your career in front of and behind the camera.
WBD ACCESS FIRESIDE CHAT
Saturday, May 11, 2 – 3 PM | Four One Nine Gallery
Join WBD Access and Charissa Sanjarernsuithikul, an alum of the Warner Bros. Directors’ Workshop, for a conversation on breaking into the industry and building your career as a storyteller in Hollywood. Learn about WBD’s talent development initiatives, and gain tips on how to successfully navigate fellowship programs for writers and directors.
Beyond Resilience: Navigating Asian American Mental Health
Thursday, May 16, 7:00 PM | KQED
Cultural stigmas and intergenerational traumas make navigating mental health in the Asian American community complex, but modern day practitioners and healers offer expansive frameworks for a holistic approach. Join CAAMFest and KQED for an empowering evening to redefine community resilience by honoring all parts of ourselves. Hosted by Bay Area journalist Cecilia Lei, join KQED and CAAMFest for an empowering evening to redefine community resilience by honoring all parts of ourselves. The event will feature a discussion between licensed therapist Soo Jin Lee of the Yellow Chair Collective, healing practitioner Angela Basbas Angel, and community activist, author and filmmaker Satsuki Ina. The program will include additional Asian American creatives and artists.
Earth Seed: A People’s Journey of Radical Hospitality
Sunday, May 19, 2:00 PM
Earth Seed invites us to envision and enact our collective future from a world awakening to its unraveling. Led by People’s Kitchen Collective, Earth Seed is a gathering including a film, live presentations, and a food component that tells the story of a pilgrimage through California from present-day Los Angeles to Mendocino Woodlands that took place from March through June 2023, visiting people and places and building models for survival and our collective future. Rooted in Octavia Butler’s parables series, the legacy of the Black Panther Party for self defense, and the diaspora of the global south, Earth Seed enacts radical hospitality as a survival practice. It does so by deepening our relationships with bipoc activists, artists, educators, farmers, youth, and elders. Attendance is limited; check CAAMFest.com for more information.
FOOD
FUTURIST FLAVORS: Damansara x Dabao Singapore
Tuesday, May 14, 5:00 PM and 7:30 PM | Damansara
The truth of the future is in the strength of our memories. In this forward facing moment, two powerhouse chefs partner in an evening of cultural connectivity. Chef Tracy Goh of Damansara and Chef Emily Lim of Dabao Singapore, both immigrated from their respective birthplaces, Malaysia and Singapore, where a complex cultural and social history is shared. The invitation to co-curate a multi-course menu becomes a dynamic conversational act of nostalgia and nuance. Come partake in this mosaic of modern flavors – swirls of Malay, Chinese, and Indian influences, through the distinct and vibrant points of views of the two celebrated up-and-coming chefs in the Bay Area.
MUSIC
DIRECTIONS IN SOUND
Saturday, May 18, 1:00 PM | Yerba Buena Gardens
Directions in Sound, CAAMFest’s fresh music showcase, returns once more to the SOMA Pilipinas Filipino Heritage District for a renewed collaboration with the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival. Check CAAMFest.com for more details to be released.
Ticket Information
General admission tickets for screenings and panels range from complementary to $15. Special presentations and events range from $20 – $135. Tickets for students, seniors, and people with disabilities are at reduced prices for most events. For more information, please visit the box ticketing information page at: CAAMFest.com
He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.
- 2024 International Press Academy Satellite Awards Nominations: ‘The Brutalist,’ ‘Shōgun’ Lead - December 16, 2024
- 2024 Phoenix Film Critics Society (PFCS) Winners: ‘Conclave’ Tops Awards Including Best Actor for Ralph Fiennes - December 16, 2024
- 2024 Indiana Film Journalists Association (IFJA) Winners: ‘The Substance’ Dominates with Six Wins Including Best Film, Director, Lead and Supporting Performance - December 16, 2024
2024 International Press Academy Satellite Awards Nominations: ‘The Brutalist,’ ‘Shōgun’ Lead 
2024 Phoenix Film Critics Society (PFCS) Winners: ‘Conclave’ Tops Awards Including Best Actor for Ralph Fiennes 
2024 Indiana Film Journalists Association (IFJA) Winners: ‘The Substance’ Dominates with Six Wins Including Best Film, Director, Lead and Supporting Performance 
AwardsWatch Podcast Ep. 266 – Reviewing ‘Queer,’ ‘Babygirl,’ ‘A Complete Unknown,’ and ‘Nosferatu’