24th San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival
March 17, 2006 - March 25, 2006
A Presentation of Center for Asian American Media
Ticket prices for San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival films at PFA are as follows: $10 general; $8 seniors, students, and disabled persons; $7 BAM/PFA and Center for Asian American Media members. Please note that PFA's second-feature discount does not apply to these programs. Tickets are nonrefundable, and may not be exchanged. Advance tickets for festival programs at PFA are available at the PFA Theater box office and the BAM admissions desk, and through PFA charge-by-phone, (510) 642-5249. For information about festival screenings in San Francisco and San Jose, or on purchasing PFA tickets in San Francisco or online, visit the SFIAAFF website at www.asianamericanfilmfestival.org.
Many screenings will feature in-person appearances by the filmmakers; for updates, visit this site or phone (510) 642-1412.
Program notes are adapted from the festival catalog.
PFA and SFIAAFF also copresent Heroic Grace: The Chinese Martial Arts Film, Part II, on March 24 and 25.
Friday, March 17, 2006
7:00 p.m. Letter from an Unknown Woman
A woman's unrequited love ultimately consumes her in this ravishing remake of the Max Ophuls classic, transposed to war-torn 1930s China. "Melodrama in the classic style: part mesmerizing art flick, part tearjerker."-Edinburgh Film Festival
Friday, March 17, 2006
9:00 p.m. Linda Linda Linda
An all-girl rock band in Japan tries to win a high-school music contest despite numerous obstacles, including a vocalist who doesn't even speak Japanese, in this joyously entertaining movie. From the director of Ramblers; featuring a score by James Iha.
Saturday, March 18, 2006
4:30 p.m. Memories in the Mist
A Calcutta clerk is haunted by childhood memories and needled by his success-obsessed wife in this Buñuelian fable by the director of The Wrestlers.
Saturday, March 18, 2006
7:00 p.m. Punching at the Sun
Tanuj Chopra in Person. A Pakistani American teenager struggles with racial tensions and resentment in post-9/11 Queens.
Saturday, March 18, 2006
9:15 p.m. Citizen Dog
The director of Tears of the Black Tiger returns with this fabulously bizarre collection of tall tales, part Chungking Express, part Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Thai style.
Sunday, March 19, 2006
2:30 p.m. Sentenced Home
Nicole Newnham in Person. A heartbreaking portrait of three young Cambodian Americans facing deportation.
Sunday, March 19, 2006
4:45 p.m. Grain in Ear
This social-realist fable about a Korean Chinese kimchee peddler won prizes at the Cannes, Pesaro, and Pusan film festivals.
Sunday, March 19, 2006
7:00 p.m. Walk Like a Dragon
James Shigeta in Person. James Clavell's East-meets-Western from 1960 features Shigeta as a proud immigrant in 1870s California.
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
7:30 p.m. The Burnt Theatre
Cambodia's former National Theatre, now lying abandoned next to a glitzy casino, is the site of Rithy Panh's spellbinding blend of documentary and fiction that asks how to rebuild one's country when capitalism is all-powerful and culture is nearly forgotten. An official selection of the 2005 Cannes Film Festival.
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
7:30 p.m. Dreaming Lhasa
A young Tibetan American journeys to Dharamsala, India, and discovers dub reggae and CIA agents among the Tibetan exiles there. "The first film to capture the majesty of Tibetan Buddhist culture and the complexity of its ties to the outside world."-Toronto International Film Festival
Saturday, March 25, 2006
4:45 p.m. Café Lumière
Hou Hsiao-hsien pays tribute to Yasujiro Ozu in this meditative look at love in contemporary Tokyo, starring Tadanobu Asano.
