Asian Film Festival of Dallas 2006 - Magnolia Theatre Map

Short Films
Program Pages - Shorts 1 | Shorts 2 | Shorts 3 | Shorts 4 | Schedule

These are the short films that will be shown in four differents blocks of screenings during the festival week.

SHORTS BLOCK 1
* denotes award nominee

WHAT ARE YOU ANYWAYS?*
Dir: Jeff Chiba Sterns; 10 min.
Follow the adventures of the Super Nip as filmmaker Jeff Chiba Stearns explores his cultural backgrounds growing up a mix of Japanese and Caucasian in a small white-bred Canadian city.

UPTOWN DOWNTOWN*
Dir: Hung Kwon Yin; 15 min.
In New York City, a pickpocket happened to pick up a wallet which belonged to a girl, Maki. Although they have totally different lifestyle and different nationalities, they believed their destiny to meet no matter what happened or where they went.

NO MENUS PLEASE*
Dir: Edward Shieh; 15 min.
Two immigrants come to an unlikely compromise while distributing restaurant menus. Chinese Food menu distributor, Ming, quickly learns that competition is fierce in the neighborhoods of New York City.

LOS COYOTES
Dir: Lee Isaac Chung; 21 min.
Two teens are hired to bring a Mexican boy to his father but get stranded in the desert instead. When the boy is fatally wounded, a deep rift forms between the gang and its youngest member.

FLIGHT SAFETY
Dir: Christine Simpson; 8 min.
Frank is easy to find on Tuesday, he’s at JFK airport at 7am, sharp, out in the parking lot with a stopwatch and clipboard, timing the jets’ take-offs and landings, counting planes and confirming that the 737, the workhorse of the fleet is the safest plane flying.

COWBOY JOHNNY YAMADA
Dir: Yohei Kawamata; 18 min.
He came from nowhere and wants to be a cowboy, because it’s cool. What he didn’t know is that he needs a college degree to be a professional cowboy.

SEIBUTSU (STILL LIFE)*
Dir: Joe Turner Lin; 18 min.
Tokio works the graveyard shift at a high-speed photomat with a girl named Jennie. After an accident with a photo printing machine, he begins to steal photos of a regular customer.

SHORTS BLOCK 2
(THE LATE SHOW)
NO ONE UNDER 18 ADMITTED
*denotes award nominee

DICK HO: ASIAN MALE PORN STAR*
Dir: Jeffrey Lei ; 31 min.
This documentary explores the “mythical” porn legend to verify his existence as there are practically no Asian male porn starts in the history of American adult cinema.

DRY CLEAN ONLY
Dir: J.P. Chan; 6 min.
A young clerk at a dry cleaner is visited by a mysterious couple with a secret, leaving him with a secret of his own.

NOT A FUCKING BLOND
Dir: Caroline Laskow; 14 min.
An examination of all the nasty things people say to each other when they are in love and the cracks in every “perfect” couple.

TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT?
Dir: J.P. Chan; 4 min.
A young woman prepares for a blind date – and all its possibilities.

FAST MONEY*
Dir: Jerry Chan; 14 min.
Jin enlists the help of a violent gang buddy to exact revenge on Mr. Fong – a Chinatown gift shop owner who has recently fired him – but he soon learns that his decisions have far greater consequence than originally intended.

5 X 90 THE WAKE*
Dir: Samuel Kiehoon Lee; 35 min.
Five different stories comprise a single ninety second vignette; each tale illuminating an element of the deceased's life during his wake.

HIGH WINDS
Dir: Vanessa Ly; 17 min.
A French hit man has killed someone and leaves Los Angeles with nothing but his car, his gun and his dog, being pursued by the people who hired him.

SHORTS BLOCK 3
*denotes award nominee

BUNNY AND CLYDO*
Dir: Rocky Jo; 18 min.
An utterly wild and distinctly Asian couple find themselves in the greatest fight of their lives when a jealous rookie detective is bent on destroying their love.

CLEAN
Dir: Stephen Dypiangco; 4 min.
While cleaning a city park, a woman finds a wallet and must decide whether to return it or keep the cash inside.

DEPARTURE
Dir: Steven Lee; 14 min.
Ted, a computer programmer with interpersonal glitches, meets Lindsay, a photographer with lofty ambitions. Their accidental meeting leads to an unlikely romance, but will Ted be able to tell her how he feels?

SPY MOMS
Dir: William Lu; 5 min.
Mrs. Yu has a problem; her son has a new girl in his life. With the help of her fellow mothers, Mrs. Yu leads the Spy Moms, a secret society of mothers formed to keep an eye on their children.

MYTH IN THE WINTER
Dir: Joonhee Park; 14 min.
Susan has tried everything to get pregnant: aphrodisiacs, herbs, vitamins, voodoo priests, etc. Apparently something worked, as she had been told by countless doctors to give up on her dream of having a child, believing that she was barren.

THE APOLOGIST
Dir: Guy Shahr; 7 min.
Joe is a serial apologist, he say’s “I’m sorry” so often he doesn’t know what it means any more. When faced with his own hypocrisy, he learns how powerful sincerity can be.

BLUSH
Dir: Jerome Austria; 17 min.
A cat, a mirror and a dream. Nothing is as it seems in this fairy tale exploration of a young woman’s struggles with maturity.

PRESS OR SAY “2”
Dir: Michael Goldstrom and Mye Hoang; 8 min.
A frustrated temp worker has to deal with a Shanghai automated tech support phone system.

HIRO
Dir: Matthew Swanson; 20 min.
After a chance encounter with a young girl, a shy Japanese insect collector finds himself thrust into a wild chase to recover a stolen beetle.

SHORTS BLOCK 4
*denotes award nominee

AFFD is proud to present a documentary showcase dedicated to women – each story equally unique, inspiring and fascinating.

Number One: The Helen Fong Dare Story
Dir: Nancy Tom
25 min.
This documentary explores the life of a Chinese immigrant, Helen Fong Dare, an intrepid and unconventional pioneer who defied gender and cultural discrimination years before the rise of Feminism and Affirmative Action in America.

The Women’s Kingdom
Dir: Xiaoli Zhou
21 min.
STUDENT ACADEMY AWARD WINNER
“I enjoy being a girl, girls can do everything,” says Lamu. An unusual statement in China, but Lamu is Mosuo, an ethnic minority with a matriarchal society, one of the last in the world.

Hot to Make Kimchi: according to my Kun Umma

Dir: Samuel Kiehoon Lee

18 min.

Fun, family, and food are the focus of this witty yet informative look into Korean culture.