>>PREVIEW
SECOND ANNUAL CALGARY PAN ASIAN FILM FESTIVAL
March 16 to 18
The Globe
Readers here will fall into two categories. Either you cannot believe that there are still audiences who don’t know that Asian film includes a range of genres from brilliant drama like Kar Wai Wong’s In the Mood for Love to chilling J-horror, or you are starting at this page genuinely wondering: "which one of those has kung fu?"
In either case, it’s time to go to the movies.
The second annual Calgary Pan Asian Film Festival, renamed in 2006 after the first "Asian Film Festival" in 2005, will bring nine national and international films, including documentaries, dramas and even the genre-bending Korean comedy/horror/action The Host, to The Globe theatre. Created by Asian writers and directors, the films represent the main event for the Calgary Pan Asian Cinema Society, a non-profit organization created by local Asian filmmakers. The Pan Asian film festival is the culmination of the society’s season, which includes monthly screenings at SAIT and ongoing promotion of independent film "with an Asian twist."
Having a cultural base in another continent means that there are inevitable differences between North American and Asian film. Though some Asian filmmakers like Shaolin Soccer’s Stephen Chow have succeeded in riding a recent wave of mainstream successes, bridging the gap while taking advantage of Asian film’s unique character, many films still operate with a set of assumptions that might seem alien to North American audiences.
"A lot of these films, they have a background, they just expect you to be a bit more spiritual," says festival director Ben Tsui. "Kamataki (a Canadian film) and The Host, for example, have environmental themes or spiritual themes that most North American films don’t have the time for."
With generally lower budgets than their North American counterparts, Asian films are often better able to deal with more nuanced subjects because, as Tsui points out, they simply can’t fill screen time with gushy special effects. But for better or worse, cultural differences are often the least of programmers’ worries when it comes to importing Asian cinema. Beyond culture, stereotypes and even logistics, when it comes to accessibility the greatest fear is that these films’ audiences will have to – gasp – read subtitles.
"Most audiences are wary of reading films," says Tsui. "They like to see a film, they don’t care where it’s from so long as it’s in English. So what we try to do is to bring in films that have a cross-cultural theme to them so that most of the films we present are either in English, or at least half of it is in English."
Tsui’s English-language selections aren’t just nods to the necessities of subtitles, but also integral to his total vision for the festival. Born in Hong Kong but raised in Western Canada, Tsui considers himself a Canadian first with his Chinese heritage an important second. The reality of national and cultural identity is at the core of his vision for the festival, a theme he hopes to continue to illuminate through every incarnation of the nascent festival.
"It’s a celebration of the hyphenated cultures," says Tsui. "Japanese-Canadian, Chinese-Canadian, etc."
On the festival’s program, several films are especially related to this hyphenated theme. These include the already sold-out Journey From the Fall, the story of an expatriate Vietnamese father trying to integrate himself along with his family in Southern California; Chinese Restaurants, a documentary on Chinese restaurateurs in Peru, Brazil, and Argentina; and The Gift of Barong, another documentary dealing with the mediation between culture and home, this time between a pair of Filipino-American surfers suddenly immersed in the Philippines. Together with the festival’s Sunday shorts program, which was recently expanded to include the Oscar-winning documentary The Blood of Yingzhou District, these films offer varied proof that Asian cinema isn’t simply a ramshackle collection of kung fu epics and Bollywood musicals. Tsui sees the festival as an opportunity to showcase the talents and particular experiences of Asian filmmakers but also to dispel the idea that Asian films are destined to either break into song or battle.
"There are a lot of genres that haven’t been touched on or explored," he says. "I think the festival helps bring these less-seen films to the larger mainstream audience. Hopefully the audience will discover there’s more to it than kung fu films."
Even with the festival’s range, however, the battle is often uphill. During a meeting with a city alderman, Tsui explained that he was programming an Asian film festival, to which the alderman replied that his favourite Asian films were Bruce Lee kung fu movies.
"And I said, ‘Did you know there’s horror, drama, romantic comedy?" recalls Tsui, adding, "and he said, ‘It’s still kung fu, they’re my favourite.’" |
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