Shows & Events
Boston Asian American Film Festival

Past Event

Oct 13—22, 2023

Boston Asian AmericanFilm Festival

New England's Largest Asian American Film Festival

The Boston Asian American Film Festival (BAAFF) empowers Asian Americans through film by showcasing Asian American experiences and serving as a resource to filmmakers and the Greater Boston Community. BAAFF is a co-production of Asian American Resource Workshop and ArtsEmerson.

In person Virtual Expats

Info

Venue

Emerson Paramount Center
OCT 13–OCT 15

On Demand Streaming (Shorts Blocks)
OCT 13 @ 7:30 PM – OCT 23 @ 12:00 PM
Viewing window ends OCT 23 @ 12PM

Dates

Oct 13, 2023 - Oct 22, 2023

Special Offers

All-Access Festival Pass: $150
(All 2023 ArtsEmerson Film Programs)
Get Package

Shorts Pass: $60
Watch all 6 Film Shorts Programs
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Details

$15 - $20 per film

IN PERSON AT EMERSON PARAMOUNT CENTER OCT 13–15

Viewing window for virtual films closes Oct 23

For additional filmmaker information, visit baaff.org

Films

Nurse Unseen

CENTERPIECE | Documentary | Directed by Michele Rae Josue

92 mins | English/Tagalog | $15

Fri, Oct 13 @ 6:00 pm

Content warning: Violence and potentially triggering content for trauma survivors.

Trailer

NURSE UNSEEN explores the little-known history and humanity of the unsung Filipino nurses risking their lives on the frontlines while facing a resurgence of anti-Asian hate in the streets. The film unearths the colonial ties between the Philippines and the United States that has led to Filipino nurses becoming the unknown backbone of the U.S. and global healthcare systems.

Director Bio: Michele Josue is an Emmy award-winning Filipinx filmmaker based in Los Angeles. Her critically acclaimed feature-film debut MATT SHEPARD IS A FRIEND OF MINE is the winner of 10 Best Documentary and Audience Choice Awards from festivals worldwide and boasts a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. In NURSE UNSEEN, Michelle unearths the colonial ties between the Philippines and the United States that have led to Filipino-American nurses becoming the unsung backbone of the United States healthcare system.

Q&A with filmmaker to follow film

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Queer & Here

Shorts Block

69 mins | $15

Fri, Oct 13 @ 9:00 pm

A staple every BAAFF season, Queer and Here is self-expression and identity beyond orientation.

1. Cousins

Directed by Karina Dandashi
13 MIN

Two cousins born in separate countries reunite in Brooklyn when a run-in with an ex turns the night into a mission of revenge.

2. Fish

Directed by Jeremy Hsing
14 MIN
Content Warning: Sexual situations, conversations of death

Tiger never received the love he desired from his estranged late mother; however, when his mother is reincarnated as his pet goldfish, Tiger must set aside his grievances for one last chance at maternal love.

3. Gianna

Directed by Kait Schuster
11 MIN
Content Warning: Self harm, violence, strong language

Gianna is a queer horror comedy following Gina, a Filipina Gemini doing her best, as she takes the advice of her sliding scale therapist to spend a day with her INNER SABOTEUR. Enter Gianna. Will they make peace, or does Gianna, like, literally want Gina dead?

4. After Sunset, Dawn Arrives

Directed by Andy Yi Li
17 MIN
Content Warning: Violence

In the early 2000s, old China Town, Los Angeles, when introverted and unsociable sixty-five-year-old Chinese man, Wan falls in love with a man who is nearly 30 years younger than him, Wan struggles to embrace his homosexual identity which he has been suppressed for his entire life and simultaneously confronts his guilt towards his long deceased Chinese wife.

5. Aikāne

Directed by Daniel Sousa
14 MIN | Ages 16+
Content Warning: Mature content, violence

A valiant island warrior, wounded in battle against foreign invaders, falls into a mysterious underwater world. When the octopus who rescues him transforms into a handsome young man, they become aikāne, intimate friends bound by love and trust, and an epic adventure begins.

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Photographic Justice: The Corky Lee Story

Documentary | Directed by Jennifer Takaki

87 Mins | English | Closed captioning | $15

Sat, Oct 14 @ 1:30 pm

Trailer

An intimate portrait of the life, work, and advocacy of pioneering Chinese American photographer Corky Lee.

Director Jennifer Takaki followed Corky Lee for nearly 20 years, documenting triumphs and tragedy. Her film offers a unique and moving memorial to one man’s mission to bring justice to his community through photography.

Q&A with filmmaker to follow film

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Accidental Getaway Driver

CENTERPIECE | Narrative | Directed by Sing J. Lee

114 mins | English/Vietnamese | $15

Sat, Oct 14 @ 4:30 pm

During a routine pickup, an elderly Vietnamese cab driver is taken hostage at gunpoint by three recently escaped Orange County convicts.

Q&A with filmmaker to follow film

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Laugh with BAAFF!

Shorts Block

79 mins | $15

Sat, Oct 14 @ 8:30 pm

A weed-buying grandma, a lonely customer service rep, and a dysfunctional Vietnamese-American family walk into a film festival… Laugh with BAAFF is a lineup of wild, genre-bending comedy shorts from some of the industry’s top comedians and new comic voices.

1. “Halmoni’s Pot” (Grandma’s Pot)

Directed by Lauren Lee
10 MIN | English

Content warning: Strong language.

Grandma Mee-Yung reluctantly agrees to go buy pot for her grandson. But pay full price? Never!

2. Open and Shut

Directed by Kulap Vilaysack
12 MIN | English

Content warning: Sexual content, mild language

Struggling with isolation and family pressures, Jen becomes preoccupied with her mysterious neighbor.

3. The Family Circus

Directed by Andrew Fitzgerald

17 MIN | English/Vietnamese

Content warning: Strong language

A Vietnamese-American family’s plan to cover up a drunk driving accident begins to unravel when their emotional baggage spills out in front of the police.

4. Running

Directed by Arpita Mukherjee

40 MIN | English

Written by and starring Danny Pudi (Community, Mythic Quest) and directed by Arpita Mukherjee, RUNNING follows Danny as he sets out to uncover the story of his estranged father. Piecing together mementos, stories from his dad’s old friends, and hard conversations with his mother, Pudi starts on a mission to solve the puzzle of his father and finds himself instead on a complex, funny, and vulnerable journey of self-discovery and acceptance.

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Finding Her Beat (preceded by Gund Kwok)

Documentary

107 Mins | English/Japanese | $15

Sun, Oct 15 @ 1:00 pm

1. Finding Her Beat

Directed by: Dawn Mikkelson, Keri PIckett
88 MIN
Trailer

A master of Japanese drumming and a Korean adoptee from Minnesota boldly convene an all-female troupe to perform Taiko, the Japanese drumming art that has been off-limits to women for centuries. As the early menace of Covid rumbles in the background, the group faces down hurdles to prepare for a historic performance in snowy St. Paul. Buoyed by dynamic drum performances and do-or-die spirit, FINDING HER BEAT is an energizing and uplifting story of music, cultural expression and sisterhood.

Dawn Mikkelson (Director/Producer/Editor) – Emmy Award winning producer and McKnight Filmmaking Fellow, whose work has broadcast, streamed and screened internationally.
In addition to FINDING HER BEAT, Mikkelson has completed six award-winning independent feature documentaries, character-driven films highlighting power and joy in the margins, her sixth of which MINNESOTA MEAN, within the world of women’s flat track roller derby, premiered Spring 2023.

Keri Pickett (Director/Director of Photography/Editor) – Award-winning artist, producer, director, cinematographer. Pickett’s documentary films First Daughter and the Black Snake and The Fabulous Ice Age have won multiple awards and screened at festivals around the world, breaking records in attendance, and streamed on Netflix.

2. Gund Kwok

Directed by: Xudong Liu
18 MIN | English
Content Warning: Mild, brief violence

The Lion Dance is a folk dance from Asia that was performed exclusively by men in the past. “Gund Kwok” is the first women’s Lion Dance troupe in the U.S. Founded by Cheng Imm Tan, she and fifteen Asian women strive to break lingering stereotypes about the strength and images of Asian women.

Q&A with filmmaker to follow film

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B-Side: For Taylor

Directed by Christina YR Lim

99 Mins | English/Korean | $15

Sun, Oct 15 @ 4:00 pm

Directed by Christina YR Lim

Content warning: Mild violence, teen bullying

Trailer

A year after the sudden death of her mother, TAYLOR, a 14-year-old adoptee has secretly grown obsessed with finding her birth family in Korea. The loss has also taken a severe toll on her relationship with her father, BILL, a high school teacher who medicates his grief with alcohol. As summer begins, a Korean family unexpectedly immigrates to her all-white neighborhood and Taylor befriends a new maternal figure, AREUM who agrees to help locate her birth family. As the two grow closer, Areum’s own struggle with the loss of her old life and home helps Taylor connect with her Korean roots and grieve her mother’s death. But as they delve deeper into her birth family’s unforeseen truth about Taylor’s origins that threatens to break her already fragile bond with her father.

Christina YR Lim is a Korean–American writer/director who explores the Asian diaspora through fish-out-of-water, and coming-of-age stories. Lim’s first feature film as an auteur, B-SIDE: FOR TAYLOR recently premiered at Cinequest and will be screened at RiverRun, CAAMFest, LAAPFF and more. She is currently developing her second feature, and is a fellow of The Black List x Women In Film Feature Residency, and Cine Qua Non’s Storyline’s lab.

Q&A with filmmaker to follow film

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Starring Jerry as Himself (preceded by Closing Dynasty)

CLOSING NIGHT FILM | Narrative

91 MIN | English/Mandarin | $20

Sun, Oct 15 @ 7:00 pm

1. Starring Jerry as Himself

Directed by: Law Chen
75 MIN

Trailer

A family documents how their immigrant father Jerry, a recently retired Florida man, was recruited by the Chinese police to be an undercover agent, only to discover a darker truth.

2. Closing Dynasty

Directed by: Lloyd Lee Choi
16 MIN | English/Mandarin
Content warning: Mild language
On a school day, a 7 year-old hustles strangers for money on the streets of New York City.

Q&A with filmmaker to follow film

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