New York Women in Film & Television (NYWIFT) is a proud community partner of the 45th Asian American International Film Festival, running August 3-13, 2022 in-person and online!
The NYWIFT community can enjoy 20% off tickets using the code NYWIFT_AAIFF45 at purchase.
Below are highlights of Women-led Films featured at this year’s festival, co-presented by NYWIFT:
Narrative Features
YUNI – Centerpiece Film – New York Premiere
In-Person Screening + Reception: Saturday, August 6th @ 7:30pm
Directed by Kamila Andini – Indonesia – Indonesian
Yuni is a teenage girl—smart with big dreams of attending university. When two men she barely knows ask to marry her, she rejects their proposals, sparking gossip about a myth that a woman who rejects three proposals will never marry.
WE DON’T DANCE FOR NOTHING – U.S. Premiere
In-Person Screening: Saturday, August 6th @ 5:15pm
Available on VOD: August 3rd – August 13th
Directed by Stefanos Tai – Hong Kong, Philippines – English, Filipino (Tagalog), Chinese (Cantonese)
A photo-montage recreation of memories shared by Filipina domestic workers in Hong Kong, WDDFN fuses still images with dance to showcase these women beyond their job descriptions, and follows one woman’s journey to break free and run wild.
NO NEW WAVE [in-person] & [VOD]
In-Person Screening: Sunday, August 7th, 6:30pm
Available on VOD: August 3rd – August 13th
Directed by Ziwei Yao – U.S. – English & Chinese (Mandarin).
Ginny is a film graduate and a foreigner. Like other graduates her age, she is privileged, but similar to all foreigners many generations before her, they all have to find ways to blend in or go home. The distance felt within the fragmented Chinese/Asian communities, however, makes it hard for Ginny to find any form of attachments. She is familiar with every setting, but nothing comes close enough to make a bond. Ginny made a “trial run” living among two men, her “option A and B”. While her friends begin to leave, Ginny is left with the last option — keep on moving but not returning home nor staying in her spot.
Short Film Program
Who Run the World – 109 mins
Available on VOD only: August 3rd – August 13th
A series of short films exploring themes of family and societal expectations, where you find unlikely heroines in this bittersweet world.
BEAUTY QUEEN – New York Premiere
Directed by Myra Aquino – Philippines – Kapampangan, Filipino (Tagalog)
Set in the Philippines during World War II, a young woman struggles to find purpose after losing her father.
LAST CALL – North American Premiere
Directed by Eysham Ali – Singapore – Malay, English
Nadia, who is in her 40s, is a new airport ground staff. In her first week on the job, she must deal with a stubborn elderly passenger who arrives late for check-in and insists on traveling to attend his daughter’s wedding.
LAST HAWAIIAN SUGAR – New York Premiere
Directed by Déjà Cresencia Bernhardt – U.S., Kingdom of Hawaiʻi – English, Hawaiian, Samoan
Twelve-year-old Nua makes peace with the mixed emotions she has about the land she lives on when she learns the sugar plantation she calls home will be closed forever.
MOTHER IN THE MIST – New York Premiere
Directed by Kay Niuyue Zhang – China, U.S. – Chinese (Mandarin).
Following Wuhan’s coronavirus lockdown, a rural single mother, Zhao, embarks on a dangerous journey in search of her preemie newborn baby stranded in Wuhan City Hospital. Joining her path is a mysterious eight-year-old girl.
SINCERELY MINÉ OKUBO – East Coast Premiere
Directed by Yuka Murakami – U.S. – English
SINCERELY MINÉ OKUBO is a short biographical film on the artistic span and career of Miné Okubo, a Japanese-American artist best known for her graphic memoir Citizen 13660 (1946), chronicling the WWII incarceration while she was an internee.
YAE: BLIND SAMURAI WOMAN – East Coast Premiere
Directed by Akiko Izumitani – U.S. – English
In 18th century Japan, when a blind woman’s father is killed by a young samurai avenging his own father’s death, she agrees to be escorted to the nearest village.
Thank You:
The 45th Asian American International Film Festival is made possible with support from CITI, LIFEWTR, Asia Society, Mayor’s Office of Media And Entertainment, NYC & Company, Third World Newsreel, The Corky Lee Photographic Justice Exhibit Organizing Committee, OCA, SAG-AFTRA, Tamiment-Wagner Collections, NYU Special Collections, Final Draft, Chowbus, NYU A/P/A and the many friends of ACV.
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NYWIFT programs, screenings and events are supported, in part, by grants from New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.
