“I’ve been to several Asian American film festivals and I think after a while I was kind of waiting for someone to do it and I felt the time was right, so I recruited some people to help out and pretty much the idea was something that a lot of people were receptive to.”

~ Joe Kim

By Catzie Vilayphonh  |  Send to Friend

I knew Joe Kim from way back, back when he was just a fresh-faced filmmaker straight outta college. He cast me as an angry-outspoken Asian American woman (surprise, surprise) for his film A Primer which went on to be featured in 7 different film festivals. What I got from Joe and seeing him at work, was that he wasn't doing this to break out into Hollywood and make big bucks. Surely that's a nice bonus, if it happens, but Joe was out to do right in the world by making films about the things he felt moviegoers were missing in their current selections of films. Since then Joe's been busy speaking on panels about diversity in the film industry, but most recently as Executive Director of Philly's first Asian American Fim Festival.

Here's a conversation what's he's been up to as well the upcoming PAAFF.

 

Catz:  Who's idea was the Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival?

Joe: I think the idea’s been out there, I think a lot of people have had that idea. As you know I’m a filmmaker, I’ve been to several Asian American film festivals and I think after a while I was kind of waiting for someone to do it and I felt the time was right, so I recruited some people to help out and pretty much the idea was something that a lot of people were receptive to.

Catz: Who else is involved in the project with you?

Joe: Frankin Chen, he’s an alumni from Penn. He handled all the programming, which means he handled all the films and selected them.

Catz: Is he a filmmaker as well?

Joe: Well, he’s actually a consultant, but he acts in independent films and he’s got the knowledge.

Catz: When did the whole project come together?

Joe: I started talking to people at the end of November of last year and waited until after the holidays and it really stated moving forward in Februrary/March. We actually started doing all the logistics though, mainly during the summer and it just picked up from there.

Catz: Considering you only started this last year how did you manage to get your sponsors? And while you're at it, how did you get word out about sending in entries?

Joe: Let me start with the film entries. The thing is about film festivals, there are so many independent filmmakers out there that have content. If you have a film festival you’re going to get a lot of films. I think with Asian American films, there’s even more of that demand because there are less outlets. As far as the sponsors, honestly most of that happened through personal connections. We definitely had something they were interested in advertising.

 

Catz: One of your biggest sponsors is HBO.

Joe: They’re actually the eleventh hour sponsor, which held up a lot of things like the program guide but it’s good. We’re very happy they’re on board.

Catz: Usually these type of Asian-specific festivals happen in cities like San Francisco or New York City where there’s both a sizeable amount of independent filmgoers and a big Asian American population. Do you feel like Philadelphia has either or both?

Joe: I think the Asian American community in Philadelphia, there’s not necessarily that same community as in those other cities you mentioned. I don’t think there’s the same type of events that bring a lot of the people together. I’m hoping that this can be one of those events that does that, but there are tons of Asian American college students and young adults. Hopefully they’re waiting for something like this. We’ve gotten some good responses but we’ll see.

Catz: What qualifies a film to be an Asian American, exactly?

Joe: Well, as far as our film festival, we kept it pretty wide open. The filmmaker could be Asian American and it could be nothing about Asian Americans. Or the topics or actors could be Asian American so we do have films from non-Asian Americans.

Catz: Most people probably misunderstand this categorization, thinking that all the films will be about Asian American issues like immigration or cross cultural conflicts, etc. Do you think that that may be a turnoff?

Joe: Yeah, I could see that. I think maybe that’s where Asian American film was maybe a couple of years ago. But I think the films are definitely not that. I mean there’s some of that but there’s such a wide variety of different topics and different things going on.

Catz: How did you decide which films to include in your festival? How did you decide which ones would make it and which ones would wait until next time?

Joe: Definitely with the feature film [category], the primary thing is obviously the quality of the film, that was first and foremost. In the end though, it turned out that we have diverse, different Asian ethnicities as well as comedies, documentaries, dramas, stuff like that. I went to a lot of Asian American film festivals and saw a lot of the films.

Catz: How long have you been making films?

Joe: I graduated in 2001 and since then I’ve been an independent filmmaker primarily working as a crew member but I’ve done some short films that have played in film festivals.

Catz: Are you working on anything next?

Joe: I’ve just been writing a screenplay. I’ve done a number of short films; I had one that played in Urban World a couple weeks ago in New York. I think, at this point, I want to tackle a feature film, especially having met a lot of these feature filmmakers.

Catz: Which films in the festival are you looking forward to seeing?

Joe: I think we have a good selection of really good films. As far as the audience, I think some films may stand out a little bit more such as Planet B-Boy -- we have the director Benson Lee coming down from New York and that’s our centerpiece film. We have Kissing Cousins which is a really good film that’s gonna be on peoples’ radar in a couple of months. We potentially have the actor coming down, it’s a really funny comedy. Honestly, I gotta say, I like them all.

Thanks again Joe. To check out all the films, schedules and more info about PAAFF you can go to: phillyasianfilmfest.org