Film fest: new date, new documentaries

The Northwest Asian American Film Festival has found a new season. The state's largest Asian-American film fest previously unspooled in October, in 2003 and 2004. Now it's found a new home in January, with four days of films beginning Thursday at the Theater off Jackson.

"We moved to January because [in October] there was actually a lot of collision with other Asian-American film festivals around the country," explained festival director Wes Kim. The new date works well — "It's not too nice out, so people might be more inclined to sit in a theater!" he said.

This year's edition of the festival includes five features and more than 50 short films. The opening-night gala will be the Northwest premiere of Grace Lee's documentary "The Grace Lee Project," a thoroughly enjoyable cinematic expansion of the question "What's in a name?" In the film, Lee embarks on a journey to meet and understand other women named Grace Lee. Over the course of the film, the filmmaker comes to terms with her name, which had originally seemed to suggest to her a certain Asian female stereotype of gentleness and passivity.

Lee will be present for Thursday's gala, as will a number of local Grace Lees — five, Kim says, at last count. (The festival is offering free opening-night admission to anyone named Grace Lee, as long as they RSVP to mynameisgracelee@nwaaff.org.) "It'll be interesting to see if they fit the mold," says Kim. Grace Lee, the filmmaker, will host a Q&A after the screening, and will likely pose for a group photo with the other Grace Lees.

A showpiece of the festival is the "Sunday Docs" program of three feature-length documentaries. Andrea Palpant's "In Time of War" looks at several Pacific Northwest stories about Japanese Americans affected by internment, evacuation and military service during World War II. Several subjects of the documentary will be on hand for a post-screening Q&A.

Robert C. Winn's "Grassroots Rising" examines the labor struggles of Asian-American immigrant families in Los Angeles. It will screen with local filmmaker Shannon Gee's short film "If Tired Hands Could Talk," about Seattle's own Asian garment workers.

"What's Wrong with Frank Chin?," directed by Curtis Choy, profiles the controversial writer and includes interviews with many local figures. Choy, Chin, and local writer Shawn Wong will participate in a post-film Q&A. Preceding it is Doug Ing's locally made short film "David Ishii: Bookseller," about the recently retired Pioneer Square bookshop owner.

Other highlights of the festival include an evening of "Cine-oake" (karaoke, set to scenes from film musicals) hosted by Bay Area comedian Ali Wong, a variety of short-film packages, and a special closing-night concert.

Evans Chan's documentary "Sorceress of the New Piano: The Artistry of Margaret Leng Tan," a profile of the avant-garde pianist, will be screened following a concert by Tan (her first in the Seattle area). The event is co-presented by Cornish College of the Arts and Washington Composers Forum.

Kim, who's directing his third festival, notes that the NWAAFF is slowly growing year by year. "We're definitely getting bigger in terms of awareness," he said. "Our numbers of attendees have gone up in the past couple of years and we're hoping to keep that going. We don't want to get too crazy with it — managed growth is a lot more preferable than becoming wildly huge overnight."

Moira Macdonald: mmacdonald@seattletimes.com