A five-day festival of films and fun

Going strong since its 2002 inception, the Northwest Asian American Film Festival is squeezing a lot of activity into five days, beginning with a kickoff party Wednesday at the Theatre Off Jackson.

The NWAAFF is dedicated to showcasing features and shorts by Asian-American filmmakers from the Pacific Northwest. But it also reaches out to Asian-American directors elsewhere in the United States. This year's fest will be highlighted by various Seattle and Northwest premieres, as well as appearances by several filmmakers to introduce their works.

Among the promising selections on the schedule are a couple of strong movies that were available for previewing.

Georgia Lee's 2005 "Red Doors," melancholy yet emotionally frank, was the winner of the Best Narrative Feature prize at the Tribeca Film Festival. It's the story of a Chinese-American family, the Wongs, going through an unsettling period of transition in a New York suburb. Ed (Tzi Ma), the patriarch, is facing retirement and seems lost and disconnected from his traditionalist wife (Freda Foh Shen) and three daughters, all of whom are moving on to adulthood and independence.

Lee's story is dominated by low-key events in the lives of Ed's kids, and, for a while, one might question where it's all leading. But the script proves to be more than the sum of its parts, particularly when Ed takes drastic action to find meaning. You can hear death chains rattling in this movie, behind all the gentle comedy and muted drama about time, memory and change.

Festival preview


Northwest Asian American Film Festival, Thursday through Jan. 28 (kickoff party Wednesday), Theatre Off Jackson (unless noted); single tickets are $5-$10, passes are $50-$70 (800-838-3006 or www.nwaaff.org).

Ironically, that theme is reversed in the remarkable documentary "The Cats of Mirikitani," a personal look at a homeless man, lost in a whirl of angry memories, who slowly becomes grounded in his identity again. The film captures director Linda Hattendorf's evolving friendship with 80-year-old Japanese-American Jimmy Mirikitani, a passionate, lifelong artist whom she meets on the streets of New York early in 2001.

On Sept. 11, she brings Mirikitani — whom she finds choking on toxic clouds from the collapsing World Trade Center towers — into her apartment and life. The film traces Hattendorf's successful efforts to piece together her new roommate's history from scraps of information in his frequent rants about the U.S. internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.

A sometimes beautiful film that seamlessly weaves collective memory about the detention of Japanese Americans and one man's unresolved grief about his losses from that shameful period, "The Cats of Mirikitani" is a deeply moving tale of redemption.

Here's the entire NWAAFF schedule. All screenings and events will be held at the Theatre Off Jackson (409 Seventh Ave. S., Seattle) unless otherwise noted:

Wednesday

Pre-Festival Kickoff Party, 7 p.m. Trailers and selected shorts (including the Seattle premiere of Eric Byler's 27-minute "My Life ... Disoriented"), followed by a reception and karaoke.

Thursday

"Eve and the Fire Horse" is about a precocious 9-year-old trying to find her own sense of right and wrong. Winner, Special Jury Prize, Sundance Film Festival. Director Julia Kwan will attend. 7 p.m., Northwest Film Forum, 1515 12th Ave., Seattle.

"Journey from the Fall" is a drama about a Vietnamese family's separation after the fall of Saigon, directed by Ham Tran, who will attend. 9:15 p.m., Northwest Film Forum.

Next Friday

"Red Doors," winner of the Best Narrative Feature prize, Tribeca Film Festival. 7 p.m.

"Mighty Warriors of Comedy" is a documentary about 18 Mighty Mountain Warriors, an Asian-Pacific Islander comedy sketch troupe. Special guests Pork Filled Players, an Asian-American sketch group from Seattle, will entertain. 9 p.m.

"Scumrock," a comedy by Jon Moritsugu — newcomer to our neck of the woods — that E! Online called "poignant" and "wonderfully trashy." Best Feature at both the New York Film Festival and the Chicago Underground Film Festival. Moritsugu will attend with his 45-second short, "Crack." 11 p.m.

Jan. 27

"Asian American Activism," a shorts program. 12:30 p.m., free admission for students.

"Animation: The Illusion of Life," another shorts program. 2:15 p.m.

"Northwest Shorts." 4 p.m.

"Colma! The Musical," the Seattle premiere of another big prizewinner set in a suburb where the "dead outnumber the living 1,500 to 1." Music by H.P. Mendoza, directed by Richard Wong. 7 p.m.

"Cineoke," which is not a movie but a karaokelike party where you get to sing along with musical clips from movies. 9:30 p.m.

Jan. 28

"The Cats of Mirikitani," winner of the Audience Award, Tribeca Film Festival. 1 p.m.

"The Slanted Screen" and "American Sons," two documentaries about how images of Asian-American men on and off screen influence one another. 3 p.m.

Closing Night Party at O'Asian, 800 Fifth Ave., Seattle. 5 p.m. 21 and over.

Tom Keogh: tomwkeogh@yahoo.com