Song Wins Special Jury Award at the San Diego Asian Film Festival!

A Song For Ourselves won the Short Film Special Jury Award last weekend at the San Diego Asian Film Fest. SDAFF has a super official awards gala that Eric Tandoc and I were lucky enough to attend. "Lucky" meaning that the San Diego JACL generously sponsored our tickets and let us sit at their table. Eric made the most of the free beer while I popped an anti-anxiety pill.



There was a gala after-party which was "cool, but it's not what i'm use too" so i celebrated the night with the homies from AnakBayan LA & SD over some late night carne asada fries:


Mass Movement in the building! Eric's film Sounds Of A New Hope screened to a packed house.

Screenings in New Orleans, DC and Philly This Weekend

Three big screenings this weekend! All the films that are playing with A Song For Ourselves in these festivals are excellent, please try and catch one in your city. Unfortunately, I'll be stuck in my room working on film school applications.


DC APA Film Festival
Saturday, Oct. 10th @ 12p

Playing with Manilatown Is In The Heart This screening is FREE!


Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival
Sunday, Oct. 11th @ 1p Playing with Sounds of a New Hope by Mass Movement's own Eric Tandoc


New Orleans Film Festival
Sunday, Oct. 11th @ 5p Playing with A Village Called Versailles (I've heard this film is amazing. This will definitely be a special screening since it will be in New Orleans)

Taiyo Na performs "War of the Flea" with Nobuko Miyamoto and Charlie Chin in NY

Last Saturday at the Basement Workshop Reunion in New York the homie Taiyo Na performed "War of the Flea" alongside Nobuko Miyamoto and Charlie Chin. Taiyo has always mentioned Chris Iijima as one of his biggest influences and inspirations as an artist so I can't imagine how amazing it must have been for him to sing Chris' lyrics with his old music partners.



Listen and download the original "War of the Flea"

Here's the filthy Senz of Depth Remix featuring Bambu off the A Song For Ourselves Mixtape:

Honolulu Weekly Cover Story

One of the coolest parts of the Hawai'i trip was going to Boots & Kimo's to eat this (banana pancakes swimming in macadamia nut sauce)... ...and then walking over to Foodland and seeing this:
The small print along the yellow fist reads "Long Live Chris Iijima"!
Read the whole article here.

Flicks from Hawai'i Premiere on Honozooloo

I had the privilege of meeting a grip of inspiring and talented people while in Hawai'i and photographer Aaron Yoshino was one of them. I became a fan of his photos earlier this year through his website honozooloo.com. After hanging out with all these filipinos, it was really good to see a fellow buddhahead making a name for himself and doin it big! SEE ALL THE PHOTOS AT HONOZOOLOO.COM