A Song For Ourselves at Minneapolis/St. Paul Asian Film Festival - 11/10

A Song For Ourselves is coming to the land of Purple Rain! The first annual Minneapolis/St. Paul Asian Film Festival kicks off on Nov. 3rd and runs until the 13th. Song will be playing in the "Asian American Shorts Program" on 11/10 at 7pm. Much respect to all the organizers of the festival for making Asian American cinema a little more accessible to their communities!

A Song For Ourselves at the Pacific Rim Film Festival

A Song For Ourselves returns to Santa Cruz for the Pacific Rim Film Festival. Wish I could make it up for the screening. Fall in the Cruz is beautiful.

PACIFIC RIM FILM FESTIVAL
Sunday, Oct. 17th at 10p
Del Mar Theatre
Santa Cruz, CA.

A Song For Ourselves at RiverRun Film Festival - April 23, 24,25

A Song For Ourselves will be playing at the RiverRun Film Festival in Winston-Salem, NC this weekend. It will be playing in the Documentary Shorts #1 program on the following days:

April 23rd @ 5p at Aperture Cinema 2
April 24th @ 2p at UNCSA Campus - Gold Theater
April 25th @ 11:30a at Aperture Cinema 2

And You Say Chi City

The Chicago trip was too quick, didn't get to see or taste much of the city but I did kick it with good folks and saw some old friends. The Nakamura Trifecta event went well, Goh is always great to see/hear live and Eric schooled me on the hu$tle game and called me a leach during the panel.

Before I got there, Eric, Goh and Tim were guests on a local radio station (listen to the show here).

Before our presentation at Columbia College, Tim found himself surrounded by Nakamuras and a whole lot of aaaaaahhyeaaaaaahh!


First thing I had to do in Chicago was get a hot dog, and it lived up to all the hype. As much as I love LA dirty dogs, I would rather have one of these any day.


Giant Robot X FAAIM


Two groups that made the Nakamura Trifecta possible was the Columbia College Office of Asian-American Cultural Affairs and the Multi-Cultural Youth Project (MCYP). I met a lot of dope students who are already making an impact in their area.


Before jumping on the plane home I caught up with the good homie Steve from MCYP over some Italian beef sandwiches. We talked about The Chi's fading connection to it's local Asian American history, hip hop, weddings, and he hipped me to the amazing things his youth are doing.


Check out Eric's report back here which includes photos of some of the best sushi I've ever had.

Trilogy Screening in Austin

All three of my films will be screened together for the first time at the Association for Asian American Studies Conference tomorrow in Austin, TX! It'll be my first time in Texas, so of course I'm going to surround myself with a hotel full of Asians.

Thanks For The Love Claremont!

I've presented at the Claremont Colleges three times now and each trip has been worth that long ass drive. Last week I presented a workshop on "API Youth Cultures and Empowerment" at their Asian American Students Spring Conference. I got to build with a room full of students as we watched and listened to the evolution of API cultural workers from Chris Iijima to Faith Santilla to Hari Kondabolu. After the conference we all met up at Bambu's album release party.

The homies from the Claremont Colleges (and a couple of alumni who still think they are students):

206 Rock Rock On!

A newly formed organization of young Japanese Americans in Seattle who call themselves The YoGos (Yonsei-Gosei) had their first event last Saturday and asked me to be a part of it. My favorite type of screenings are the ones that take place in the middle of a community with the people who built it. And of course, there is just a special kinda feeling when it's with my people. It was a true pleasure to show my films in Seattle's International District and build with a group of JA's who are active in shaping their community.

The YoGos


It was ironic that I left a rainy LA for a sunny Seattle. It was a gorgeous day in the 206!


I even got some ink in the International Examiner!

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)

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

Hawai'i Premiere/Concert on Sept. 24th!

The Hawai'i Premiere & Concert of A Song For Ourselves is going down on Sept. 24th at NEXTDOOR in Honolulu!



It's gonna be a full-blown Cali invasion with performances by Bambu & DJ Phatrick, Power Struggle, and EyeASage. But most importantly, the event is a fundraiser for the Chris Iijima Scholarship Fund at the University of Hawai'i Law School.

For more info and to purchase tickets or donate to the fund, please go here.

Screening at New York's Asian American International Film Festival

Song will be playing at the Asian American International Film Festival in New York on July 25th and 26th.

Sat. July 25th - 4:45p
Museum of Chinese in America
*Part of "Life on the Edge" shorts program

Sat. July 26th - 12 noon
Chelsea Cinemas
*Precedes Manilatown is in the Heart: Time Travel with Al Robles

LA Asian Pacific Film Festival Part 2

here's more from the LA asian american film festival that ended last thursday. song screened in a very strong shorts program at the festival. from left to right; director of no joke burma li-anne huang, director of parallel adele adele pham and festival director abe ferrer:

eric answering questions after the world premiere of his film sounds of the new hope:
eric and his mom:

cindy, aj from xylophone films, eric and anna at the after-party:
thanks to everyone who came out to the "what's the matter with asian american film?" panel. i hope me and spencer didn't offend anyone too much:
some heavy hitters like scholar oliver wang (talking below) attended and participated in the panel. others who came out were asian american film legends robert nakamura, renee tajima-pena and curtis choy:
after the panel - from left to right: jeff liu from vc, spencer, me, lou nakasako, alex tse (writer of watchmen) and dustin nguyen (the asian guy from 21 jump street!):

LA Asian Pacific Film Festival Part 1

mass movement tv invaded opening night of the LA asian pacific film festival last week. none of the photographers wanted to take our picture in front of the backdrop so we had to ask someone to take one with my camera.

eric nakamura felt sorry for us so he interviewed me for the directors chair site

dj phatrick and o-dub on the 1's and 2's

beau sia lookin hecka hard in a shimmery green scarf

e.t. with michael chen the star of the opening night film children of invention directed by tze chun

sometimes there's a lot of hollywood bullshit at these kinda things, it is LA. but i can always depend on a handful of down-to-earth filmmakers have fun with. from left to right: michael velasquez (who did all the photo effects in song), patrick epino, phuong tang and tim jieh.

-tadillac

Thank You Claremont!

had a lot of fun screening the film and building with the students of asian american 187 at the claremont colleges.  shouts to soon-to-be prof. nancy park (standing to the right of me) for inviting me to her student initiated course on asian american arts & activism:

note to any students who plan to bring guest speakers to campus, a spiderman gift bag goes a long way!

SONG screening at LA Asian Pacific Film Festival on 5/2

a song for ourselves will be screening at the LA asian pacific film festival on may 2nd, 2:30p at laemmle's sunset 5 theater.   song will be part of the shorts program titled "passion for the people".   four other films will be screened including academy-award winning director jessica yu's latest film! 

for tickets and more information on the program please go to here.  this show has a very good chance of selling out so please get your tickets now!

New York New York - Big City of Dreams

The Shack

my dood kori (also a close friend of the iijima's) came out from "the a" for the new york premiere. here he is in the 40 min. line that you'll always see infront of shake shack:

but it's so fuckin worth the wait! kori went with the double stack. that ball of fried goodness in the middle is really a portobello mushroom and cheese, all battered and fried together: when the previously described shroom burger explodes in your mouth...this is the result...

The Premiere at Manhattan Country School

MCS was so packed they had to open two other classrooms to accommodate everyone who showed up. the screening was a huge success! chris iijima's family, friends, former students and new fans all gathered in the school where chris taught for many years.

the women responsible for the event: chris' former student and now active parent and staff at MCS akemi kochiyama (left) and director of the school Michele Sola

Lunch at the historical Iijima apartment

chris' sister lynne invited me, kori and miya to visit their father tak iijima, a 442 vet and one of the OG's of the early asian american movement. this is the same washington heights apartment where chris was rasied and also where one of the first progressive asian american organizations in the country, asian americans for action (AAA), held their meetings.

Kickin' it

it wouldn't be a new york trip if i didn't see the old CAPSA crew. its been a minute since our bandana and bullhorn days, here we are all sold out and booshie:

also got a chance to hang out with the homie aliwong.com, new york's newest comic sensation:

Chicago Screening at Asian American Showcase - 4/11 & 4/14

song will make it's midwest premiere next weekend at the 14th asian american showcase in chicago!  the film will be playing with the feature documentary you don't know jack: the jack soo story on 4/12 at 3pm and on 4/14 at 6pm.  both screenings will be held at the gene siskel film center.  

New York Premiere This Friday 3/27

New York Premiere of A Song For Ourselves Friday, March 27th at 7pm Manhattan Country School 7 East 96th Street (Between Madison & 5th Ave.) New York, NY 10128

(tickets sold out) i'm really excited about this weeks new york premiere.  not only is it the first screening in chris iijima's hometown, but its also happening at place that meant a lot to chris and his family, manhattan country school.  m.c.s. where chris spent many years (1975-85) as a teacher, the place where he met his wife jane (who was also a teacher at the school) and where his sister lynne currently works. here's chris with his 6th grade class at m.c.s. back in '82 akemi kochiyama (front row, middle) now works for m.c.s and is one of the main organizers of the friday's event!

all proceeds of the screening will go to the chris iijima fund, an endowment fund to support the unique sliding scale tuition policy that makes m.c.s. accessible to more students.