Lia Chang: Wo Ai Ni Mommy, Mochi, Miss Kicki, The Prodigy and 9500 Park are among the 2010 Asian American International Film Festival Award Winners

As the 33rd Asian American International Film Festival (AAIFF’10) came to a close on Wednesday, July 21 at the Chelsea’s Clearview Cinemas in New York City, actors Louis Ozawa Changchien and Karin Anna Cheung presented awards to five lucky filmmakers before the festival’s Closing Night screening of Quentin Lee’s The People I’ve Slept With.

The Prodigy by Adam Lee

Adam Lee, director of the short film The Prodigy, received The One To Watch Award, which recognizes filmmakers under the age of 21 who demonstrate promise and talent in the discipline of filmmaking. Lee’s short film follows the painstaking process of a piano prodigy as she strives to further perfect her art.

Mochi by Chung Lee

Taiwanese director Chung Lee won the Excellence in Short Filmmaking Award, which was accepted on his behalf by his wife Annie Hsu. Lee’s short film Mochi explores the tangled and complex relationship between Yulia, a live-in caretaker, and her antagonizing employer, a bitter old man whose offensive behavior alienates himself from his only son.

Faith and Donna in a Chinese store in Stephanie Wang-Breal's Wo Ai Ni Mommy

The award for Best Emerging Director in Documentary Feature went to Stephanie Wang-Breal for Wo Ai Ni Mommy, a documentary that follows a young Chinese girl’s transition from China to her adoptive home in Long Island, New York.

Miss Kicki by Hakon Liu

Swedish-Taiwanese filmmaker Hakon Liu received the award for Best Emerging Director in Narrative Feature for Miss Kicki, a story that follows a middle-aged Swedish woman and her estranged teenage son through their misadventures in Taipei.

9500 Liberty by Eric Byler and Annabel Park

Eric Byler and Annabel Park’s 9500 Liberty won the Audience Choice Award. Byler and Park’s film focuses on debates of immigration law through the policy debates in a West Virginian town.

The ceremony closed with Gina Chun accepting her reward for the CinemaMe Short Film Competition. The contest, sponsored by Toyota, asked non-professional filmmakers to offer their take on Asian American film in under five minutes. Chun will be awarded a grand prize of $3,000 for her film The Receiver, a video diary that recounts a conversation between an aspiring filmmaker and her disapproving grandmother.

All text, graphics, articles & photographs: © 2000-2010 Lia Chang Multimedia. All rights reserved. All materials contained on this site are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of Lia Chang. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content. for permission, please contact Lia at liachang@hotmail.com.

Photo by Lia Chang

Lia Chang is an actor, performance and fine art botanical photographer and an award-winning multimedia journalist.

As a photographer and videographer, Lia is frequently tapped to collaborate with artists, organizations and companies in establishing their documentary photo archive. She has been documenting her colleagues and contemporaries in the arts, fashion and journalism since making her stage debut as Liat in the National Tour of South Pacific, with Robert Goulet and Barbara Eden.

Lia’s portraits and performance photos have appeared in Vanity Fair, Gourmet, German Elle, Women’s Wear Daily, The Paris Review, VIBE, TV Guide, Daily Variety, Interior Design, American Theatre, Life & Style, OUT, New York Magazine, InStyle, Timeout.com, Villagevoice.com, Playbill.com, Theatermania.com, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, USA Today, The Boston Globe, New York Times and Washington Post. A former syndicated arts and entertainment columnist for KYODO News, Lia is the New York Bureau Chief for AsianConnections.com. She writes about culture, style and Asian American issues for a variety of publications and this Backstage Pass with Lia Chang blog. In July, selections of Lia’s archive of Asian Pacific Americans in the arts, fashion, journalism, politics and space will become part of THE LIA CHANG THEATER PORTFOLIO in the ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN PERFORMING ARTS COLLECTION housed in the Library of Congress Asian Division’s Asian American Pacific Islander Collection.

Related Articles:
Fox 5 News NY (WNYW-TV) reporter Ti-Hua Chang Receives AAJA National Journalism Award for story which explores Asian American Poverty in New York
33rd Asian American International Film Festival: Stephanie Wang-Breal’s Wo Ai Ni Mommy screens at Clearview Chelsea Cinema on 7/16 and at Queens Library on 7/23
AALDEF and the 33rd Asian American International Film Festival co-sponsors screenings of 9500 Liberty and Lt Watada at the Quad Cinema on July 17
Raymond Red’s Manila Sky Kicks Off the 33rd Asian American International Film Festival at the Chelsea Clearview Cinema on July 15; Festival continues through July 24
33rd Asian American International Film Festival Shorts Film Program Lineup
Randy Gener Wins 2010 SPJ Deadline Club Award for Best Arts Reporting in New York City
Asian Women Donors Grant $82,000 to NYC Artists and Non-profits Committed to Activism Thru The Arts
JAPAN CUTS: Japan Society’s Fourth Annual Festival of Contemporary Japanese Cinema, 7/1-16
Christine Toy Johnson Plays Christmas Eve in AVENUE Q at Weston Playhouse Theatre in Vermont, 7/15-31
Lia Chang as Nurse Lia on One Life to Live
Portrait of Secretary Norman Y. Mineta to Be Presented at the National Portrait Gallery
Making the Fred Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties and the Constitution Bill a Reality
Lia Chang Photos at the Shanghai World Expo 2010’s USA Pavilion, Library of Congress and Hollywood Chinese: The Arthur Dong Collection in L.A.
Hollywood Chinese: The Arthur Dong Collection Exhibition at the Chinese American Museum in Los Angeles, has been extended through November 7, 2010
Screening of “Transcending: The Wat Misaka Story”, Kicks Off OCA National Convention and 6th Annual Houston APA Film Festival on June 17; Wat Misaka and Dr. Leroy Chiao to Receive 2010 OCA Pioneer Awards
Photo Call: BD Wong and the Cast of Heading East at the Asia Society
Video Excerpts of Alfred Preisser and Randy Weiner’s CALIGULA MAXIMUS Starring Ryan Knowles as Caligula
Actor Samrat Chakrabarti Receives 2010 TMG Award for Global Achievers
Multimedia: George Takei, Nancy Kwan, Lisa Lu and Tsai Chin attend Hollywood Chinese: The Arthur Dong Collection Exhibition Opening Night
Samrat Chakrabarti is featured in Claire McCarthy’s The Waiting City, which screens at the Toronto International Film Festival
Review: HBO’s China’s Unnatural Disaster the Tears of Sichuan Province
AAIFF 09 Closing Night Awards and H.P. Mendoza’s Fruit Fly
AAIFF Karma Calling, You Don’t Know Jack and Children of Invention
Jeff Adachi’s You Don’t Know Jack and Tzi Chun’s Children of Invention Screen at AAIFF 09
Multimedia: AAIFF 09 Opening Night Screening of Claustrophobia
Schedule at a Glance: Asian American International Film Festival AAIFF 2009
Asian American International Film Festival 09 runs 7/23-7/26
In Arthur Dong’s Hollywood Chinese, Chinese Tinseltown Tales told by Asian Silver Screen Icons
Click here for the Lia Chang Articles Archive.

Lia Chang: AALDEF and the 33rd Asian American International Film Festival co-sponsors screenings of 9500 Liberty and Lt Watada at the Quad Cinema on July 17

The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) and the 33rd Asian American International Film Festival is co-sponsoring the screenings of 9500 Liberty by Eric Byler and Annabel Park, and Lt Watada by Freida Lee Mock, on July 17th at the Quad Cinema, 34 W. 13th St. in New York.

Discounted tickets for AALDEF members are $10. Please also consider a $5 donation (or more!) to help support AALDEF’s legal and educational programs.

RSVP by July 12. For information or to purchase tickets, contact Jennifer Weng at 212 966-5932 ext 212 or events@aaldef.org.

9500 Liberty by Eric Byler and Annabel Park at 3:30pm on July 17th, at the Quad Cinema, 34 W. 13th St. in New York.

9500 Liberty
Directors: Eric Byler & Annabel Park
Saturday, July 17 at 3:30 pm
How do we know if someone is undocumented? Do we judge them based on the way they speak or how they look? Even before Arizona passed SB1070–the controversial law requiring police officers to ask people to show their papers if they are suspected of being here illegally–Virginia residents in Prince William County engaged in a heated debate on immigration and racial profiling, when a similar ordinance was passed in 2007. The film will be followed by a Q&A and panel discussion.

Lt Watada by Freida Lee Mock at 9:00pm on July 17th at the Quad Cinema, 34 W. 13th St. in New York.

Lt. Watada
Director: Freida Lee Mock
Saturday, July 17 at 9:00 pm
Academy Award-winning filmmaker Frieda Lee Mock (“Maya Lin: A Strong Vision”) tells the story of Lt. Ehren Watada, the first commissioned military officer to refuse his orders to deploy to Iraq on the grounds that the war was illegal. The film describes Watada’s act of conscience, his emergence as a public speaker and activist, and his tense court martial proceedings that ended in a mistrial.

The Film Festival runs from July 15th to July 24th. Check out the entire schedule at http://www.aaiff.org/2010.

All text, graphics, articles & photographs: © 2000-2010 Lia Chang Multimedia. All rights reserved. All materials contained on this site are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of Lia Chang. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content. For permission, please contact Lia at liachang@hotmail.com.

Lia Chang © Tami Chang

Lia Chang is an actor, performance and fine art botanical photographer and an award-winning multimedia journalist. Lia’s portraits and performance photos have appeared in Vanity Fair, Gourmet, German Elle, Women’s Wear Daily, The Paris Review, VIBE, TV Guide, Daily Variety, Interior Design, American Theatre, Life & Style, OUT, New York Magazine, InStyle, Timeout.com, Villagevoice.com, Playbill.com, Theatermania.com, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, USA Today, The Boston Globe, New York Times and Washington Post. A former syndicated arts and entertainment columnist for KYODO News, Lia is the New York Bureau Chief for AsianConnections.com. She writes about culture, style and Asian American issues for a variety of publications and this Backstage Pass with Lia Chang blog. As a photographer and videographer, Lia is frequently tapped to collaborate with artists, organizations and companies in establishing their documentary photo archive. She has been documenting her colleagues and contemporaries in the arts, fashion and journalism since making her stage debut as Liat in the National Tour of South Pacific, with Robert Goulet and Barbara Eden.

Related Articles:
Juan Gonzalez and Larry Tu Received AALDEF 2010 Justice in Action Awards in New York
Multimedia: AALDEF Celebrates 35 Years of Protecting and Promoting the Civil Rights of Asian Americans
AALDEF Honors Dale Minami, Nicholas D. Kristof, Sheryl Wudunn and Sandra Leung with 2009 Justice in Action Awards on 3/26
Raymond Red’s Manila Sky Kicks Off the 33rd Asian American International Film Festival at the Chelsea Clearview Cinema on July 15; Festival continues through July 24
33rd Asian American International Film Festival Shorts Film Program Lineup
Asian Women Donors Grant $82,000 to NYC Artists and Non-profits Committed to Activism Thru The Arts
JAPAN CUTS: Japan Society’s Fourth Annual Festival of Contemporary Japanese Cinema, 7/1-16
Lia Chang Photos at the Shanghai World Expo 2010’s USA Pavilion, Library of Congress and Hollywood Chinese: The Arthur Dong Collection in L.A.
Hollywood Chinese: The Arthur Dong Collection Exhibition at the Chinese American Museum in Los Angeles, has been extended through November 7, 2010
Photo Call: BD Wong and the Cast of Heading East at the Asia Society
Actor Samrat Chakrabarti Receives 2010 TMG Award for Global Achievers
New York Knicks to Honor Wat Misaka at Madison Square Garden
Multimedia: George Takei, Nancy Kwan, Lisa Lu and Tsai Chin attend Hollywood Chinese: The Arthur Dong Collection Exhibition Opening Night
The Chinese American Museum partners with Academy award nominated filmmaker Arthur Dong on a groundbreaking exhibition about Hollywood’s forgotten past
Samrat Chakrabarti is featured in Claire McCarthy’s The Waiting City, which screens at the Toronto International Film Festival
ONE Musical stars Paolo Montalban, Manu Narayan, Pearl Sun and Michael Winther
Review: HBO’s China’s Unnatural Disaster the Tears of Sichuan Province
AAIFF 09 Closing Night Awards and H.P. Mendoza’s Fruit Fly
AAIFF Karma Calling, You Don’t Know Jack and Children of Invention
Jeff Adachi’s You Don’t Know Jack and Tzi Chun’s Children of Invention Screen at AAIFF 09
Multimedia: AAIFF 09 Opening Night Screening of Claustrophobia
Schedule at a Glance: Asian American International Film Festival AAIFF 2009
Asian American International Film Festival 09 runs 7/23-7/26
In Arthur Dong’s Hollywood Chinese, Chinese Tinseltown Tales told by Asian Silver Screen Icons
Fred Korematsu, American Hero and Civil Rights Activist Dies at 86
Click here for the Lia Chang Articles Archive.