Apature Film Night

Written: September 25, 2003
Last Updated: September 26, 2003

A report from the film night at Kearny Street Workshop's annual multidisciplinary arts festival.

APAture 2003 Film Night was held Thursday evening at the SOMArts Cultural Center in San Francisco. I was last at SOMArts for a butoh performance by Harupin-Ha Butoh Dance Theatre. Rae's documentary narrative film, Jingwei Girls, was selected along with 10 other works from filmmakers around the Bay Area. Here's a list of the other artists and their works:

Spunk Patrick Epino (4 min., experimental/narrative)
50 GÕs Omz Velasco (7 min., drama)
The Question Ramsel J. Ruiz (4 min., experimental)
Jingwei Girls Rae Chang (10 min., narrative)
Troo Bloo Debbie H. Ng (4 min., drama)
Regret Bruce Cheung and Andinh Ha (6 min., experimental)
Lockjaw Gayle Romasanta (19 min., comedy)
Gone Natalie Mai-Ly Newman (3 min., 17 sec., experimental)
The Skyflakes: Bad Thoughts Dino R. Ignacio (5 min., animation/music video)
The Scapegoat Darren Ng (23 min., comedy)

It was neat to see Rae's film being screened in front of a wider audience. We had shown the film to friends and family back in March, but that was on a small TV screen; this was on a giant screen! Woo hoo! I also really enjoyed Darren Ng's The Scapegoat, which was a silent homage to Buston Keaton. Darren did a great job as a Berkeley student who, by no real fault of his own, gets chased around campus by a jealous white boyfriend and his pack of Asian brothers. Regret by Cruce and Andinh was quite haunting, a backwards (and sometimes forward) retelling of a suicide on campus.

There were a lot of familiar faces at the film night, including photographers, David and Jay, Michael and Deb, Michelle, Susan, Petrice, Nancy, Scott, Wilson, Cristina, Cecily, and Kai. I was also able to see Wendy's photographs on display in the art gallery. Maybe next year, I'll submit some of my work for APAture 2004!

As the evening concluded, the group wanted to go out to eat dinner and have drinks. I had to get some work done, so I made the long drive back to Cupertino. I'm off to Atlanta on Sunday for a quick trip, so I'll be reporting from there early next week. Till then!