Rapper Rich Brian in Justin Chon’s Jamojaya opens festival

The 46th Asian American International Film Festival (AAIFF)
opened Wednesday in the Museum of Moving Image
in the Astoria neighborhood of New York City. Once the film
capital of America from 1895 to 1910 this location buzzed with
excitement as some 150 guests attended the opening of
AAIFF’s 10-day festival. The festival has proven vital to
showcasing Asian American and Asian Cinema from directors
like Oscar winner Ang Lee to unknown independent film
makers.

Jamojaya East Coast premiere

The AAIFF festival opened with the East Coast premiere of
Jamojaya, an intense film directed by Justin Chon about a
father and his rapper son. The son is played by rapper Rich
Brian. His character is forced to fire his manager-father to
appease his disparaging music industry handlers (all of them
White).
The movie is structured around an Indonesian legend. The
legend is of a brother searching for his deceased brother who
has become a Banyan tree. The searching brother becomes a
bird and lands on the tree not realizing it’s his brother’s soul. In
Jamojaya the rapper son and father angst and fight over his
older, stronger and more perfect older brother who died in the
disappearance of Indonesian flight MH 370 in 2014.

Indonesians growing Asian American community

Eunice Chen, associate Director of Asian Cinevison, the parent
organization of AAIFF, explained to AsAmNews why Jamojaya
was chosen to start off the festival. Chen said the film, which is
about an Indonesian rapper filmed half in Indonesian and half
in English fit their goals.

“Asian American stories and Asian diaspora stories need to be told. Indonesians are a growing Asian American community and need to have their stories
told.”

AAIFF Festival critical for AAPI producers

One of Jamojaya’s producers, Joseph Dang, who flew in from
Los Angeles, told AsAmNews that this festival is critical to
showcasing Asian American talent.

Dang said, “…this is helpful for a push forward to get more representation on screen and to allow, to basically kind of come together as a community….
It also makes our lives easier to find the finances.”

Dang agreed that Asian Americans are advancing a bit in
American entertainment. He mentioned the Cinemax series
Warrior with its mainly Asian American cast.

Stars of Warrior and American Born Chinese attend AAIFF

Two prominent Asian American actors, Perry Yung from
Warrior and Ben Wang, the star of American Born Chinese (also
starring Michell Yeoh) echoed those sentiments when they
attended the festival opening. Yung noted that he began his acting career by attending a workshop on filmmaking run by
Asian Cinevision. Yung added that without festivals like AAIFF, “
Our stories would not be told at all.”

Ben Wang also acknowledged some improvements for Asian
Americans in entertainment noting that just five years ago
when he was in college there were no roles he could have
played on TV. In addition, AAIFF, said Wang, “…is going to help
inspire the next generation of creators, actors, storytellers tell
deeper and deeper stories.”

AAIFF Plaftorm leads to Minari, Crazy Rich Asians

Asian Cinevison’s Eunice Chen added that the Asian American
International Film Festival “… has become incredibly important,
because it lays the foundation for the big films of today. The
films such as … Minari, Crazy Rich Asians, Joy Ride. Even the big
blockbusters. They’re possible because there was a platform for
them to start with.”

The opening night was capped with a musical performance by
Jimmy Lym (@yeahthisimmy on Instagram).

The festival is hybrid with in-person showings until July 30th.
After that the films of the 46th AAIFF can be viewed online by
going to AAIFF.org and purchasing tickets. The Staff of AAIFF is all volunteer and the parent organization, Asian Cinevision, is a
registered non-profit.