Events

Join us for the Asian American International Film Festival (AAIFF) 2016 in New York City! AAIFF is the first and longest running film festival in the country devoted to films by and about Asians and Asian Americans. This year, AAIFF runs from July 21 to 30, 2016. All screenings below take place at the Village East Cinema, 181-189 Second Avenue, NYC. To take advantage of AALDEF’s discounts for any AAIFF (excluding the Opening, Centerpiece, and Closing Night films), go to the AAIFF schedule and enter the promo code AALDEFaaiff16 after you’ve added your ticket order to your shopping cart. AALDEF is sponsoring three programs this year:

Saturday, July 23 at 6 PM – “The Night Of” A free screening of HBO’s “The Night Of,” followed by a Q+A. From creators Steven Zaillian and Richard Price, “The Night of” is an eight-part limited series that delves into the fictitious story of a Pakistani American student accused of murder and explores issues of racial profiling and criminal justice in the South Asian American community. Please RSVP here with “AALDEF” in the organization field. First 30 RSVPs are guaranteed admission–please arrive 20 minutes before the screening.

Saturday, July 23 at 1:30 pm – “Hidden Histories and the Power of Narrative Film: Telling the Story of Japanese American Incarceration and Beyond”. This short film program explores our tragic history of Japanese American internment camps during World War II. be evacuated to an undisclosed location.

THE ORANGE STORY is a 15-minute narrative film that tells the story of an elderly Japanese American who must sell all his belongings and report to an “assembly center” from where he will be evacuated to an undisclosed location.

TADAIMA focuses on four Japanese American family members who return home after World War II only to find their home ransacked by vandals and in a state of disrepair, and their subsequent journey to recover what was lost, both physically and symbolically.

Based on a true story, A SONG FOR MANZANAR set in 1945 at the Manzanar camp, is about a young mother, Sachie, who is driven to instill hope in her playful son while trying to communicate with her sister Hiroko, who still lives in Hiroshima.

Lastly, YAMASHITA explores a young Japanese American girl’s struggle with identity, the breakdown of her family, and the rediscovery of her ancestry as she and her family are forced into the internment camps.

Sunday, July 24 at 1:30 pm – “Painted Nails”

This film, directed by Eric Jordan and Dianne Griffin, tells the story of Van Hoang, a Vietnamese immigrant and nail salon owner in California. After discovering that her health problems and two miscarriages were caused by toxic chemicals in nail products, she becomes one of the first workers in decades to testify before Congress against the cosmetic industry.