Festival Forum
Saturday March 14, 2009
12:00 – 9:30pm
Japan Peace Plaza

Sponsored by Toyota and presented in conjunction with the Festival’s usual offerings of film screenings, the Festival Forum will feature a Japanese-American bluegrass guitarist, a Brazilian drum ensemble, rock bands and breakdancers performing live on stage, as well as booths with interactive experiences via social networking websites. Two winners from the Festival’s annual Do-It-Yourself Music Video contest, provided by Locus at KSW, will be screening at the Plaza, and the ever-popular Festival program Music Videos Asia will return as a free screening in the Plaza, followed by a presentation of the wacky Japanese film, BIG MAN JAPAN!!!!

2009 SFIAAFF Festival Forum Performance/Screening Schedule

All-day Hapas.us
All-day Make your own movie
12:00 DJ Similak Chyld: DJ/producer
1:00 Eth-noh-tec: Asian American Kinetic Story Performance
2:00 Jane Lui: Indie singer songwriter
2:35 Toshio Hirano: Bluegrass singer
3:10 Sambasia: Brazilian Samba ensemble
3:45 Hung Dynasty: Breakdancing performance
4:40 Goh Nakamura: Indie singer songwriter
5:25 Cast of Thousands: Rock performance
6:15 MUD: Rock performance
7:20 Screening: Music Video Asia
8:00 Screening: BIG MAN JAPAN, Japan 2007, Director Hitoshi Matsumoto

FILM SCREENINGS

Music Video Asia

• Bambu, “Crooks and Rooks”, Dir. Patricio Ginelsa
• Big Phony, “Words That Define”, Director Chris Chan Lee
• Dengue Fever, “Seeing Hands”, Director Lance Acord
• The Dodos, “Fools”, Dir. Matt Amato
• P.I.C., “Arthur Fonzaralli”, Director Steve Mallorca
• The Vox Merger, “Reasons”, Director Todd Angkasuwan

Also screening will be two winners from the Festival’s annual Do-It-Yourself Music Video contest, presented by Locus at KSW. The contest is a Bay Area focused event for Asian American filmmakers and musicians – eight music videos will compete to be screened, and all can be viewed at: www.asianamericanmedia.org.

Outdoor Screening of BIG MAN JAPAN

Also screening will be the acclaimed Japanese film BIG MAN JAPAN (Dainipponjin), 2007, 113 mins, at 8:00 PM. A hilarious mockumentary featuring giants, monsters and an alternate reality Japan, BIG MAN JAPAN is directed by Hitoshi Matsumoto. As described by the San Francisco International Film Festival:

“Things aren’t going so well for Mr. Daisato, employee at the Department of Baddie Prevention. Speaking to a documentary film crew about his mundane life, he bemoans the estrangement of his wife and daughter, the increasing dementia of his formerly famous grandfather and the low ratings of his televised battles with baddies. See, our (super)hero is a sixth-generation member of the Dainipponjin (“The Great Japanese”), a rarefied breed who defend Japan from various villains scourging the land.