More Than Just Movies: A Festival Built on Community
The Asian American International Film Festival (AAIFF) is not just another film festival; it is the first and longest-running event of its kind in the United States. Since its inception in 1978 in New York City’s Chinatown, the AAIFF has served as a crucial space for Asian American and Asian diaspora filmmakers to share their stories. Now in its 48th edition, the festival, presented by Asian CineVision (ACV), is more than just a place to see films; it is a vital resource for emerging artists and a hub for community building.
Kris Montello, the Programming Director for the AAIFF, emphasizes this broader purpose. “We want to do more than just show films; we see ourselves as a place to meet, a place to network,” Montello explains.
“We’re going to have a whole day of panels on Saturday where filmmakers will speak about their experiences and help to provide almost like a masterclass on documentary filmmaking. So, we see ourselves as not just a place to show off these films, but as everybody gathers in the city to participate in the festival, we want them to meet each other, network, and learn something. Perhaps their next film will come from something they experienced or someone they met at our festival. So that’s something we’re really trying to embody this year: to be a resource on top of just being a festival.”
Kintsugi and the Quest for Hope in a Cracked World
The 48th AAIFF, running from July 31 to August 10, 2025, embraces a powerful theme: “Kintsugi,” representing “the beauty of repair and transformation”. This idea guides the festival’s selections, which include films exploring themes of love, relationships, grief, and complex emotions. Montello clarifies that the theme emerged from the programming process itself, reflecting a desire to use cinema as a “projector shining through the cracks in the dark world we find ourselves in.”
Montello talks about the festival’s focus on supporting new voices. “I really wanted to focus on filmmakers that were especially young, new, and independent, working with micro-budgets,” he explains. “People that would benefit from being in this festival environment for the first time, and people who are really sort of coming into the joys of filmmaking for the first time. I wanted to celebrate young filmmakers today.
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So I think it’s this idea of looking towards the youth to provide that light that shines through the cracks, to kind of find hope in the future and to provide a means of working towards that hope.” This commitment to emerging talent means the festival often prioritizes showcasing first-time filmmakers, aiming to inspire and educate new generations.
Slanted: A Bold Opening Night Choice
This year’s Opening Night Film is Slanted, a narrative feature directed by first-time feature filmmaker Amy Wang. The film makes its New York City Premiere at the festival.
Slanted is a unique blend of genres, categorized as a comedy, coming-of-age story, horror, and thriller. Its logline describes it as a film where “An insecure Chinese-American teenager undergoes experimental surgery to appear white, hoping to secure the Prom Queen title and peer acceptance”.
Slanted follows Joan Huang, a Chinese-American teen in the 2010s South, who battles racism and cultural clashes. Bullied as an 8-year-old for her differences, the 17-year-old Joan becomes obsessed with popularity and the Prom Queen title, leading her to consider “racial modification surgery” to achieve a ‘white’ ideal. This quest alienates her from her family and friends, offering a satirical look at assimilation and “white worship” while focusing on her “tragicomic struggle for self-worth”.
Captain America: The Rediscovered Vision of Albert Pyun
A significant highlight of the festival’s program is the Special Presentation of Captain America: Albert Pyun Cut. This screening features the director’s cut of the 1990
Captain America film and marks its U.S. Premiere. The film is categorized as a narrative feature, with genres of action and thriller. Its logline states, “Frozen in the ice for decades, Captain America is freed to battle against arch-criminal, The Red Skull. This is Albert Pyun’s legendary lost cut”.
The synopsis explains that this director’s cut of Albert Pyun’s “ill-fated 1990 CAPTAIN AMERICA film emerges from a deep, frozen slumber”. While the original theatrical release is “considered one of the worst superhero movies ever made,” this long-lost version aims to restore “the verve, tragedy, and depth of the movie Pyun always intended to make”. The festival is delighted to celebrate the late Albert Pyun as “one of the greatest Asian American filmmakers: a man who understood how to bring comic books to the screen long before the MCU”. The film contains content warnings for violence.
Director Albert Pyun, born May 19, 1953, was from Kailua, Oahu. He trained under Japanese actor Toshiro Mifune and later Akira Kurosawa’s Director of Photography, Takao Saito, in Japan. He then worked as a commercial film editor in Honolulu before moving to Los Angeles to direct feature films. His filmmaking style was strongly influenced by his experiences growing up in Hawaii and living in foreign countries. His first film, THE SWORD AND THE SORCERER (1982), was the highest-grossing independent film of that year, earning over $36 million in the US. Pyun is known for his science fiction and action B-movies, with cult favorites like Cyborg (starring Jean-Claude Van Damme) and Nemesis. Some of his films were even featured on the classic Comedy Central show Mystery Science Theater 3000.
Montello shares his personal excitement for this screening. “His original vision is actually quite remarkable. It’s surprisingly political and somber, truly thinking about what Captain America represents. Very, very smart.” He heard that Pyun’s original director’s cut was uncovered after his passing in 2023. Montello was eager to screen it, calling it “great” and stating it is “not the worst superhero movie ever made.” A Q&A session with screenwriter Stephen Tolkin will follow the screening, providing an opportunity to delve deeper into this particular version of the film. Pyun’s version of Captain America was intended to capitalize on the success of the 1989 Batman film, and Pyun, a big fan of comic books, “really put a lot of heart and soul into it.” Montello sees this screening as a way to “show off what he was able to achieve when his vision wasn’t fettered by studio interference.”
Beyond the Festival: Asian CineVision’s Year-Round Impact
The AAIFF is presented by Asian CineVision (ACV), a non-profit organization with a 50-year history dedicated to the development, exhibition, promotion, and preservation of Asian and Asian American film and video. Beyond the annual festival, ACV runs a National Tour program, making AAIFF films accessible to a wider audience. This program allows universities, museums, and community groups to rent and screen AAIFF films across the country and internationally, providing access to a curated selection of recent festival features and shorts.
Navigating the Festival: Kris Montello’s Advice
For those attending the festival, Montello offers advice on how to make the most of the experience. He encourages attendees to engage directly with festival staff and filmmakers. “Don’t be afraid to talk to the festival staff,” he suggests. “Speaking earlier about having the Film Festival as a resource for filmmakers, we want people to connect and meet each other and talk about films. But if you’re not a filmmaker, if you’re just part of the audience, I think that doesn’t mean you should exclude yourself from the conversation.”
He advises treating it as a gathering place rather than just a movie theater. “This is a place where the filmmakers are present, and our staff, we all love movies and we’re all familiar with these movies. So I guess my answer is to talk, to listen, to have a conversation, and to make yourself a part of this event. Pay attention to what people are recommending and what sounds good.” By embracing these interactions, attendees might discover new films, gain unique insights from filmmakers, and build connections within the vibrant film community.
Your Invitation to AAIFF48
The Asian American International Film Festival continually seeks out diverse voices from across the globe, bringing together filmmakers and audiences in a shared love for storytelling. It’s a place where you can discover new talents, rediscover hidden gems, and be part of a vibrant conversation about cinema’s power to connect us all. As Kris Montello emphasizes, the AAIFF is truly a place for “all these different things that these films can be: dealing with issues, but also being experimental visually and in terms of genre, and just being a bold debut and being a unique indie film made by some up-and-coming people.”
Don’t miss the 48th Asian American International Film Festival from July 31 – August 10, 2025!
Plan your visit, get your tickets and passes, and join the conversation. You can find all the details at aaiff.org.
