When the Houston Asian American Pacific Islander Film Festival began 18 years ago, co-director Christina Fu says that the event showed six movies, on VHS tape, in a room at a community center.
Now in its 19th annual edition, HAAPIFEST will screen 41 short and feature-length films by writers and directors from 13 different AAPI communities—Korean, Chinese, Taiwanese, Hawaiian, Iranian, Filipino, Japanese, Malay, Singaporean, Thai, Khmer, Indian, and Vietnamese—running June 3 – 11, 2023. Opening and Closing Days will feature in person screenings at the Marriott Westchase (June 3) and The Cannon West Houston (June 11), with the majority of the festival (June 4 – 10) taking place online.
At a time when “Texas has the largest concentration of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the South, and the Houston metro area has one of the top 10 largest Asian American populations in the United States,” as reported by the Houston Chronicle, HAAPIFEST reflects that growth—and the experiences of those living in the region.
“Our festival starts with Kapwa Texas, which includes scenes about the Houston Filipino experience,” said Fu.
Directed and produced by the filmmaking team of PJ Raval and Cecilia Mejia, Kapawa Texas is a new documentary that follows three Filipino American women, who discover themselves politically and personally during the pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement, amidst the bonds of Filipino family and community in Texas.
“The 13 AAPI communities represented in our movies all have communities here in Houston. Chinese, Indian, Korean, and Iranian Houstonians will see their stories, or stories of people they know, in our films, even if they don’t take place in Houston,” Fu said. “Great art shows how people from different backgrounds deal with the challenges and joys that we all face, based on their heritage and personal experience.”
Created in 2004 by OCA-Greater Houston, HAAPIFEST aims to highlight and celebrate AAPI cultures, to support AAPI artists and filmmakers, and to share the untold AAPI experience with the Greater Houston metropolitan area, according to its website.
“As the community has become more visible, so have we. Houston’s AAPI community is recognized worldwide for its size, diversity, and activity. Thanks to this, we received submissions from across the world,” said Fu.
The festival’s mission remains significant at a pivotal moment for diversity in Hollywood, which has made recent strides in AAPI representation along with efforts to have conversations to confront its history of AAPI invisibility and discrimination.
“We are thrilled by the increased AAPI representation in Hollywood. But there are still a lot more of our stories to tell,” said Fu.
Winners of Asian descent took home eight Oscars at the 2023 Academy Awards, the most in a single year so far, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Yet, stories about, written by, and performed by Asians remain low—with Asians representing only about 4% to 6% of all film roles, lead roles, film directors, and screenwriters, based on the 2022 Hollywood Diversity Report.
“Festivals like HAAPIFEST share stories that have not made it into big-budget features. We also are providing exposure to newer and lesser-known AAPI writers, directors, and actors who may find themselves working in Hollywood in the near future,” Fu said.
One of those emerging writer-directors is Anne Hu, whose film Lunchbox will be screened at HAAPIFEST. Lunchbox is the mother-daughter story about a Taiwanese American woman who struggles to forgive herself for pushing away her immigrant mother. As she cooks lunches from her childhood, she confronts regret, assimilation, cultural and familial loss, and healing.
The festival will also feature Mysore Magic by Abijeet Achar, an award-winning director and cinematographer of Indian and Mauritian descent. Mysore Magic tells the true story of an unlikely romance in 1982 at a disco competition in Mysore, India.
In a press release, Fu also called the range and quality of this year’s films “breathtaking,” including stories of “growing up in Chinatown, mental illness, LGBTQIA+ issues, undocumented persons, and depictions of the current struggles against racism and exclusion.”
The festival also creates a shared space for community building, according to Fu.
“Our opening and closing receptions are opportunities for the Houston AAPI community to come together, mingle, network, and watch some of the best AAPI-created movies available,” she said.
HAAPIFEST’s complete schedule, along with film descriptions, can be found here.
Houston Arts Journal 