Our friends at the Seattle Asian American Film Festival are celebrating their 10th Anniversary!

The Seattle Asian American Film Festival (SAAFF) proudly celebrates ten years of sharing Asian American independent films with the Pacific Northwest with its 10th annual film festival March 3–13, 2022. This year’s 11-day festival will offer 13 outstanding feature-length films and 12 exciting shorts programs, including 2 free programs.Due to continued pandemic precautions, there will be 5 limited in-person events, including 4 drive-in screenings andone special presentation screening at Northwest Film Forum (NWFF).

To kickstart the festival, this year’s Opening Night Party will be livestreamed on March 3 at 7:00PM PST. The evening will include performances and conversations with Massive Monkees, Chong the Nomad, and headlinerRuby Ibarra with host Prometheus Brown. Audience questions for the live Q&A with the performing artists may besubmitted at bit.ly/saaffON22.

The four drive-in screenings will showcase the Special Presentation feature films at The Stonehouse Cafe (9701 Rainier Ave S, Seattle, WA 98118). Drive-in screening tickets are $35 per vehicle. They will also screen concurrentlyonline throughout the entire festival.

• MARVELOUS AND THE BLACK HOLE (Opening Night Narrative – March 4 7:00PM PST) will premiere in Seattle and is a coming-of-age comedy that touches on unlikely friendships, grief, and finding hope in the darkest moments. A teenage delinquent befriends a surly magician who helps her navigate her inner demons and dysfunctional family with sleight of hand Limited tickets will be available for the online screening.
• CANE FIRE with MALIHINI (Centerpiece Documentary – March 11 7:00PM PST) will premiere in Seattle and examines the past and present of the Hawaiian island of Kauai, interweaving four generations of family history, numerous Hollywood productions, and troves of found footage to create a kaleidoscopic portrait of the economic and cultural forces that have cast Indigenous and working-class residents as “extras” in their own

• MALIHINI is a short film that will precede CANE FIRE. An introspective look into Hawaiian identity and living on the mainland, filmmaker Ha’aheo Auwae-Dekker uses a candid conversation with their mother to dissect and deconstruct where they come from and how their family has lived in
• SEE YOU THEN (Centerpiece Narrative – March 12 6:00PM PST) is a drama about the reconnection of atransgender computer programmer and an Asian American performance artist who used to date in Over the course of a one night encounter, they engage in a series of increasingly intimate and revealing conversations, before a revelation sends everything spiraling out of control. SEE YOU THEN focuses on the universal truth that no matter how much you change, a part of you will always stay the same. Limited ticketswill be available for the online screening.
• FREE CHOL SOO LEE (Closing Night Documentary – March 13 6:00PM PST) had its world premiere at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival and will be making its Pacific Northwest premiere. The film chronicles the union of the Asian American community to free a Korean immigrant who was wrongly convicted of a 1973 SanFrancisco Chinatown gang murder. A former street hustler becomes the symbol for a landmark movement. But once out, he self-destructs, threatening the movement’s legacy and the man himself. Limited tickets willbe available for the online

Other Special Presentation screenings this year include:

• AFTER YANG (Northwest Film Forum / March 5 9:30PM PST / General Ticket $13, On Sale Monday February 21) had its world premiere at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival. When his young daughter’s belovedcompanion — an android named Yang (Justin Min)

— malfunctions, Jake (Colin Farrell) searches for a way to repair him. In the process, Jake discovers the life that has been passing in front of him, reconnecting with his wife (Jodie Turner-Smith) and daughter (Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja) across a distance he didn’t know was there.

• TURNING RED (Online Exclusive Preview / March 10 / Free, First Come First Serve) is Disney and Pixar’s new animated film about a 13-year-old Mei Lee who “poofs” into a giant panda when she gets too excited (which for a teenager is practically ALWAYS). The screening will be followed by a pre-recorded Q&A with director Domee Shi, who helmed Pixar’s 2018 Oscar®-winning short BAO. The film launches exclusively onDisney+ on March

In addition to being the first decade milestone for SAAFF, this year marks the 80th anniversary of Executive Order 9066 and the 110th anniversary of the Titanic sinking. SAAFF’s 2022 program includes films that commemorateboth anniversaries. THE SIX tells the stories of the six Chinese men who survived the Titanic sinking and faced racism upon their arrival to New York in 1912. MANZANAR, DIVERTED: WHEN WATER BECOMES DUSTshowcases the

unexpected alliance of intergenerational women who are Japanese American World War II incarcerees, Native Americans, and environmentalists defending their local lands and water rights.

Media personnel can contact press@seattleaaff.org for film screeners in advance and interview requests. Requestfestival press passes here.

Other festival highlights include some of our short film programs:

• The Call Your Mom shorts program explores the experience of motherhood. These films bring attention to thegenerational, cultural, and migrational disconnects between us and our mothers and other maternal
• The Haru Haru: Korean American Shorts and Pamilya: Filipino/a/x Shorts are shorts programs that each speak to the unique experiences of their communities. Haru Haru: Korean American Shorts includes BJ’sMOBILE GIFT SHOP, a short film that premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Pamilya: Filipino/a/xShorts includes award winning films HONOR THY MOTHER, KALINGA (CARE), and LOLO.
• The Reflections: Refugee Stories and Legacies shorts program highlights the experiences, stories, and lasting legacies of refugee communities. From their experiences building their own small businesses and community within the United States, to the second-generation young adults redefining their own relationship to America, these films capture the complexities, histories, healing, and pain of refugeecommunities and the futures that they have helped pave the way

Online Ticket Prices:

• General Ticket: $10 | $8 (Discounted) | $20 (Household)
• Festival Pass: $120
• Shorts Pass: $80
• Festival 6-Pack: $50

Other ticketing information:

• Tickets for the shorts programs SAAFF Storytime and Not So New Normal: COVID-19 Shorts, Series 2 arepay-what-you-can.
• All films with drive-in screenings also will be available for virtual
• Viewers will be able to start watching at any time during the festival dates (12:00AM PST March 3, 2022 to11:59PM PDT March 13, 2022) after a purchase is made, and will have 48 hours to finish watching once theyclick

Visit bit.ly/saaff2022 to purchase passes, browse the online catalog, and buy tickets. Most screenings will befollowed by a pre-recorded Q&A with director(s) and/or cast and crew.

About SAAFF

SAAFF showcases works by Pacific Northwest Asian American filmmakers, as well as films from across North America dealing with Asian American people, issues, and themes. SAAFF is the only film festival in Seattle to provide a space for Asian American voices, perspectives, and histories. For more information about SAAFF, visitseattleaaff.org.

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Full Line-Up

Narrative Features

• AMERICANISH
• BELOVED
• SEE YOU THEN
• SILENT RIVER
• MARVELOUS AND THE BLACK HOLE DocumentaryFeatures
• A SEXPLANATION
• BECAUSE WE ARE GIRLS
• CANE FIRE WITH MALIHINI
• FREE CHOL SOO LEE
• KUNG SAAN MAN TAYO (WHEREVER WE MAY BE)
• MANZANAR, DIVERTED: WHEN WATER BECOMES DUST
• NO MAN IS AN ISLAND
• THE SIX 《六人》SpecialPresentations
• AFTER YANG (Tickets on sale 2/21)
• TURNING RED (TBA) Short Films Programs
• SAAFF Storytime
  • LEMONS
  • PUA WARRIORS
  • THE COOKIE HEIST
  • THE BEST GIFT
  • THE PAKALA KIDS
  • ANTON
  • CYMK (COLORS YOU MAY KNOW)
  • WANDER
• We Need to Talk About It
  • THE GREENHOUSE
  • UNFIT
  • ACTION POTENTIAL
  • LAST DAY
  • THE BLUE BED
  • RED HOUSE
  • PAIN OF THE ANONYMOUS
  • LOVE, LAUGH, DOOM, TEARS
• Call Your Mom
  • NIGHT & DAY
  • SNAKE TRAIL
  • ESTHER & SAI
  • CROUCHING COMIC
  • PLUS ONE
  • CHASING CLOUDS
  • TENTH OF JULY
  • DEAR NANAY

• Not So New Normal: COVID-19 Shorts, Series 2
  • WHERE ARE YOU REALLY FROM?
  • YELLO
  • EXHAUSTED
  • THIRD CULTURE: ADOPTED STORY
  • ONLY ASIAN FRIEND
  • HOME AWAY FROM HOME
  • INVITED IN
• Queer AF
  • I DON’T LIVE A VERY INTERESTING LIFE
  • IMPERFECTLY COMPLETE
  • F1-100
  • MUTYA
  • THO
  • BIGGER IS BETTER
• Family Portraits
  • I FIND HIM IN THE WEATHER
  • GOOD NEWS
  • 1056 METRES
  • LONELY BLUE NIGHT
  • THE CHILDREN
  • THERE WAS NOBODY HERE
  • RASPBERRY
• Sweet & Salty
  • WATERMELON SECRETS
  • HAVE YOU EATEN?
  • A BOWL FULL OF LOVE
  • KOTO: THE LAST SERVICE
  • LEFTOVERS
  • A HUNDRED JOYS
  • NO PLACE LIKE KASAMA
• Snapshots
  • SHILPI
  • 婦人 (FUJIN)
  • MELT
  • SYNCHRONIZED
  • ASCEND: REFRAMING DISABILITY IN THE OUTDOORS
  • CASHBACK
  • ANYTHING FOR YOU
  • CONGRATULATIONS (MABROOK)
  • LIGHTNING
  • LEARNING TO DROWN
• Growing Pains
  • JITTERS
  • TRILL
  • MAN BROWS
  • EXTRA CREDIT
  • ALIEN
  • AMERICANIZED
  • SINGLE BROWN MALE
  • POACHERS
  • WHAT WE FIND IN THE SEA

• Pamilya: Filipino/a/x Shorts
  • LOLO
  • AS AMERICAN AS IT GETS
  • HONOR THY MOTHER
  • KALINGA (CARE)
• Haru Haru: Korean American Shorts
  • JACKRABBIT
  • BADUK
  • STATE OF BEING
  • WHEN MAKING SUJEBI
  • SOFT SOUNDS OF PEELING FRUIT
  • BJ’S MOBILE GIFT SHOP
  • A PORTRAIT OF US
• Reflections: Refugee Stories and Legacies
  • MY NAME IS LAI
  • ELVIS OF LAOS
  • BUILT FROM SCRATCH
  • MOUNTAINS
  • HOPE AND GRACE
  • TRANSLATION OF SILENCE
  • AFTER IMAGES: CHANNARA TOM “PHILLY” PHEAP

Get your videos in to us at 5 pm, March 7!

Audition details at https://porkfilled.com/wp/auditions-now-open-for-she-devil-of-the-china-seas/

Audition form at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1l0ANEZywcoSWPHaM1CoJ3x1ZpxXM8u72wiweUOa9H6I/ 

Auditions are now open for PFP’s She Devil of the China Seas, set for August 2022 at the Theatre Off Jackson.

Based on the real-life pirate who commanded the largest pirate fleet in history, “She Devil of the China Seas” is one part true history, one part swashbuckler, one part Marvel comics! In this show, Shih knows one thing in life: survival. She clawed her way up from refugee to sex worker to support her injured sister. But when China’s pirate lord offers her a chance at something more, the sorceress Wu and her dark forces gather to destroy her before she can fulfill a destiny from the gods! An action fantasy a la BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA and SHANG CHI, complete with pirate queens, swords, and sorcery!

AUDITION INFORMATION

Audition form (with space for video auditions) at
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1l0ANEZywcoSWPHaM1CoJ3x1ZpxXM8u72wiweUOa9H6I/

Audition/Interview Dates: 
Auditions open immediately. Video submissions. Deadline February 28, 5 pm.

Callbacks March 22 and 26 at Theatre Puget Sound.

Audition Requirements: 

Seeking actors of all body sizes, genders, and physical abilities. 

Global Majority (BIPOC) actors, especially AAPI actors, are especially encouraged to audition. 

But roles require actors of ALL races/ethnicities.

Auditioners will be required to be vaccinated AND boosted. Actors called for callbacks will need to be masked, vaccinated and boosted.

Please note that there are specific needs in the script and we are working to cast as authentically as possible. Stage combat is a defining piece of this play. 

Sides from the play will be available for use as monologs. Actors may submit up to three sides of their choice, regardless of their fit to the character.

https://porkfilled.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/XI_SIDE_2022.pdf

https://porkfilled.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/ZHONG_SIDE_2022.pdf

https://porkfilled.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/SHIH_SIDE_2022.pdf

https://porkfilled.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/PAO_SIDE_2022.pdf

https://porkfilled.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/WU_SIDE_2022.pdf

https://porkfilled.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/AI_SIDE_2022.pdf

Cast breakdown

Compensation: 

Actors will be paid a stipend of $500 (plus 1% of net) and receive a certification from the Society of American Fight Directors if they complete the 3-week stage combat intensive (free to participants). Approximate value of workshop is $500.

Rehearsal schedule

Extended rehearsal schedule to encompass a stage combat intensive training (and the uncertainties of a pandemic world). Completion of intensive will result in certification in Unarmed Combat from the Society of American Fight Directors (workshop is free to participants). (Note: Actors not cast as fighters, or actors already certified are not required to take this workshop)

The Society of American Fight Directors is working to Expand, Educate, Empower!

EEE allows underserved communities and organizations to receive 30 hours of training (free!) in a particular weapon discipline (e.g. unarmed, single sword, knife, etc.) from an SAFD Certified Teacher and Advanced Actor Combatant. The 30 hours of training will culminate in a Skills Proficiency Test to be adjudicated by a Fight Master, giving students the opportunity to certify in said discipline. Payment for Certified Teachers, Advanced Actor Combatants, and adjudication fees will be provided for by the Society of American Fight Directors or grant funding. The organization receiving the education will not be held responsible for these expenses.

The mission of “Expand, Educate, Empower” is to:

1. Expand the outreach and diversity of the Society of American Fight Directors by connecting underserved artists and theatre professionals to stage combat professionals.
2. Provide free access to stage combat education.
3. Empower a more diverse cohort of theatre professionals.

Most of the slots are reserved for actors in our summer production, SHE DEVIL OF THE CHINA SEAS, but extra slots will be open to PFP alums and other BIPOC theatre artists. Keep your eyes peeled for announcements!

PFP is launching our first Year End Campaign!

We aim to raise $2,500 to ally with the Deaf community by developing a new world premiere play by an Asian American Deaf artist (with many Deaf actors in the cast!) for our Slow Cooker Unleashed, and to provide ASL interpreters for a Deaf Community Night for She-Devil of the China Seas! 

Already, we’ve raised $1,200 $1954 $2074 from donors!! We’d love for you to join this very cool initiative, which will build bridges from the Asian American community to the Deaf community.

Visit our giving portal (or click on the photo) and donate to PFP to help us reach our goal to bring fun, larger-than-life stories! Let’s meet our goal and a joyful 2022 for the Asian American and Deaf communities!!

PFP presents RESILIENCE! An AAPI 24-Hour Play Festival on November 13, 2021 at 8:00 PM PST.

Through Covid and an ever-mounting tide of anti-Asian hate, Asian Americans have gone through the wringer in the past two years. Well, guess what—we’re still here, persisting and resisting all your efforts to stuff us into boxes to define us. We’re striking back with our whole voice, creating 7 new plays in 24 hours themed around resilience, representation and better, bolder futures.

The festival performance will be live-streamed on PFP’s YouTube channel.

Link to tickets and the full list of the cast and crew to be announced in October.

Pork Filled Productions presents a reading of CJ, An Aspanglish Play, written by Mercedes Floresislas, directed by Ana Maria Campoy, with director of ASL Kai Winchester, available as video on demand,  starting July 31. Weaving English, Spanish and American Sign Language, CJ zooms from grounded reality to mythological realms in a tale enjoyable for hearing and deaf audiences alike.

When CJ’s mom overdoses, the fifteen year-old must go live with her estranged aunt and Deaf grandmother who also struggles with dementia. She lashes out at her grandmother and as a consequence three Aztec deities take her on a three night journey through Mictlan so she might recover her history and save her soul.

Tickets are available from Ticketleap, at https://pork-filled.ticketleap.com/cj-an-aspanglish-stry/ , on a Name Your Price basis (starting at $5 per household), and will be available until August 14. The play will have ASL interpretation.

This reading is the first step for CJ  as Ophelia’s Jump Theatre in Claremont, CA will then take the play to a full production in November of 2021. That will mark the sixth of seven shows since 2017 that Pork Filled has developed into full production out of its Unleashed play development program for POC playwrights.

The cast for CJ  includes Deaf actors Stephanie Nogueras, Eduardo Ayala, Michael Martinez-Islas, and Jake Merz; and hearing actors Mia Floresislas-Medina, Estefania Garcia, Beatriz Villegas, Michael D. Blum, Khalif J. Gillett, Maria Teresa Herrara.

Grecia Leal Pardo is stage manager. Melanie Queponds is dramaturg. Melissa Marquez is lighting designer.

CJ, An Aspanglish Play is suitable for ages 13 and up. Warning: [spoiler title=” style=’default’ collapse_link=’true’]the following subjects are talked about in this play: amputation, drug use, overdose, suicide and death. Child-parent separation is also depicted in this play.[/spoiler]

Plays about family intergenerational trauma have a healing effect, however, healing has a time and a place. Pork Filled  respectfully asks that you honor your healing journey in choosing what is best for you.

For more information, contact PFP at oink@porkfilled.com.

The oldest Asian American theatre group in the Pacific Northwest, Pork Filled Productions centers Asian American and POC artists to imagine fantastical, inclusive and FUN universes. Through the genres of science fiction, noir, fantasy, steampunk and more, we envision a bright universe informed by diverse experiences and perspectives, populated by larger than life characters, where everyone’s story can be told. PFP’s season is supported by 4Culture and the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture.

Pork Filled Productions is fiscally sponsored by Shunpike, the 501(c)(3) non-profit agency that provides independent arts groups in Washington with the services, resources and opportunities they need to forge their own paths to sustainable success.