Nicole Newnham and Many Uch: director and subject of Sentenced Home, I took this bad photo at the post-screening Q&A session. They plopped down next to my group later at the informal dinner reception. I COULD HAVE DIED - talk about being expected to instantly!schmooze.

Some weekends ago, I was on a class trip at the DC Asian-Pacific American Film Festival. It was amazing - I experienced first-hand how a film festival is hardly just the showcasing of a particular genre, but also an immediate launch pad for discussion of subject matter presented. The filmmakers were a lot more like social activists than celebrities, no red-carpet shinies. The Asian-American media arts field is fundamentally a political (rather than a cultural or ethnic-based) movement - Many Uch represents Cambodian ex-criminals in America who are exiled to their native land and forcibly separated from their families in the US post 9-11, after years of buiding roots, coaching Little League, buying pink tricycles for their daughters. International Rescue Committee fliers, diatribes from the audience about the San-Fransisco based Asian-American comedy troupe 18 Mighty Mountain Warriors' (who you may remember more for this skit) perpertuating stereotypes through parody.
The Virginia Film Festival begins next week; I'll be seeing Blankets-esque Jesus Camp and Narnia again because William Moseley or kid-who-plays-Peter will be there. (Star lineup also includes Morgan Freeman and Everything is Illuminated director Liev Schreiber. Sweet Charlottesville will be invaded!)
Finally, some Sept articles before essays ate me up:

• HK friend Susanna's very own mafia movie,
• All the King's Men.