[Super Duper Fantastic] ISFP/INFP. 4w5. World Explorer. Super Hero. Rose-colored Glasses.

Over the weekend, I volunteered for the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival. I have been meaning to get involved with the festival for years, but their shift hours never quite matched up with my availability until now. Hooray for work/life [+ volunteering] balance!

I picked up two shifts, earning myself two tickets to the festival. One started off with taking tickets for an afternoon talk with Aasif Mandvi [The Daily Show, Today's Special, The Proposal] and finished off with passing out around two hundred boxes of popcorn with Toyota’s logo on the box. They’re a sponsor of the festival and were giving out free popcorn for select screenings. The second shift involved a giveway for the Asian Art Museum. I would have picked up more shifts, but with the timing, I wouldn’t have been able to actually SEE any of the films. A little disorganized in some areas, but considering the event is fueled by volunteers [volunteer:staff ratio is quite high], it was a good experience overall. I’d do it again if it fit into my schedule.

Update: The sister who has been working closely with the film festival for years also found the volunteering experience to be disorganized, so it wasn’t just me. Also, during one of her shifts [Youtube Panel], a group of high school girls tried sneaking in. When they were out of tickets, the girls were unruly and swearing at everyone in sight. LOL – glad I wasn’t working that particular shift, although telling off a bunch of tweens might have been hilarious.

So tonight, I’ll be checking out Dear Lemon Lima! From the film festival guide:

“Today I read the ‘un’ section of the dictionary and learned a lot about myself: I am: unpopular, unwanted, and unlovable,” scrawls 13-year-old misfit Vanessa into her dear diary, studded with rainbow hearts and cupcakes, and works her fortune-telling device (covered with unicorns, of course) until it gives her the answer it wants: that Philip, class dreamboat and first-class narcissist, loves her. Half Yup’ik Eskimo, Vanessa is the token minority at a prestigious private high school in suburban Alaska (Philip’s family helped her get a scholarship), ignored by most other students and only accepted by a motley crew of fellow outsiders, slackers and geeks. When Philip finally dumps her, Vanessa hits upon an odd idea to win him back: to lead a team in the “Snowstorm Survivor Challenge,” a high-school contest that “incorporates” (or appropriates) Native Alaskan survival techniques, and hopefully impress him with her skills. An assured comedy about gawky adolescence that doesn’t, despite its cuteness, sugarcoat the legacy of bigotry against Native Alaskans or the toxic overprotectiveness of modern parents, DEAR LEMON LIMA, features winning performances by part-Yup’ik (and first-time actor) Savanah Wiltfong and veteran Beth Grant (reprising her role from DONNIE DARKO) as an overenthusiastic school booster.

The San Francisco portion of the festival runs until Thursday, and then it heads down to San Jose for a few days. There’s usually some great films you wouldn’t get/think to see otherwise, so check it out if you can!

Update: This movie was excellent! It’s on Netflix if you want to check it out.

The sister and I used our free film festival ticket last night. I got home a little earlier than usual and really wanted to get out of the house. We had these free tickets from volunteering to be in the trailer. The festival only runs through this weekend, and we didn’t really have any other opportunities later in the week to use the tickets. A quick flip through the program guide, and we had picked our movie – Tie A Yellow Ribbon.

Despite being sold out, there were a few extra “rush” tickets that we were so lucky to get a hold of. Since the movie was at 9:30 and we’d picked up our tickets at around 7, we ended up killing some time getting desserts. Got back to the theater at 8:30, and we were first in line! Grabbed FANTASTIC seats and enjoyed the movie. Loved the performances and the various story lines – very interesting…

Read for yourself. Here is a synopsis from the film’s website:

In the feature-length narrative film TIE A YELLOW RIBBON, Jenny Mason, a Korean adoptee and aspiring photographer, walks the streets of New York in a state of resigned indifference. Her days are spent with white friends and colleagues, her nights with white men. She has no contact with her Midwestern family due to a childhood indiscretion with her white brother, Joe. She rejects any attachment, dumping men as fast as she can pick them up. Yet she longs for a connection that would make her feel at home — a home that she has lost and is forever seeking.

One day, her roommate asks her to move out, fanning her fears of abandonment. But as one door closes, another opens. She moves in with the beautiful but troubled Beatrice Shimizu and meets super-cool Simon Chang, whose sister, Sandy, lives next door. Together they open a whole new world for Jenny, an Asian-American existence that she has never explored. Her indifference toward life starts melting away, as she embraces Bea, who battles her own self-esteem issues with family and a philandering boyfriend, Phillip. Bea and Simon encourage and help jumpstart Jenny’s career in photography.

Suddenly, Joe appears at her door, stirring up long lost feelings that she has tried to bury. As Jenny searches for a voice and photographic style that she can call her own, she finds that she must face her unresolved feelings toward her brother and family, and ultimately reconcile her identity as an Asian-American.

Making her feature debut, writer-director Joy Dietrich, also a Korean adoptee, introduces audiences to the world of Asian-American young women and delicately addresses the abnormally high rates of depression and suicide among Asian-American girls, creating a work great compassion and poetic beauty.

See it if you ever have the chance to. I’m very glad that I finally remembered to catch some of the film festival screenings this year!