Seattle Asian American Film Festival

The Seattle Asian American Film Festival was founded in 1985 by KingStreet Media, a community-based Asian American media production and advocacy group based in Seattle's International District. Kingstreet Media was an offshoot of the International Examiner newspaper as almost all its members were either photographers, writers or graphic artists for the paper. The festival came about after the group helped complete "Beacon Hill Boys" - the first ever dramatic film about Asian American youth. The film had caused a sensation locally when it premiered a few months earlier, had been nominated for a student Academy Award, and was beginning to make the festival rounds nationally and internationally. Capitalizing on the film's success and looking to expand their commitment to raising the profile of Asian American cinema the group put together the city's first all Asian American film festival. To emphasize recent breakthroughs in Asian American filmmaking, which up until that time had been almost completely dominated by documentary work, the festival featured programs made up entirely of narrative films (dramas, comedies, etc.). In addition to "Beacon Hill Boys," the line-up included Wayne Wang's acclaimed sleeper hit "Chan Is Missing," Visual Communications' historical epic "Hito Hata: Raise The Banner," Stephen Ning's coming-of-age tale "Freckled Rice," Robert Nakamura's multi-ethnic comedy "Fool's Dance," and Steven Okazaki's mother/daughter profile "The Only Language She Knows" among others. The festival was held at Seattle's historic Nippon Kan Theater with the International Examiner acting as media sponsor. The festival's founders and staff included Dean Wong, William Satake Blauvelt, Sumi Hayashi, Dean Hayasaka, Ken Mochizuki, Jeff Hanada, Greg Tuai, and Jesse Reyes.

The second edition of the festival was held in 1987 with the International Examiner taking over as producer. The paper hired Nellie Fujii-Anderson as festival director and William Satake Blauvelt returned as Programming Director. Also, several other KingStreet Media members who also worked for the paper helped again. This time the festival was held at the University of Washington's Kane Hall and featured an expanded line-up of narrative, documentary, experimental and animation films, as well as independent films from around Asia. The Examiner had taken on the festival, in part, as a way to raise funds for the newspaper. Although the festival was successful on different levels they soon found out that film festivals in general were not money making propositions and so declined to act as producer for any further editions. The International Examiner did continue its role as a media sponsor of the festival to the present day.

The festival then went on hiatus for several years until it was revived in 1994 by Emily Wong, then Assistant Editor of the International Examiner, and William Satake Blauvelt who had been working as a filmmaker/curator/critic. This time the Seattle Asian American Film Festival was set up as an independent organization that put together a large coalition of volunteers, as well as community and media sponsors from within and outside of the Asian American community. Screenings were held at the Seattle Art Museum with side-bar events happening around the city. From 1994 through 1998 SAAFF, as the festival was affectionately dubbed, became nationally known as one of the premiere Asian American film festivals in the country which supported many filmmakers who went on to greater fame including Ang Lee ("Broke Back Mountain"), Kayo Hata ("Picture Bride"), Frieda Lee Mock ("Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision"), Kip Fulbeck ("The Hapa Project"), and Justin Lin ("Better Luck Tomorrow"). Aside from the festival itself the SAAFF organization co-sponsored year-round premiere screenings of Asian American films that found mainstream distribution like "The Joy Luck Club." The festival also published quarterly newsletters and a comprehensive annual booklet. Prizes - the Gold, Silver and Bronze Carp Awards for the best films as voted on by the audience were introduced. Programming was further expanded by doing retrospective tributes to selected directors and actors; archival screenings; commissioned live scores for silent films; as well as panels and Q&A's with visiting filmmakers. SAAFF also expanded their efforts to be more international in scope and featured work from around the Pacific Rim that featured under represented groups like Australian aboriginal and Pacific Islander filmmakers. SAAFF also made a commitment to showing work that up to that time had been ignored by the Asian American community including trangressive, experimental work on taboo subjects and films dealing with the Gay and Lesbian experience. Work was screened in all formats including 35mm, 16mm, 8mm, and video. In addition to Emily Wong (Director) and William Satake Blauvelt (Programing Director) the festival staff included John Pai, Albert Shen, Mari Murao, Shannon Gee, Soyon Im, and Vuong Vu among many others.

Starting in 1999 the history of the Seattle Asian American Film Festival took a strange and convoluted turn. The SAAFF organization, due to staff attrition in several key areas, decided to take a hiatus to regroup. However, during the break and unbeknownst to the festival organization, another group began using Seattle Asian American Film Festival's name and record of accomplishment to apply for grants and raise funds to stage another edition of the festival. Ironically, this turned out to be a new version of KingStreet Media. Local filmmaker Jay Koh, who SAAFF had supported earlier, had taken over the Kingstreet Media group after the last of the original members left. Looking to expand the profile and reach of his version of Kingstreet Media, Koh approached SAAFF about taking over the festival but his offer was declined. Koh and company quietly pressed on anyway while SAAFF was on hiatus and when ready announced their version of the Seattle Asian American Film Festival. B this time the steering committee of the original SAAFF organization, already flirting with burn-out and not wanting to put energy into a legal battle, became disillusioned by the turn of events and individually went on to other pursuits. After a splashy beginning the Koh/new Kingstreet Media version of the Seattle Asian American Film Festival faded away after two editions. The new Kingstreet Media morphed into a for-profit, commercial entity but also faded away after several years.

The festival was revived once again in 2003 and re-branded as the Northwest Asian American Film Festival and was led by Director Wes Kim for four years, until 2007. Kim is also a filmmaker, writer, director, and producer of the award-winning short films Profiles in Science, Vision Test, and Cookies for Sale, and Kim's films have appeared in over 40 U.S. and international film festivals and have screened in 17 countries, as well as being broadcast nationally on public and cable television and featured in programs at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Wing Luke Asian Museum in Seattle.[3]

After the festival concluded in 2007 and took a five-year hiatus, the festival was revived under its original name of the "Seattle Asian American Film Festival" in 2012–2013. Former director Wes Kim still serves as an Advisor on the Festival.[4]