Here is the link to a blog article I made on Hyphen about this:

I met up with Hyphen’s publisher Lisa Lee for some of the events going on at the AA International Film Festival in Manhattan. For those who haven’t been to the Asia Society building, it is this huge, futuristic, stylish building in Manhattan’s Upper East Side (70th at Park) that hosts all sorts of events throughout the year. Lisa has been at the festival since the start and been to many screenings. We went to the opening night afterparty at Forbidden City bar, then I joined her for films one day, and also a round table discussion the next day, as well as other random activities.

The films we saw were ‘Heart Squared’ and ‘Option 3’. ‘Heart Squared’ was a nice short that was surreal, eccentric, and very stylish, and since there’s no easy way to explain the film, I won’t even try. ‘Option 3’ was a full length movie directed by Richard Wong, who was there for the screening and gave a brief talk at the beginning. Unfortunately, I couldn’t sit through the entire thing, and though I kept waiting for it to get better, I ended up leaving midway. It wasn’t bad per se; I just didn’t personally enjoy it very much.

The next day was a very interesting panel discussion on Asian and Asian American aesthetics, with David Henry Hwang (playwright, M. Butterfly), Mary Ping (fashion designer), Billie Tsien (architect), Wayne Wang (filmmaker, The Joy Luck Club), and Dennis Lim (writer, editor) on stage.  Click here for the rest of the post.

Tags: asian american, asian american international film festival, billie tsien, david henry hwang, dennis lim, films, independent, manhattan, mary ping, movies, new york city, richard wong, wayne wang