Independent Features Film Festival 2008 - RECAP!

"I love New York in June, how 'bout you?"

Well - how about July, actually? We've finally made it back from the weekend hijinks that the Independent Features Film (IFF) Festival brought to our laps. First and foremost, "That Asian Thing" would like to thank everyone that made our trip possible and fantastic - from the online voters, friends & family, the Independent Features Film Festival Staff, the ooVoo staff, the myspace/facebook/friendster armies, the Asian-American organizations, magazines, blogs, and other communicative outlets in our grassroot efforts. THANK YOU!



Next, it was great to meet the IFF people. Speaking to Phillip Nelson (President) and Jose Ruiz (Vice-President) in person was very good for me personally because I'm currently working with the Chicago Filipino-American Film Festival (http://www.cfaff.org) this year and they gave great advice on running a festival. These two guys started with their own indie feature and then took it to the next level by creating a festival catered toward the hardships they faced. And now they're one of the premiere festivals that puts the power in the hands of the audience by online viewing and voting. Not only that, but to hold it at the acclaimed Tribeca Cinemas theater in New York City..."well, that's just buttah, baby!" Congrats to these gentlemen and their helpful & friendly staff members for putting on a great festival.



Now, "That Asian Thing" screened on Sunday at 12:30 pm in Theater One. We were very fortunate enough to sell out online and have the theater packed 5 minutes before screening time. With introduction to the film and people in their seats, I must admit that not having watched the movie in about a month helped my nerves. I think the last couple of screenings that we've had, I was a bit nervous because I had watched the film over and over so many times prior that it made me question myself. But this time around, I was a bit more relaxed and actually wanted to watch the movie since I haven't it seen it in awhile.

Thus we proceeded to Q&A with the Director. Through the advancement of the web, ooVoo (http://www.oovoo.com) was able to broadcast our Q&A session to parties keeping track of the Independent Features Film Festival online. They also recorded greetings, VIP accessed moments, and other segments of the festival.

A couple of hours after our screening and massive late lunch eating (which was moved to Hop Kee in Chinatown, not far from Joe's Shanghai Restaurant since it was so packed), the IFF Fest held their awards ceremony.



After all was said and done, "That Asian Thing" won the Audience Choice Award for Best Documentary at the Independent Features Film Festival of 2008!



Thankfully I scribbled a few notes before going to the stage ("just in case..."). I was able to thank everyone that made it possible, but I made a point to thank all the Asian-American artists involved with this project and urged the people to go to our website and find out more info on them. This was important to me because really, I wouldn't have a movie without these people. And I just hope I did them proud...

Moving on to a personal note, this was great but we gotta keep on going! So if you're part of an Asian-American organization and you're interested in having our docmentary screened at a spot near you, please send an inquiry to asianthing@gmail.com. Don't hesitate to inquire and we'll try our best to help out in anyway. We'd like to take this on the road and get more air time at colleges, universities, movie theaters, film festivals, etc. etc.

SPECIAL THANKS TO:

Filteany Productions (http://filteany.wordpress.com) for covering our Premiere Screening at Tribeca. It was a pleasure to work with this dynamic duo who took the time to interview people at our screening, as well as myself. They also taped a portion of our Q&A, which now that I've seen it, makes me think I should practice my oration skills a bit. (Sorry...I'm more of a writer...eek!) Please check out their Youtube Channel (http://youtube.com/user/filteany) and website. Here's the segment:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDZcKpaisKo

THANKS GUYS! THIS ROCKS! And keep writing, Hazel - your innervoice will shine through paper no matter what. Just keep writing!

IN CLOSING:

Wow - that was fun! Let's do it again! Here's your recap in 3 minutes:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=3tXT8i7ZLCM

THANK YOU AGAIN! Let's rock and roll, baby - can't stop now....