Asian President’s Council will present its first Asian Film Festival as a special month of film screenings from various regions of Asia, along with cultural events.
“The Asian Film Festival is a program designed to increase awareness and understanding of the various Asian cultures at Texas A&M University,” said Ahsan Farooqi, president of APC.
The official opening of the Asian Film Festival will be at 2:30 p.m., Thursday, in the Memorial Student Center Flag Room. The opening event will include several cultural performances, speeches and a showcase of the trailers of the films Asian Film Festival will show.
Film screenings will begin the same evening with Journeys of the Fall, a film inspired by the true stories of Vietnamese refugees who fled their land after the fall of Saigon and those who were forced to stay behind. The keynote speaker at this event will be Ham Tran, the director of the film.
Asian Film Festival will feature major films from different parts of Asia. These films include Lagaan, following the story of an underdog village which unites and attempts to fight oppression from the British by defeating them in a game of cricket; Better Luck Tomorrow, which gives an outlook on the difficulties faced by the Asian youth growing up in America; and The Forbidden Forest, a Hollywood martial arts-adventure film starring Jackie Chan.
“The APC board has carefully selected films from each of the major regions of Asia: East Asia, Southwest Asia and Southeast Asia. The resulting project is hoped to stimulate interest in the Asian cultures around Texas A&M University, as well as a greater appreciation for the unique diversity that surrounds us each day,” Farooqi said.
Asian Film Festival not only incorporates Asian films but has events to cater to all audiences. The Institute for the Development of Asian American Leaders will be presenting a leadership seminar and the brothers of Beta Tau Omega will host a karaoke night April 24. Asian-American Intervarsity Organization is hosting a dodgeball tournament April 27.
Asian Presidents Council has had a similar program in the past years that has traditionally been called Asian Heritage Week.
“This year, we got the idea of programming an Asian Film Festival as our Asian Heritage Week with Carmen Suen, the program coordinator at the Texas A&M Institute for Pacific Asia.”
“As Frank Capra once said, ‘Film is one of the three universal languages. The other two: mathematics and music,'” Farooqi said. “We chose film for the same reason. We feel like they are the best way to share and educate others about the Asian culture.”