KAFFNY 2021 program (10/29-11/06)
In this year’s 15th annual KAFFNY festival, we’re going virtual and the films will be streamed online from October 29th to November 6th. We will premiere and launch the films to our site on October 29th. Due to the economical impact on the creative industry in recent times, we want to share our program to our audience with no set ticket prices, and only ask for open donations from those who are able to give.
Below is our schedule and program of films that are in our official selection. Please take a look at these films and sign up to get an access code to stream the films during the festival.
Sign up for the access code and donate at: kaffny.eventbrite.com
short films potpourri
A set of short films set in this time of the new unnormal. Films in this program: Make a Wish, Home Free, Wasteland, Pharmakosis, SEBASTIENNE, Delivery andWhere No One Will Find Her
Short films competition
A showcase of films in our short film competition all around the theme of food and family. Films in this program: Unpot, Today’s Special, Rimi, Chimera, Koreatown Ghost Story and Natural Starter
Documentary feature
Closing the gap: Hockey in North Korea
Our feature documentary film about the North Korean Hockey team. Films in this program: Closing the gap: Hockey in North Korea, HaeJu, When making Sujebi and Naya: David Kim
Short films in the new unnormal (10/29)
These short films will be available for streaming online for KAFFNY 2021. On the day of the launch, you’ll be emailed an access code. With the access code, you’ll be able to click on each film title to watch the film on the screening page. Click here to sign up and donate to get the access code.
Make a Wish
by Dinh Thai (8:28)
A light-hearted comedy about the sweetest fiancé giving her boyfriend the best birthday present ever.
TRAILER: https://youtu.be/dk3wf1Cnc940
Home Free
by Eddie Shieh (5:00)
A pandemic challenges a Chinese student on the path to legal immigration while sheltering in her new American home. Created for the 72 Hour Shootout by the Asian American Film Lab under the theme, Going Viral.
Wasteland
by Misong Jin International Premiere (38:00)
This short film follows two lovers who struggle to survive in a bleak, post-apocalyptic world. While the situation gets urgent due to a baby about to be born, the two lovers try to search for a rescue helicopter which is only known as a myth.
PHARMAKOSIS
by SL Pang New York Premiere (13:06)
We live in a world where looking and being looked at has become a kind of currency, where “likes” have literally become income. How can we locate or make space for the radical Other in a visual economy of carefully curated bubbles of desired images that suppress the representation of the unrecognizable, the undesirable and the unfathomable while simultaneously repressing the ability of the undesired or unacceptable to participate in the act of looking? How can we represent this subject position of Otherness, which we know to be inherently unspecific and unfamiliar yet at the same time unfixed and mutable, without an excessive or inappropriate reliance on any particular known human group? In PHARMAKOSIS , a series of confrontations at a museum illustrates this exclusive economy of images and illuminates a complex set of permission structures surrounding who is allowed to look and who is not. Employing guerilla filmmaking tactics and “poor materials” such as a camera phone, PHARMAKOSIS uses structural, narrative and documentary aspects to articulate the position of the Pharmakos – the figure in ancient greek religion who was ritually expelled from the polis in the belief that such sacrifice would bring about purification.
SEBASTIENNE
by José Alberto Andrés Lacasta (13:29)
The arrival of a mysterious engraving about Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian at the Historic Palace of the Aljafería (Zaragoza) awakens the spirit of its old inquisitors, reviving the invincible designs of guilt and desire.
TRAILER: https://vimeo.com/535477616
Delivery
by Jaehan Pag (11:47)
While Levi, a New York City delivery person, brings food door to door in the era of the Covid-19 Pandemic, his bike outside gets stolen. Without the bike, his day gets much harder. After spending a fortune on Citibikes to continue his deliveries, he runs into an old friend who is also on deliveries. Levi is faced with a dilemma as he waits for his friend outside of their delivery destination.
Where No One Will Find Her
by Ahnmin Lee (10:35)
Upon seeing her best friend assaulted and captured, Sung-Mi must decide if she will fight to save her.
TRAILER: https://vimeo.com/560512888
Short film competition (10/29)
Here are the films in this year’s short film competition. On the day of the launch, you’ll be emailed an access code. With the access code, you’ll be able to click on each film title to watch the film on the FestivalFlix page. Click here to sign up and donate to get the access code.
Unpot
by Huieun Park New York Premiere (25:53)
“Unpot” features Kyung-Ja, a woman with Alzheimer’s disease, and describes her last day before she is sent to a nursing home; this is her last day outside of confinement. For her children and others around her, she is a problematic old lady, but she has her own world and her last desires. The movie follows her throughout her day: from morning when her older daughter helps her to pack her belongings, to evening as she spends the night with her younger daughter.
TRAILER: https://vimeo.com/379525679/
Today’s Special
by John Hwang (9:08)
After no one shows up to work, a Korean warehouse owner is forced to confront her fears in order to complete the day’s delivery.
RIMI
by Nischhal Sharma (13:05)
Rimi, a housewife, stuck in the mundane life of domesticity finds herself on the threshold of leaving everything behind and embracing liberation when a desire awakens in her after she encounters young and attractive Riya.
Chimera
by Eileen Yoon (9:38)
Present day moments in New York lead Ayeon to reflect on her childhood in Seoul as she redefines her idea of home.
TRAILER: https://vimeo.com/463135706
Koreatown Ghost Story
by Minsun Park & Teddy Tenenbaum (14:52)
In this supernatural horror tale based on a Korean ritual starring Margaret Cho and Lyrica Okano, a woman entertains a macabre marriage offer that would let her pursue her dreams, for better or for much much worse.
TRAILER: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsBcI6jJFkk
Natural Starter
by Girard Tecson Online Film Festival Premiere (15:00)
An Asian American family struggling to run their Bagel Shop in Queens New York.
international documentary Premiere (10/29)
Our feature documentary this year is . On the day of the launch, you’ll be emailed an access code. With the access code, you’ll be able to click on each film title to watch the film on the password protected page. Click here to sign up and donate to get the access code.
CLOSING THE GAP: HOCKEY IN NORTH KOREA
by Nigel Edwards International Premiere (1:04:51)
En route to an international competition, Closing The Gap follows the North Korean men’s hockey team as they strive to bring home gold for Marshal Kim Jong Un.
While their commitment and dedication to their training is unmatched, they’re hard pressed to catch a break. Whether it be the UN sanctions on North Korea, or the flurry of injuries and rumours that plague the DPRK team, this film is a window into the lives of a group of underdog athletes. With the weight of their country’s history and reputation on their shoulders, they struggle to seek that which we all seek — self-worth.
Unlike any other film produced in North Korea, Closing The Gap is a lyrical composition which hybridizes elements of sport documentary (Last Chance U) with real-time, changing perspectives (White Helmets). The result is an honest portrayal of what these athletes feel and experience as they foray into the wider world beyond the DPRK.
In what is the first recorded account of North Korea allowing foreigners access to any sports club, this intimate look reveals blissful subtleties of character from a regime not conducive to individuality.
www.closingthegaphockey.com
@closingthegapfilm
TRAILER: https://vimeo.com/375569050
HaeJu
by Amanda Lynn Kim New York Premiere (5:07)
Generational differences emerge while a Korean American granddaughter tries to connect with her grandmother over the story of how she escaped from North Korea and survived the Korean War.
When Making Sujebi
by Candace Kang New York Premiere (3:35)
The narrator, a young woman living in United States, considers what it means to make food for herself. While making Sujebi (Korean hand-pulled noodles) in her kitchen, she reflects on both the cultural and immediate implications cooking has in her own life, particularly as it relates to her identity as a Korean-American woman and the daughter of immigrants.
Naya: David Kim
by AJ Valente, Janice Chung (12:16)
Meet classical violinist David Kim. A child prodigy since the age of six, David fiercely trained to be a world-class violinist under his mother’s intense supervision. In this first installment of NAYA, David graciously invites us to his home and the music hall where we explore his passion for music and the journey that led him to become the concertmaster of the Philadelphia Orchestra.
NAYA (나야), produced by KoreanAmericanStory.org, is a mini-documentary series that paints vivid, visual stories of unique Korean American individuals and passion for their craft.