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That’s Harry doing a hand stand in the filmmakers lounge at the SFIAAFF. Here’s what was said about the film. Special Jury Prize does mean 2nd place, but it’s still a great honor. Although only one film can be designated the “best documentary,” another work presented in competition—through sheer audacity, energy and spectacular visual presence—demands to be recognized with the 2009 SFIAAFF Special Jury Award: DIRTY HANDS. This is a film like no other about an individual that has no comparison. And it is what every artist working with film hopes to experience and achieve: a perfect, almost sublime, match between camera and subject. Stimulating, profane and sometimes uncomfortable, both move in step with each other, screaming and dragging the audience into an insanely energized and zig-zag narrative that is impossible to separate from the artist, or his wildly kinetic art. Entirely refreshing, beneath the intoxicating pace and intensity is a noteworthy choice to frame the individual first through his work, rather than through his Asian American identity. Dirty Hands is the result of seven years devoted by a filmmaker to understanding and participating in the life of his subject, his friend. With this in mind, it’s easy to say the film required no discipline to create and discover, and that may be true. But because it does work against every grain of objectivity and distance that is often the hallmark of documentary film, it is true to the reckless and rebellious ‘life and times of David Choe.’ In its intimate understanding, its knowledge of knowing when to pull away and when to draw focus, it paints a true and truthful image of its subject, unfinished, undone and wild. And that truth is what every good work of art strives to achieve, and the backbone of any good documentary—Asian American or otherwise.
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This is Franklin Oda. He's running the Smithsonian APA Program. The Smithsonian is so huge that they need an organization to make sure everyone is playing fair. They also do events, and make sure Asian Americans get represented. I think it's worth fighting for that. If they didn't, then who would. It was great to drop in and say hello.
This is Washington DC's finest example of graffiti. I dig this....
This is Franklin Oda. He’s running the Smithsonian APA Program. The Smithsonian is so huge that they need an organization to make sure everyone is playing fair. They also do events, and make sure Asian Americans get represented. I think it’s worth fighting for that. If they didn’t, then who would. It was great to drop in and say hello. This is Washington DC’s finest example of graffiti. I dig this. I saw more than one. It’s thick road paint, and you’ll see if you’re on foot. That’s the Air and Space Museum. I like how it looks like cracks in the buildings. Maybe it’s like giant square hangars for the planes. It looks powerful outside and inside.
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I worried and worried about knowing enough about the guy for too long. If I didn't though, would I feel prepared? Would I do well? I'm not sure. I swear I did all I could in a short amount of time to be ready. Watched some of his movies, read about it, took notes, thought back to my days at UCLA as an East Asian Studies major (Japanese emphasis), GR work, and came up with a short list of...
I worried and worried about knowing enough about the guy for too long. If I didn’t though, would I feel prepared? Would I do well? I’m not sure. I swear I did all I could in a short amount of time to be ready. Watched some of his movies, read about it, took notes, thought back to my days at UCLA as an East Asian Studies major (Japanese emphasis), GR work, and came up with a short list of questions. link to Tokyo Sonata site. Here’s the release schedule. This is what the back of the Apple store looks like. I was kidding that we were like thieves jammed up back here, but they really put thieves back here while they call the police. If you see this room, it means you did something bad. So I hope you never do. Yet being back here with the filmmaker made a bit of pressure mount more. I’ve come recommended by translator / filmmaker Linda Hoaglund as being good at this and they talked about it for a bit. That’s us with mics in our faces. Mr Kurosawa answers questions with a lot of care and he’s quite gracious and genuine. That alone should tell you to see Tokyo Sonata when it makes it runs in theaters. That is Mr Taro Goto the translator on the left. He did a great job, and I had no idea he was adept at doing translations from Japanese to English. I know him as part of the film festival in SF, and as a producer of some indie films. This is the sign. I guess it got on indieWire I don’t know much about indieWire except it’s film related. Either way, the event went well at the Apple store. It’s pretty much an honor to do things there.
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