Dallas Asian American Film Festival spotlights Texas filmmakers
A new film festival is putting Asian American filmmakers from Texas in the spotlight.
The inaugural Dallas Asian American Film Festival at the Dallas Museum of Art sold out Saturday, showcasing films created by Asian American talent from across Texas. Hosted by the Dallas Asian American Art Collective, also known as DAAART, it is the first Dallas film festival dedicated exclusively to Asian American filmmakers from the Lone Star State.
"What about homegrown actors, homegrown film makers, homegrown talent," said Jerry X Zeng, the DAAFF hospitality director and actor.
Texas is home to the third-largest Asian population in the country, making the sold-out inaugural festival an important platform for local stories.
"That's what makes our festival really important because it's reflecting the growing population of Asian Americans in Texas," said Christina Hahn, the DAAFF festival director. "We've got 10 films and 70 percent of them are from Texas, and 50 percent of them are from North Texas."
The lineup included animated and experimental shorts, live-action films, and a feature. As Asian Texan filmmakers become an increasingly important part of the state's film industry, organizers said the festival is about giving those stories a bigger platform.
"We wanted a diverse tone of stories," said Alishba Javaid, a screening lead. "We see a lot of like family dynamics and migration stories, but also just absurd stories of Asian Americans where it's not even just about their identity. They're just doing things in the kind of absurd, you know, humorous stories that come out of that."
Organizers said Asian American cinema has long grown out of community organizing and a push for representation. Now, they want to expand that storytelling.
"I think there has always been a progressive and social mission with Asian American cinema," Tony Nguyen, a program curator, said. "And it's been really amazing to kind of see how there's still a lot of progressive storytelling and that, but also, breaking away from that, and I think we're trying to have that spirit of having it in Dallas, prioritizing local talent, in Texas."
Organizers hope the festival brings more representation and awareness while helping Asian American filmmakers grow and showing audiences they are creating work in Texas and putting the state on the map.
"We all have one thing in common, and it's our love of film and wanting to care and foster the growth of Asian American creatives," said Zeng. "Here's our opportunity to actually keep doing this stuff, to inspire others and be like, 'Hey, you can actually do it.'"
