The 2005 New York Asian Film Festival (NYAFF) opens this Friday, June 17th through July 2nd, featuring a schedule full of movies from Japan, Korea, Thailand, China, Hong Kong and the Philippines. The line up has 31 films, including two International Premieres, nine North American Premieres, four U.S. Premieres and 16 New York Premieres. This year’s festival will be held in two venues: June 17th – 26th at Anthology Film Archives (32 Second Avenue, at 2nd Street) and June 24th – July 2nd at the ImaginAsian (239 E. 59th Street, at 2nd Avenue). The list of 31 films was selected by Subway Cinema, the group responsible for presenting the NYAFF. KFCC had the opportunity to sit down and discuss this year’s festival with Subway Cinema member Grady Hendrix.

This year’s NYAFF features a truly inspired selection that ranges a wide field of interest: ARAHAN (Korea, 2004), CRAZY N' THE CITY (Hong Kong, 2005), CRYING FIST (Korea, 2005), ELECTRIC SHADOWS (China, 2004), PRINCESS RACCOON (Japan, 2005), GODZILLA FINAL WARS (Japan, 2004), KEKEXILI: MOUNTAIN PATROL (China, 2004), KAMIKAZE GIRLS (Japan, 2004) to name a few. (Please go to www.subwaycinema.com for the complete list or see KFCC News 2 June 2005 for the complete movie schedule.)

“We premiered HERO and SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE. We have a track record. Our profile has gotten bigger, but we’re still the same five people (Grady Hendrix, Goran Topalovic, Paul Kazee, Brian Naas and Daniel Craft). Last year we were in debt on our credit cards for 10s of thousands of dollars, but it worked out. This year we don’t know if the audiences will show up.” Grady contains his concern and replaces it with more enthusiasm.

“At the end of the day, these are big movies. I think that New York City is big enough to have an audience for them. That’s our Achilles heel—we can’t say ‘no’ to big movies,” said Hendrix. Grady’s cell phone rings and he takes the call. He converses briefly. Grady’s face shows some wide-eyed excitement. He finishes his call and exclaims: “We got it! That was Goran. CRYING FIST! We got CRYING FIST!”

Hendrix settles down and we return to our conversation: “After five years, if we fail, OK, we’ll go home, but we have credibility. We respect the films and our audience, and they’re going to stick with us. I know them, I like them. They kept me from going broke. We aren’t the Tribeca Film Festival. They get $350,000 from the city. I could put on 10 film festivals for that! We were scared when we had directors come. We don’t have a VIP room. But they loved it! They get it!”

Grady reminisces: “Last year I had just finished introducing the screening for Johnnie To’s RUNNING ON KARMA. I was exhausted, hadn’t eaten in a long time, but I left happy. Four hundred people were watching the movie. We want people to see the movies. We want to find the movies that people want to watch. They may not like them, but they come. My biggest fear is that no one will come. If we do what we did last year I’ll be happy.”

Hendrix’s fears may be grounded; but they should be tempered by the fact that last year’s festival was a success. New York City and the Asian cinema community delighted with the movies they provided. KFCC believes in Subway Cinema and their efforts in presenting the NYAFF. After all, we think they’re doing it especially for us. So starting this Friday you’re in for a summer treat that has become an annual event for Asian cinema fans, because this is a festival for fans put on by fans. What more could you ask for?

Official NYAFF Site

Subway Cinema Site

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David Leong
06/13/2005

- COVERAGE PART 2 -