Houston Arts Journal:19th Annual HAAPIFEST showcases films from 13 AAPI communities, celebrates “a lot more of our stories to tell”
From the Houston Arts Journal, June 2, 2023
Audrey Liao in “Lunchbox” by director Anne Hu / Courtesy of www.lunchboxthefilm.com
When the Houston Asian American Pacific Islander Film Festival began 18 years ago, co-director Christina Fu says that the event showed six movies, on VHS tape, in a room at a community center.
Now in its 19th annual edition, HAAPIFEST will screen 41 short and feature-length films by writers and directors from 13 different AAPI communities—Korean, Chinese, Taiwanese, Hawaiian, Iranian, Filipino, Japanese, Malay, Singaporean, Thai, Khmer, Indian, and Vietnamese—running June 3 – 11, 2023. Opening and Closing Days will feature in person screenings at the Marriott Westchase (June 3) and The Cannon West Houston (June 11), with the majority of the festival (June 4 – 10) taking place online.
At a time when “Texas has the largest concentration of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the South, and the Houston metro area has one of the top 10 largest Asian American populations in the United States,” as reported by the Houston Chronicle, HAAPIFEST reflects that growth—and the experiences of those living in the region.
