Art Practical: CAAMFest review (2016)

Fumito Fujikawa. The Name of the Whale ;2015, Japan (film still).

Many of the film offerings at the Center for Asian American Media Festival (CAAMFest), a ten-day annual celebration of Asian American film, music, and food, explore the question of identity and one’s place in an increasingly globalized and mobile world. These topics are sometimes viewed through the lens of identification as an Asian or Asian American, but just as frequently are considered through the complexities of gender, sexuality, class, age, colonialism, displacement, geography, and history. This broad yet fruitful approach complements the festival’s rigorously global and pan-generational focus and is partly responsible for its wide appeal, success, and continued growth. Many CAAMFest filmmakers produce work within some multicultural context, whether as a second-generation Taiwanese in Buenos Aires, a Filipino American celebrating the regional quirks of Bay Area cities, or an Asian Canadian uncovering racism within the multiple borders of the British Commonwealth.

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