These are eight feature films you shouldn’t miss at the Asian American International Film Festival which will take place in cinemas and online from July 26 until August 6, 2023 in New York, USA.

Note: The list may include movies directed by filmmakers with Asian ancestry.

With his father in prison and his brother abroad, young Rakib works as the lone housekeeper in an empty mansion belonging to Purna, a retired general whose family has been served for centuries by Rakib’s clan.

After Purna returns home for his mayoral election campaign, Rakib bonds with him and sees him as a close mentor and father figure, even becoming Purna’s assistant. When Purna’s election poster is found vandalised, Rakib doesn’t hesitate to track down the culprit, kicking off an escalating chain of violence. (AAIFF 2023)

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BIG FIGHT IN LITTLE CHINATOWN is a story of community resistance and resilience. Set against the backdrop of the COVID pandemic and an unprecedented rise in anti-Asian racism, this documentary takes us into the lives of residents, businesses, and community organizers whose neighborhoods are facing active erasure. Coast to coast, the film follows Chinatown communities resisting the pressures around them.  (AAIFF 2023)

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After coming out to her conservative parents, seventeen-year-old Twinkie takes off on a road trip to meet her online crush with the help of her nerdy best friend, Egghead. As they make their way across the country, Egghead wrestles with his unrequited feelings for Twinkie, while Twinkie learns to embrace her identity as a gay mixed Asian woman.

Told in a series of flashbacks and peppered with vibrant 2D animation, EGGHEAD & TWINKIE is a stylized, whip smart, coming-of-age comedy about the joys and pains of coming out of the closet. (AAIFF 2023)

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ONLOOKERS offers a visually striking, immersive meditation on travel and tourism in Laos, reflecting on how we all live as observers. Traversing the country’s dusty roads and tranquil rivers, we watch as elaborate painterly tableaus unfold, revealing the whimsical and, at times, disruptive interweaving of locals and foreigners in rest and play.

The film transports viewers on a sensorial journey of deep looking and listening, inviting them to reflect on their own modes of tourism, while asking the looming existential questions: Why do we travel? What do we seek? (AAIFF 2023)

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Joy is an undocumented Filipina immigrant who is struggling to do the best she can for her daughter when she secures the perfect job: taking care of an extremely wealthy but terminally ill old man. The new position pays well and guarantees a roof over their heads but very soon, Joy and her daughter Grace start to realize everything is not as it seems. Something is festering beneath the surface, threatening all they have worked for. Deeply personal, RAGING GRACE is a nightmarish fever dream from an exciting new voice. (AAIFF 2023)

Jerry is a retired Taiwanese immigrant living in Orlando. He gets an urgent call from the Chinese police, informing him that he’s the prime suspect in an international money laundering investigation where $1.28 million was illegally moved through his bank account.

Under threat of arrest and extradition, Jerry cooperates with the Chinese police force and acts as as an undercover agent in their case. He takes surveillance photos of his bank, makes top secret transfers, and even wears a wire to spy on bank tellers. After months of keeping the investigation a secret, Jerry finally reveals everything to his family in this documentary made by his sons. (AAIFF 2023)

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Best friends since high school, Kim and Amy haven’t seen each other since Amy moved to the West Coast for grad school. The two reunite when they join a group of friends at a lake house with Kim’s boyfriend, Jay.

When Amy left for the West Coast, she was in love with Jay, though she never pursued it, due to her insecurities thinking she was too fat and ugly. While she has changed physically, her feelings for Jay have not, and the reunion has brought the feelings back to the surface. (AAIFF 2023)

WISDOM GONE WILD upends the conventions of the end-of-life documentary by injecting a wildness, unpredictability and humour. Music, singing, art and movement become central vessels of memory and connection.

Aided by a palimpsest of home movie footage, photographs and documents–which dazzle in their visual textures and analogue beauty–the film blends time between the past and present, skillfully weaving threads together over its duration. (AAIFF 2023)

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For more information, please visit: https://www.aaiff.org/