I’m back in New York and after taking a day to recover from the weekend’s festivities, I wanted to share some thoughts about this year’s Vancouver Asian Film Festival.

In terms of positive stereotypes, I have to say Canadians (and Vancouverites in particular) really are the nicest people you’ll ever meet. I feel overwhelmingly grateful to have met and spent time with the wonderful people who run the festival who were all so gracious and welcoming. They did an amazing job fostering a sense of community amongst the filmmakers and with their audiences.

The festival is run entirely on a volunteer basis and it truly feels like a labor of love. They pick films they really believe in with a vision for providing a platform for films with nuanced, complicated portrayals of North Americans of Asian descent. Their goal is to represent “the often ignored North American Asians caught between two cultures” and act as “a cultural bridge between Asian and non-Asian communities as well as the Asian communities themselves.” It’s a

mission statement I am completely behind and I’m thankful they chose to include me in their program.

The day my film was set to screen, I took it easy. I slept in, ate breakfast, went for a swim in the hotel pool and had lunch at a Japanese restaurant by myself. While I was walking around exploring the city, I started to notice my face and arms and back were itchy. I kept scratching myself without really thinking about it but when I happened to stop and look at myself in a mirror, I saw that my face was covered in hives.

My first thought was to panic thinking I’d developed an adult onset allergy to shellfish. (Sorry, rabbis but a life without shrimp is one not worth living as far as I’m concerned.) But then I panicked again when I thought about my screening. Maybe I’m vain but I didn’t really relish the thought of appearing in front of an audience for a Q & A with a giant red rash on my face and body. I went to a pharmacy and bought a non-drowsy antihistamine and some cortisone cream and hoped for the best. Miraculously, a couple hours later, I was as good as new. Whew! The worst was over, I thought. How wrong I was.

I won’t go into details but suffice to say there were a number of technical problems with the sound and aspect ratio during my film’s screening. It was quite possibly the worst case scenario for me as a filmmaker but it ended up being a positive experience for me as a person. As it was happening, I thought “This is my worst nightmare.” But then almost immediately afterwards, I realized what seemed like the worst had happened and it still wasn’t that bad. I don’t mean to speak for all filmmakers, but I think sometimes we work so hard on something and become so obsessed with it being perfect that we lose perspective.

Yes, I flew all the way from New York and sure, it was disappointing that something I poured so much time, energy and emotions into was shown under less-than-desirable circumstances, but it wasn’t really that big of a deal. Kind of a bummer, but as far as I know, it’s not like anyone ever died from watching a short film in the wrong aspect ratio.

I was already over it, but the festival staff responded beautifully to the situation. They were so apologetic and kind, it was impossible to be angry. Felix Cheng, the festival programmer, spent the next morning trying to troubleshoot with the technical staff and found a way to screen it again that night (with sound and subtitles!) before the centerpiece feature film ASHES.

Generally, more people show up for feature films than they do for a shorts program, so I ended up with a bigger audience and some people from the night before got to see my film again the way it was meant to be seen. One man even Tweeted “Glad to have the 2nd chance to see it w/subs

-very moving!” Call me a dopey optimist, but I think it worked out for the best.

All in all, it was a wonderful experience. It was a great festival in a beautiful city. I had the chance to not only reconnect with some of the filmmakers and programmers I’d met in San Francisco but also make a bunch of new friends. Festivals, I’ve realized, are a bit like summer camp. You have so much fun and spend so much time bonding with a group of people and before you know it, it’s over and you have to go home. Thanks for the memories. Please stay in touch. (I really mean it!)

Thanks to everyone at VAFF and the amazing audiences who have been tweeting their support for the film. I can’t wait until next time!

with ASHES producer Nina Spensley, Exec Producer/Actress Heather Burns and MY VANCOUVER director Anand Kanna