Cinequest Film Festival 17

Asian American

The Namesake
Synopsis: Cinequest’s 2007 Opening Night is as electrifying as it comes—treating film lovers to one of the most exhilarating films of the year, by one of the most provocative filmmakers of modern times. Filmmaker Mira Nair’s brilliant adaptation of Jhumpa Lahiri's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Namesake powerfully captures the hold of family traditions and expectations among Indians in America, resulting in an intensely stirring film.

Husband and wife, Ashoke and Ashima, escape the chaos of Calcutta in the seventies for a new life in the United States—Ashima finds it especially difficult to adjust to American customs. But it is Gogol (played by Kal Penn), their son, who struggles most. As a young man, Gogol rebels against everything that makes him different—including his family's expectations. A romance with blonde, outgoing Max proves liberating, even as the prospect looms of settling down with the proverbial good Indian girl.

Screening: Date – Time – Location
Opening Night Gala - 2/28 – 7:00pm – California Theatre

Filipino Films

Batad (Batad Sa Paang Palay)
Synopsis: Batad is a funny, heartwarming and magical story of 14-year old Batad boy obsessed with owning a pair of trekking boots. To support his family, the boy sells produce in the nearby Banawe market, while his father repairs the endangered rice terraces in the adjoining village. Exposed to city life, the boy wants to leave behind his rural village but not before he can impress the girl he loves. And the best way to win her heart is to show her that he has the wherewithal to obtain a pair of boots.

Screening: Date – Time – Location
3/1 – 12:30pm – Camera 12
3/6 – 2:30pm – Camera 12
3/6 – 6:30pm – Camera 12
3/9 – 9:30pm – Camera 12

Chinese Films

Courthouse on the Horseback
Synopsis: Winner of the prestigious Horizons Award at the Venice Film Festival, and based on a true story, Liu Jie directs the story of an old circuit court judge, whose dispensation of justice for the various squabbles and transgressions he finds are reminiscent of Mark Twain in both their fairness and humor.

Screening: Date – Time – Location
3/1 – 4:00pm – Camera 12
3/2 – 4:45pm – Camera 12
3/6 – 7:00pm – Camera 12

Curiosity Kills the Cat (Haoqi haisi mao)
Synopsis: The siren song of the big city brings new opportunities and new possibilities for love and betrayal, deception, revenge and tragedy in director Zhang Yibai’s masterfully crafted “psychodrama-cum-puzzle piece” set among five characters in Chongqing.


Yibai’s complexly structured film tells the same story from various viewpoints, beginning with Momo, an aspiring photographer with only a camera phone to her credit. Momo moved to the city and works at a camera store in front of a luxury high rise. From her perch, she observes the habits of the well-to-do. Everything seems pretty mundane, but then one day Momo scratches the surface and finds there are secrets beneath the rich veneer of her cliental. What ensues is an intricately layered and fascinating combination of a mystery, a thriller and a mesmerizing character drama that unfolds into surprising results.
Screening: Date – Time – Location
3/4 – 4:00pm – California Theatre
3/6 – 9:30pm – California Theatre

The Road (Fangxiang Zhi Lu)
Synopsis: Starting in the 1960's and spanning the next several decades, The Road is a glowing film that reveals a great deal about recent Chinese history through the story of three people and the traditions that bind them.

Screening: Date – Time – Location
3/7 – 6:45pm – California Theatre
3/9 – 7:00pm – Camera 12
3/10 – 6:45pm – Camera 12

Indonesian Films

Maskot
Synopsis: A grandfather, a father, a son, soy sauce and the family chicken in this fable from Indonesia. It's all in the family.


After a terrible accident that puts a family’s patriarch and soy sauce tycoon in the hospital—along with ridding the company of its chicken mascot—the prodigal son is summoned. Dennis is forced to cut his studies short in Japan and rush home to helm the family soy sauce business, but he can have the company under only one condition: if he can deliver a new chicken mascot to replace the iconic bird that perished…and he has only fourteen days to accomplish the task.

Screening: Date – Time – Location
3/7 – 9:15pm – Camera 12
3/9 – 1:30pm – Camera 12
3/11 – 11:30am – Camera 12

Indian Films

Outsourced
Synopsis: John Jeffcoat’s debut feature is a brilliant comedy that eschews stereotypes when a company man, who learns that his entire department is being outsourced, agrees to travel to India to train his replacement.

Screening: Date – Time – Location
3/3 – 8:00pm – California Theatre
3/4 – 6:30pm – California Theatre
3/8 – 7:00pm – Camera 12
Vietnamese Films

Owl and the Sparrow (Cú Va Chim Se Se)
Synopsis: Director Stephane Gauger’s Owl and the Sparrow is the spectacularly moving story of three people, each alone in his/her own way, who find that what they need most is each other.


Thuy, Lan and Hai are just three of the eight million people in modern-day Saigon trying to find their significance in the world. Unappreciated and unloved by the only family she has left, Thuy runs away to the city, relying on the kindness of strangers in order to survive. For beautiful and compassionate flight attendant, Lan, life should be perfect. But an unfulfilling affair amplifies her loneliness, and her only sense of stability is checking in and out of the same hotel week after week. Hai is a zookeeper who mends his broken heart through his friendship with the animals for whom he cares. Three ordinary lives unlikely to intertwine, yet when they connect, they begin the foundation for a unique family.


A fusion of the commonplace stories and the bustling energy of modern Saigon, Owl and the Sparrow weaves a hopeful tale of friendship, love and family. Mixing beautiful cinematography, impeccable acting and a richly textured script, it is a stunning mosaic that captures the essence of every human’s desire: to be loved.

Screening: Date – Time – Location
Closing Night Gala – 3/11 – 6:30pm – California Theatre

Pao’s Story (Chuyen cua Pao)
Synopsis: A multi-generational story packed with painful family secrets, Pao’s Story examines the intricate nature of personal identity, and how it's sometimes better not to question one’s own history.


Pao is a soft-spoken Vietnamese peasant on the verge of adulthood. When her mother is abruptly swept away by a violent river, Pao’s life is drastically altered. The catastrophic accident devastates Pao’s family, and as the story shifts back twenty years to a time before Pao was born, it becomes evident that her family’s past is not as it seems.

Screening: Date – Time – Location
3/4 – 2:15pm – Camera 12
3/7 – 9:30pm – California Theatre
3/9 – 2:00pm – Camera 12


The White Silk Dress
Synopsis: Winner of the Audience Award at the Pusan International Film Festival, The White Silk Dress is a magnificent drama that portrays how one poor and oppressed family manages to maintain its pride and dignity and to overcome adversities.

Screening: Date – Time – Location
3/2 – 4:00pm – Camera 12
3/5 – 9:00pm – California Theatre
3/7 – 9:30pm – Camera 12