CAAMFest 2016: Celebrating Asian American Stories

The 34th CAAMFest is underway, March 10-20, in San Francisco and Oakland. ​Organized by the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM), a nonprofit committed to presenting stories that convey the richness and diversity of Asian American experiences to the broadest audience possible, the March festival celebrates new Asian American and Asian film, food and music.

For the full schedule of events visit http://caamfest.com/2016/ or flip through this program guide. Read the rest of this post for details on a few of the South Asian and South Asian American films in this year’s festival.

Umrika

Featuring Suraj Sharma (Life of Pi) and Tony Revolori (The Grand Budapest Hotel), and set mostly in early 1980s rural northern India, Prashant Nair’s Umrika is the story of a young man whose older brother leaves his small village on the way to better things in America (aka Umrika). When the older brother disappears, the younger brother (played by Sharma) goes to look for him, and writes letters to his mother along the way.

Good Ol’ Boy

good.ol.boy

Smith Bhatnagar, age 10, just wants to fit in growing up in suburban America. Set in 1979, director Frank Lotito’s film stars Roni Akurati as Smith, Anjul Nigam as his dad and Jason Lee as the neighbor who takes young Smith on a life-changing hunting trip. Good Ol’ Boy has been awarded the festival’s Narrative Award “for beautifully drawing multi-dimensional characters in a funny, heartwarming coming of age story that lives at the intersection of culture, class, and longing.”

The Super Story Behind Pixar’s “Sanjay’s Super Team”

This festivals panel offers a screening of the Oscar-nominated animated short film “Sanjay’s Super Team.” Director Sanjay Patel and producer Nicole Grindle will talk about the production process and the inspiration for this unique film.

This year’s CAAMFest lineup also includes the San Francisco premiere of Drawing the Tiger, directed by Amy Benson, Scott Squire and Ramyata Limbu, Danish Renzu’s In Search of America, Inshallah, Shaun Seneviratne’s Tourists, Sudan Sethuramalingam’s Amar, and Tanuj Chopra’s Grass.

For complete details on all the festival’s films, venues, tickets and showtimes, remember to visit http://caamfest.com/2016/.

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