Seattle Asian American Film Festival

The Seattle Asian American Film Festival was founded in 1985 and has been revived over the years by different producers. The current iteration was founded in 2012 and made its debut in 2013. It is a revival of (and a return to the events original name) of the previously running Northwest Asian American Film Festival, which was directed by Wes Kim from 2003 to 2007 and which had experienced a five-year hiatus. The festival is currently run and directed by co-directors Kevin Bang and Vanessa Au. The inaugural film festival was also held at the Wing Luke Asian Museum from January 25 to 27, 2013.

The Seattle Asian American Film Festival was founded in 1985 by KingStreet Media, a community-based Asian American media production and advocacy group based in Seattle's International District. Kingstreet Media was an offshoot of the International Examiner newspaper as almost all its members were either photographers, writers or graphic artists for the paper. The festival came about after the group helped complete "Beacon Hill Boys" - the first ever dramatic film about Asian American youth. The film had caused a sensation locally when it premiered a few months earlier, had been nominated for a student Academy Award, and was beginning to make the festival rounds nationally and internationally. Capitalizing on the film's success and looking to expand their commitment to raising the profile of Asian American cinema the group put together the city's first all Asian American film festival. To emphasize recent breakthroughs in Asian American filmmaking, which up until that time had been almost completely dominated by documentary work, the festival featured programs made up entirely of narrative films (dramas, comedies, etc.). In addition to "Beacon Hill Boys," the line-up included Wayne Wang's acclaimed sleeper hit "Chan Is Missing," Visual Communications' historical epic "Hito Hata: Raise The Banner," Stephen Ning's coming-of-age tale "Freckled Rice," Robert Nakamura's multi-ethnic comedy "Fool's Dance," and Steven Okazaki's mother/daughter profile "The Only Language She Knows" among others. The festival was held at Seattle's historic Nippon Kan Theater with the International Examiner acting as media sponsor. The festival's founders and staff included Dean Wong, William Satake Blauvelt, Sumi Hayashi, Dean Hayasaka, Ken Mochizuki, Jeff Hanada, Greg Tuai, and Jesse Reyes.

The second edition of the festival was held in 1987 with the International Examiner taking over as producer. The paper hired Nellie Fujii-Anderson as festival director and William Satake Blauvelt returned as Programming Director. Also, several other KingStreet Media members who also worked for the paper helped again. This time the festival was held at the University of Washington's Kane Hall and featured an expanded line-up of narrative, documentary, experimental and animation films, as well as independent films from around Asia. The Examiner had taken on the festival, in part, as a way to raise funds for the newspaper. Although the festival was successful on different levels they soon found out that film festivals in general were not money making propositions and so declined to act as producer for any further editions. The International Examiner did continue its role as a media sponsor of the festival to the present day.

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