The Fourth Annual DisOrient Asian American Film Festival of Oregon returns this April 17-19 with three days of films, workshops, parties, panels and special guests. Tze Chun’s acclaimed feature film “Children of Invention” will open this year’s festival. Film director Dave Boyle (of DisOrient 2008’s “Big Dreams, Little Tokyo”) and actor Hiroshi Watanabe (”Letters from Iwo Jima”) will attend with their latest film “White On Rice” for DisOrient’s closing night.

This year’s festival will have a special programming block featuring works of local middle school and high school Asian American filmmakers. This year’s program has 7 features and 20 shorts, including the world-premiere of feature film “I Am That Girl”. This year’s films focus on issues such as immigration rights, gender equality, and Asian American identity. Check the DisOrient website for more updates.

The DisOrient Asian American Film Festival of Oregon is presented by the Chinese American Benevolent Association as a grassroots celebration of filmmaking and community. It was started in 2005 by Asian American educators and activists dedicated to honest representations of Asians in films.

Features:
“Children of Invention” – Directed by Tze Chun (Read our interview with Tze here)
“I Am That Girl” – Directed by Grace Rowe
“White on Rice” – Directed by Dave Boyle
“Manilatown is in the Heart” – Directed by Curtis Choy
“Patsy Mink: Ahead of the Majority” – Directed by Kimberlee Bassford
“Vincent Who?” – Directed by Tony Lam
“The First Breath of Tengan Rei” – Directed by Junko Kajino & Ed Koziarski
“Karma Calling” – Directed by Sarba Das

Comedy Short Program:
“Master Vengeancer” – Director Adam Dow
“Take 3″ – Director Roseanne Liang
“Self Absorbed” – Director Yasmine Gomez
“Rice-Aid” – Director Emilie Christoffels
“Chopstick Girl” – Director John Pham
“Memoirs of the Last Samurai’s Geisha”
“What Happened on the Fourth Date” – Director Vijay Mathew
“Golden Boy” – Director William Lu

Roads Less Traveled:
“Rain” – Directed by Thomas Tai Takemoto-Chock
“Popsicle Stick” – Directed by Zooey Park
“Three Bullets” – Directed by Ron Yuan
“Residue” – Directed by Nathaniel Nuon
“Memory Block” – Directed by Hari Alluri
“Never Again” – Directed by Jason Mak
“Bittersweet” – Directed by Justin Cheung
“My Life in Brown & Pink” - Directed by Jazmyn Joseph
“The Other Way Round” – Directed by Geoffrey Quon
“Parallel Adele” – Directed by Adele Pham

Rapid Eye Movement:
“String Phone” – Directed by Kazuhito Nakae
“Tea and Remembrance” – Directed by Ron Yuan
“Ragin’ Asian” – Directed by Angela Ngo
“Copy & Paste” – Directed by Beth Tsai
“Yamanote Line” – Directed by Ark Mu
“Permute” – Directed by Lydia Fu
“Double Features” – Directed by Chihiro Wimbush
“I Don’t Sleep I Dream” – Directed by J.P. Chan

Other Films:
“Spare Some Change” – Directed by Yuta Yamaguchi, (Opening “Vincent Who?”)
“The Akaka Bill” – Directed by The Atkins Brothers, (Opening “Patsy Mink: Ahead of the Majority”)