ARTS & CULTURE
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ilip h P h t i By Ed
racing the history of Boston sheds light on the pockets of Asian American communities within the city, stretching from East Boston to Dorchester. From Chinatown near South Station to Cambodians carving out space in Quincy and Vietnamese Americans moving into the Fields Corner neighborhood, Asian Americans have made Boston a place to call home, and, in the process, have built their communities through artistry. One way is through the Boston Asian American Film Festival (BAAFF), which sets out to connect Asian American filmmakers with an audience in Boston, most of whom are members of their own diasporic community. The BAAFF is the brainchild of the Asian American Resource Workshop (AARW) which has showcased movies to the Boston audience for the past 40 years. AARW is a “political home for pan-Asian communities in Greater Boston [and is] a member-led organization committed to building grassroots power through political education, creative expression, and issuebased and neighborhood organizing.” Matthew Cho, a Korean-Indian member of the Tufts Asian Student Coalition, reflected on his experience working at AARW and attending the festival. He said being part of AARW helped him “develop a better understanding of what grassroots community organizing entails,” the BAAFF being a prime example. The BAAFF tends to play films that do not receive mainstream attention in order to support and showcase underrepresented artists. The selection is broad and non-homogenous, just like the Asian American experience. The festival showcases immigrant, queer, and dark-skinned Asians who are often not portrayed in popular narratives. Some films showcasing these narratives at BAAFF are Free Chol Soo Lee, Crossings, and In Search of Bengali Harlem. 810 TUFTS TUFTSOBSERVER OBSERVER NOVEMBER SEPTEMBER 21, 28, 20222020
Susan Chinsen, the establishing director of the film festival and a Tufts alumna, reflected on why she felt driven to start the festival. She said during her time on the AARW board from 2000–2007, she saw how the showcased films appealed to a broad audience and made topics about immigration, queerness, and colorism more accessible to talk about, helping her recognize the need for the festival. She explained, “Media has a strong appeal to draw people in, and we should do it annually.” When figuring out the location, she chose her town of Boston because it felt like the big-name artists would skip over it. This led her to play what she called “matchmaker” by creating a festival where Asian American artists and a growing Boston audience could come together in one space. To choose films, the BAAFF researches less acclaimed new films starring Asian Americans, and artists reach out directly to the BAAFF as well. The BAAFF attracts a large and broad range of guests, within and outside of the diaspora. Through the BAAFF, traditionally neglected Asian American narratives are shared with others to be seen and understood, especially in a political and racial context. Junior Arnav Patra, who attended the festival, commented on the role In Search of Bengali Harlem played in providing representation. He said, “[I appreciated] hearing language on screen that’s similar to my own… because that’s very rare, especially in the theater, because I think most times when I hear South Asian languages, I can understand it at home or from family.” In Search of Bengali Harlem is a documentary that follows Aladdin Ullah as he discovers his mixed ethnic heritage over two continents—first in East Harlem where his ancestors found a home in its Hispanic community, and then in South Asia. Ullah created the film with Vivek Bald, an MIT scholar, and discovered much of his own