CINSSU recently hung out at the Reel Asian Film Festival and enjoyed a wonderful weekend of some of the best that Asian cinema has to offer.  There was a diverse selection offered which ranged as far from Thailand, to Hong Kong and even including a Japanese/American coproduction (White On Rice) along with a special screening of a silent Wuxia film.  The variation on what was offer was also intriguing with a selection that ranged from Industry seminar events to Installation pieces decorated around town to a program that eclectically featured short-films, documentaries, hidden gems, and full on advance screenings for big features.

Somewhere between these films, it was truly remarkable how efficiently run the festival was with regard to how smooth and easy things were managed.  In a single day, there’d be anything from two to four films playing at Innis Town Hall with Industry Seminars (such as the one featuring director Yang Ik-June of Breathless), a pitch competition (So You Think You Can Pitch?), and classy parties at the Rivoli to boot.  It is frankly amazing to see how near-effortless the days were managed with volunteers abound with frenzied crowds in line-ups or milling about.  There were almost seamless problems in what looked ostensibly like chaos under the controlled management of House coordinators and festival crew.  There were times when I questioned even my own ability to hop back and forth between venues (Innis Town Hall to Royal theare), only to arrive in the nick of time to see all the same festival crew from Townhall transplanted at the Royal doing their business as if nothing had happened.  It’s a kind of service and dedication which seems genuinely cinematic when witnessed live.
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