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We go to this screening of Asian and Asian-American music videos every year! We are now the people in the audience who shout, "Chi-hui!!!!" when the SFIAAFF festival director and music video programmer Chi-hui Yang comes to the front of the theater and says we're in for a "real treat." We don't even know Chi-hui and we almost said hi to him when we saw him on the street the other day. We're stalking the poor music director, that's how into the music video program we are. more ›

We had such a good time at last year's Music Video Asia program, we signed up immediately for this year's screenings too. Why hasn't anyone taken our suggestion from last year and given Chi-hui Yang a video show yet? It could run on the AZN channel! We'd totally watch it. Hip-hop made a strong showing this year: our faves included an Asian-Canadian female rapper (Masia One, with a big-ass boombox), a fun video shot in the East Bay over a high-energy Korean rap, and several moody gangster videos. Subtitles are the new pimp cup. South Asians did innovative work too, with one particularly cool bit featuring tabla drums and beatboxing. We also loved indie rockers +/- (ex-Versus), with a catchy tune and a great video -- we're predicting it lands on Subterranean soon -- and French-Asian Lalipuna shot a beautiful formalist piece. Pinoise did very well too, with the Pacifics back in the house; Invid's hilarious Filipino exorcism party, and an music video film production company featuring someone's dad saying "xylophone." We always leave this screening excited to have more Asian and Asian-American artists to check out. If our computer crashes at work today, it's from overdownloading .mp3s. Picture of MC Masia One PIC. more ›

So we have a cousin. No, this is not some coy way of referring to the newest -ist site, Austinist(welcome!), we're talking about our actual cousin. Anyways, our cousin plays this game whenever we watch videos, called "spot the Asian." There's always one (but no more than one) Asian hip-hop dancer in any given video, for instance. Hapas Jay-Z and Foxy Brown count for half a point. And there's always Chad Hugo, or the Linkin Park DJ, or the kid who plays violin for Yellowcard.... yeah, it's kind of slim pickings on mainstream MTV -- which is why the Asian-Am Film Fest's Music Video Asia program is so key! Every year, the Asian-Am film fest selects a number of music videos featuring bands from Asia, bands with Asian-American members, and Asian video directors and production crews. (Yes, Chinese-American Joseph Kahn directed the Britney Spears Toxic video, but no, he was not featured this year.) Plus, we're always psyched every year to go to this show -- come on, watching music videos is our favorite thing to do in the world! This year's video selections ranged the map. Thoughtfully collected by program curator Chi-hui Yang, they included local SF Asian-American indie musicians, breakthrough British dance artist M.I.A., some excellently head-bobbing hip-hop from across the country and the globe, a metal band, Filipino emo, a huge array of music from Japan, and a Hives-like Swedish band with an Asian lead singer. Brief reviews after the jump. more ›