The SF Int'l Film Festival isn't just about great national and international movies -- they've got music events, gala events, talks about the state of cinema, an online presence through SF360.com, and -- what we stopped by to see this afternoon -- a series of panels about the state of cinema today. Today's panel was about the state of the film scene in San Francisco, and included basically every single movie-related constituency group in......

SFist Wendy makes it a weekend of romance at the SF Asian-Am Film Fest! This was a good weekend, thanks in large part to the Asian-American film festival. We spent part of the past two days at the Castro checking out a couple of remarkably different films: Lou Ye’s Summer Palace, and former SFIAAFF director Paul Mayeda Berges’ Mistress of Spices, a Bollywoodesque adaptation of Chitra Divakaruni’s novel, featuring the ever-stunning Aishwarya Rai, aka......

The SF Asian-American Film Festival hosts not only ten days of the latest and greatest in Asian and Asian-American film, but two nights of current highlights from the Asian-American music scene too: one of hip-hop and electronica, and one of indie rock. Every year these concerts sell out, so get ready, get set, and get those tickets! Hip-hop/Dance: Friday, March 16, at the Independent, 5th Platoon's Neil Armstrong and Vin Roc, and SF MC......

Even as we continue to enjoy the movie cavalcade that is our beloved Indiefest, we're also getting ready for the next big film festival coming to town: the SF Asian-American Film Festival! This is the 25th SF Int'l Asian-American Film Festival, and they're celebrating their silver anniversary this year with a special focus on Chinese-American film, a retrospective of the work of Korean filmmaker Hong Sang-soo, and a sing-along Flower Drum Song, among other special......

Speaking of august institutions delving into contemporary edginess, the SF Asian Art Museum (200 Larkin, Samsung Hall) presents a butoh & immersive video performance by blindsight Artistic Director/Choreographer Paige Starling Sorvillo in collaboration with Los Angeles-based media artist lucy h g and UK-based Australian composer duo imaginationandmymother.  Their integrated media performance presents a striking visual meditation on remote-access war and our daily complicity in the violence of globalism. (7pm) And over in the East Bay,......

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....