Jason goes to CAAMFest--Day 10

I skipped another couple of weeknights, but was back on Saturday

I started with ORIGIN STORY, Kulap Vilaysack’s documentary about herself. She came from a turbulent home. Her mom and dad fought a lot. And she tended to get along better with her dad. At least, until...when she was 14...her mother angrily told her that he wasn't her real dad. Now grown up, living and working in Hollywood (and married to Comedy Bang-Bang's Scott Aukerman) she decides she can't start her own family without knowing the real story of where she came from. Her true "origin story" (appropriate, considering she has been immortalized as a DC comics hero.) Her personality keeps the story of discovery interesting and funny, even as many of the discoveries turn out pretty negative (she comes from a family of seriously messed-up people who just use people.) In the end, it was probably the best and most engaging documentary I saw in the festival.

And then a less engaging documentary, LOOKING FOR? A story of dating apps, the gay men who use them, and their hook-ups. I hope I wasn't bored just because they were gay and I'm not. But it was just talking head story after story of how people met on the apps. Cool. Good for them. No examination of whether this is a good or bad way to meet people. Nothing about what it's uniquely like to be an Asian man meeting people there. I understand that it's been pretty recent that gay men can even safely tell the story of meeting their boyfriends. And it's great that it's safe(r) for them now. But that doesn't make for an interesting movie. It makes for a tedious stream of meet-cute stories.

Anyway, I skipped out on the Q&A not just for that, but because I really wanted to get rush tickets for H.P. Mendoza's latest film, BITTER MELON. And at 5th in line, I figured it would be no problem. But it was a problem. I failed and didn't see it. But I don't feel bad for myself. I feel bad for the people in line who did have tickets and were there on time and still weren't allowed in because it was so oversold. I also feel bad for the makers of LUMPIA, since I was tired and a bit annoyed so instead of killing a couple of hours and seeing it, I went home instead. But I am a crowdfunding backer of LUMPIA II. That's right, I Backed That Lumpia, even if I still haven't seen the original.

Total Running Time: 167
My Total Minutes: 479,500