Colorado Dragon Film Festival 2016.05.20-22
Non-CAS Event
Friday, May 20-Sunday, May 22, 2016
King Center, Auraria Campus, CU-Denver
The Colorado Dragon Boat Festival is proud to present Denver's first-ever Colorado Dragon Film Festival on May 20-22 at the King Center on the Auraria Campus, co-sponsored by CU Denver.
Tickets are now available at the King Center Box Office at the Auraria Campus, 855 Lawrence Way, Denver, 80204. Special Opening Night VIP Reception and Screening is $30 each; Individual films are $10/$6 children, seniors & students with ID.
The Colorado Dragon Film Festival will open Friday May 20 at 6:00 pm with a Special VIP Opening Night Reception and Screening of Uzumasa Limelight, director Ken Ochiai's bittersweet tribute to the passing of an era in Japan's samurai films that also pays tribute to Charlie Chaplin's classic Limelight. Tickets for the reception and film is $30 per person. The film focuses on aging actor Kamiyama Seiichi (played by Fukumoto Seizo), who specializes in roles as samurai who die in fight scenes, turning being dispatched into an artform. The Special VIP Opening Night will also feature traditional Japanese performances and demonstrations, light Japanese food and refreshments. Click here for more information and tickets!
On Saturday, May 21, the festival continues with a family-friendly Anime feature, Wolf Children screened by the Colorado Anime Fest, who will return to the Colorado Dragon Boat Festival July 30-31 for their second year with the Two Days of Anime tent. Following the film, children of all ages will have the opportunity to engage with Asian-related craft projects provided by the Denver Art Museum.
Plastic Paradise is a film being screened that deserves your attention. The documentary is a shocking and disturbing report on the deadly amount of garbage - mostly plastic - that is polluting the world's oceans. The film was written and directed by Angela Sun, an ESPN reporter and ocean lover who discovered the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" through her sports reporting, surfing and scuba diving. You'll never think of a water bottle the same way again!
The festival continues Saturday with Winning Girl, an inspiring documentary following a young woman from Hawaii who is determined to be the first athlete to win Olympic gold medals in both Judo and Wrestling. You'll find yourself cheering her on as she competes in National and World contests! For those who missed the Friday VIP Reception and Screening, Uzumasa Limelight will screen again.
The evening will close with Awesome Asian Bad Guys, an action comedy co-starring veteran actress Tamlyn Tomita, Randall Park and a bevy of Asian baddies from movies you've seen since the 1980s.
On Sunday May 22, the Colorado Dragon Film Festival features Changing Season: On the Masumoto Family Farm, a documentary tribute to David "Mas" Masumoto, a 60-year-old Japanese American peach farmer, and his daughter Nikiko, who returns to work the family farm. The film weaves together the contemporary challenges of farming with the incarceration of Japanese Americans during WWII.
The weekend of movie-mania closes with filmmaker Grace Lee's witty and culturally mouth-watering Off the Menu, which will leave viewers hungry with her fascinating look at how Asian cuisine has adapted to American tastes over the decades.
The Colorado Dragon Film Festival will satisfy your hunger for Asian and Asian American films that rarely if ever make it to Denver. Come on by and fill your appetite for cinema, Colorado Dragon-style!
Check here for trailers and online ticket ordering details!