2021 Letter from the Festival Director

Welcome! The 21st edition of the DC Asian Pacific American Film Festival will be here soon. I take this opportunity to reach out to our festival community after this most trying year.

We are a film festival and what we do best is exhibit films and invite others to gather around our shared humanity. We share stories, educate, amuse, support each other, and advocate for each other. How has our purpose and vision been affected over the past 15 months since we last came together? Who is the festival’s community? How do we communicate our experiences to those who don’t self-identify as AAPI or to those who think we are a monolithic block or who don’t believe we are a minority that experiences racism? This is the time to define who we are and what we stand for.

We are excited to introduce our graphic identity for the 2021 festival: Loud, Proud and Unbowed! The image evokes the emotions—frustration, rage, and sadness—of this past difficult year, which inspired our resilience and a powerful reaction. The artwork, created by the incredible team at Soul & Ink, illustrates a monument to the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities of previous generations in DC, the Chinatown Friendship Archway, and the hands of the generations living and working in the city today. The color blue represents a sky full of possibilities; blue is the water replenishing our parched spirits; blue is “vigilance, perseverance and justice,” as signified in the American flag. We are not perfect; we ourselves are still learning. Our stories are humble and boastful, cathartic, and entertaining. These stories share a little bit of our particularly American worldview: Loud, Proud and Unbowed!

Looking forward to having you join us at this year's festival! 

-Melissa Bisagni, Festival Director