Part of the 42nd Asian American International Film Festival
Presented by Asian CineVision in association with Asia Society

Otherly Worlds: Genre Shorts 
92 mins. DCP. 

Things aren’t always what they seem. What begins as everyday, quickly becomes an exploration of legends, beasts, future technologies, alter-egos, and the supernatural. Join us as we experience a twist on stories of triumph, friendship, deception, and self-discovery.    

This program includes the following shorts:    

ALTERNATE EGO
Dir. David Chai. U.S. 19 mins. 
A naive young man receives a friend request from a beautiful stranger on social media then bumps into her the very next day. After a whirlwind romance, she wants to be introduced to his elusive father. Does she just want acceptance into the family or is she hiding an ulterior motive?

THE LIE GAME
Dir. Jyothi Kalyan Sura. India/U.S. 14 mins.    
A desperate computer scientist struggling to fund her anti-depression AI application faces her toughest challenge yet.    

QUANTUM
Dir. Ryan Willard. U.S. 11 mins.
When a boy battling a brain tumor is ready to give up, his little sister helps him discover a message of hope.    

THE VISIT
Dir. Roxy Shih. Taiwan/U.S. 15 mins.    
A pregnant woman and her husband visit her lonely, aging grandmother in the rural mountains of Taiwan only to witness the older woman's mysterious disappearance.    

DISAPPEAR
Dir. Namroc Doan. U.S. 12 mins.
A daughter gets manipulated by her mother to pull off a heist and struggles with the fallout of the crime.    

BALIKO
Dir. Chris Chung. U.K. 20 mins. 
Mara, a once renowned photographer, journeys deep into the mountains in search of a mystical beast never photographed before. But while searching for a mythical beast, the beast she truly discovers is inside herself.    

The 42nd Asian American International Film Festival runs from July 25 to August 3.

The Asian American International Film Festival (AAIFF) premiered in the summer of 1978 in New York City answering a growing need for social understanding, cultural diversity in American life, and independent cinema. AAIFF is the first festival in the U.S. to showcase film and video work by artists of the Asian Diaspora. Forty years later, the AAIFF has grown to include films and video from more than 30 countries, a variety of topical panels and workshops, industry mixers, staged readings, exclusive interviews, receptions and more.