THE COLORADO DRAGON BOAT FILM FESTIVAL
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  • Previous Programs
    • 2021 Program >
      • 2021 Short Film Showcase >
        • #AsianAMCovidStories
        • Duo Pandemia
        • Mastery I & II
        • Ib Tsug 13 Hnub
        • Ntuj Tsim Txom
        • Mechamorphosis
        • The 3 Day Nun
        • The Loyal Betrayal
        • Voices
      • 2021 Emerging Artists Showcase >
        • Check Box: Other
        • I Put the Bi in Bitter >
          • I Put the Bi in Bitter S2
          • I Put the Bi in Bitter S1
        • Safe
        • In the Spotlight
    • 2020 Program >
      • Digital Program Book
      • 2020 Creative Conversations >
        • 2/21 - Best Tasting Wild Foods of Colorado​
        • 2/22 - Health & Mental Health
        • 2/22 - Mushroom Foraging 101
      • 2020 Asian American Documentaries >
        • Palliative
        • Love Boat: Taiwan
      • 2020 Colorado Showcase >
        • The Rock Within
        • Ma
        • For Tashi
        • people (of water)
        • Not Pictured
        • I Put the Bi in Bitter
      • Ang Larawan (The Portrait)
      • Asian American Artist Showcase
    • 2019 Program >
      • 2019 Film Shorts >
        • Runner
        • Tears of the Sky
        • I Put the Bi in Bitter
        • My Escape
      • 2019 CU Denver Showcase >
        • Three Worlds One Stage
        • Virtual Mandala
      • 2019 Festival Talkbacks >
        • Creative Leadership Talkback
        • CU Filmmaker Q&A
        • Film Industry Talkback
    • 2018 Program
    • 2017 Program >
      • Taipei Story
      • The Last Princess
      • Mid-Length Films Block
      • Ten Years
      • What's in the Darkness
      • Millennium Actress
      • The Future Perfect
      • Youth of the Beast
      • Being Good
      • Heart Attack
      • Bloody Dairy
      • Bruce Takes Dragon Town
      • Cowboy and Indian
      • Dancing Through Life: The Dorothy Toy Story
      • Ho Chi Minh Kim Chi
      • Mango Sticky Rice
      • Night-Fly
      • Sumo Road - The Musical
      • Threads - The Art and Life of Surayia Rahman
      • Twenty Years
    • 2016 Program >
      • Wolf Children
      • Uzumasa Limelight
      • Changing Season
      • Plastic Paradise: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch
      • Awesome Asian Bad Guys
      • Off the Menu: Asian America
      • Winning Girl

2021 Festival Tickets
In partnership with Denver Film

Location: Virtual Cinema 

Join us for this year's ALL VIRTUAL film festival! Explore the vast cinema of Asian and our Asian American communities from the comfort of your own home. 

Opening Film: Definition Please
Thursday, March 4th, 2021 


TRT 91 MINS | NOT YET RATED | USA | ENGLISH | COLOR
​

"When we meet Monica Chowdry in 2005, the eight-year-old is on top of the world as champion of Scribbs National Spelling Bee. Fast-forward to present day: grown-up Monica (writer-director Sujata Day) is still living at home in Greensburg, Pennsylvania with her ailing mom Jaya (Anna Khaja), making a living tutoring a new crop of future overachievers while hesitating to make any big moves in her own life. Monica faces an unwelcome disruption in her mundane routine when her older brother Sonny (Ritesh Rajan) reappears from out of the blue. A sweet-natured, fitness-obsessed goofball, Sonny blithely refuses to address his bipolar disorder, and Monica is wary of embracing his presence lest they repeat past traumas. Known for her role on HBO’s INSECURE, Day has crafted an assured directorial debut that pays loving homage to Bollywood fantasy while offering a refreshingly nuanced look at a complicated South Asian-American family.
​An effervescent, feel-good film packing a genuine emotional punch, DEFINITION PLEASE is a lovely meditation on mental health, cultural expectations, and the universal challenges of growing up."
​
Director
Sujata Day

Starring
Sujata Day, Ritesh Rajan, Jake Choi, Anna Khaja, Lalaine, Parvesh Cheena, Eugene Byrd, Katrina Bowden, Levar Buton
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Closing Night Film: Moonlit Winter
Sunday, March 7th, 2021

South Korea / 105 minutes / Not Rated​

​Synopsis
Saebom is a high school student, living with her mother Yunhee, who is in her 40s. After her recent divorce, Yunhee seems to be depressed, but she never shares her feelings with Saebom. One day, Saebom finds a mysterious love letter sent to Yunhee. The letter is from Hokkaido, Japan. This one letter makes Saebom wonder about the past of Yunhee she has not known. Saebom comes up with a secret plan to find the sender thinking it’d be an opportunity for her to get to know Yunhee better and for Yunhee to overcome her post-divorce depression.
After Saebom’s repeated asking, Yunhee finally agrees to go on a trip to Hokkaido.

Director
Dae Hyung Lim

Starring

Hee-ae Kim, Yûko Nakamura, So-hye Kim
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Films Available All Weekend Long!


Angry Rice Wives
Japan / 106 minutes / Not Rated​

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Synopsis
In 1918, Japan’s Siberian Intervention inflames a sudden rise in rice prices to supply the food for the troops. This creates economic hardship for ordinary people, including Ito, one of the wives of fisherman in a rural town, who frugally holds down the fort while their husbands are away. The authorities won’t listen wives’ pleading “Never let the rice go!”. The determination of the desperate housewives causes the legendary riot that soon spreads nationwide. Based on a true historical event, the film tells the story of regular housewives who dare to stand up to protect their families. 

Director

Katsuhide Motoki

Starring
Mitsuru Fukikoshi, Tokie Hidari, Mao Inoue


 

Days
Taiwan / 127 minutes / Not Rated​

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​Synopsis
Under the pain of illness and treatment, Kang (Lee Kang-sheng) finds himself adrift. He meets Non (Anong Houngheuangsy) in a foreign land. They find consolation in each other before parting ways and carrying on with their days. The latest film from Tsai Ming-liang (Goodbye Dragon Inn, Stray Dogs, The Wayward Cloud), Days marks yet another masterwork in one of contemporary cinema’s most extraordinary careers.

Director

Tsai Ming-liang

Producer
Claude Wang
​
​Starring
Lee Kang-sheng, Anong Houngheuangsy


 

Death of Nintendo 
Philippines, United States/ 98 minutes / Not Rated​

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Synopsis
​Set in Manila in the 1990s, DEATH OF NINTENDO takes us into the colorful pop- culture world of four friends, back in the days when video games were still a novelty. Mimaw and her friends Paolo, Kachi and Gilligan go on a journey of self- discovery together as they play games and wrestle with new dilemmas – puppy love, circumcision and other horror stories.

Director
Raya Martin
​
​Starring
Noel Comia Jr., Agot Isidro


 

Emerging Artists (Student) Showcase
Colorado, USA/ 130 minutes / Not Rated​

We are excited to showcase the amazing films from our Emerging Artists! We have Marin Lepore's final season of "I Put the Bi in Bitter", Steven Thai's "Safe", and Maddy Santamaria's "Checkbox: Other". Don't miss this year's student contributions. For more information on each of these films click on the button below.  
​
Learn More

 

Far East Deep South 
USA/ 76 minutes / Not Rated​

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​​Synopsis
When Charles Chiu, a Chinese-American man from California, travels to Mississippi to visit the grave of his father who abandoned him as a baby, he and his family stumble upon surprising revelations that change their lives. Along the way, they meet a diverse group of local residents and historians, who shed light on the racially complex history of the Chinese in the segregated South during the Chinese Exclusion era. Their emotional journey leads them to discover how deep their roots run in America.
​
Director
Larissa Lam

Cast
Baldwin Chiu, Caliya Chiu


 

Lunana: A Yak In the Classroom 
Bhutan/ 109 minutes / Not Rated​ 

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Synopsis
​Struggling with his profession as a teacher, Ugyen is sent to Lunana in northern Bhutan for his final year of training. The high altitude and the lack of amenities make Ugyen want to leave as soon as he arrives. With a warm welcome the local children try to win him over but they don’t have much time as the harsh winter is about to arrive in the glacial parts of the Himalaya…

Director
Pawo Choyning Dorji

Cast
Sherab Dorji
​

Mu and the Vanishing World
​USA/ 86 minutes / Not Rated​ 


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Synopsis
​Mu and the Vanishing World is an 86 minute documentary feature that immerses us in the journey of a young single mother and her tribe over the course of 10 years.
Ever since fleeing Myanmar as a child, Mu lives confined as a refugee and tourist attraction in a Long Neck Village in Northern Thailand. Soon after she becomes a single teenage mother, the U.N. initiates a resettlement plan for the refugee camps along the Thai-Burma border creating an opportunity for many to start new lives in the USA.
Determined to pursue freedom for herself and her baby, Mu ruptures ties with her traditional mother, her culture and tribe to fulfill the requirements of the rigorous vetting process. Once she finally arrives in America, her romanticized ideas are challenged by the reality that unfolds.
As Mu strives to give her son a better future, she struggles to find out where her true identity lies.

Directors
Jessica Leung, Paco Beltrán


My Prince Edward
​​Hong Kong/ 88 minutes / Not Rated​ 

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Synopsis
Serving countless newlyweds in Hong Kong’s go-to one-stop-shop of cheap wedding supplies doesn’t exempt Fong from social pressure to marry. Since nodding to Edward’s proposal, she has been pushed beyond limits by unaffordable housing, archaic customs, and intrusive in-laws. What befuddles her further is the reappearance of Shuwei, a mainlander she’s supposed to be divorced from out of a sham marriage that solved her coming-of-age hardship. Zeroing in on nuts and bolts of modern marriage, My Prince Edward pokes around fixated correlations of freedom with relationship status and geographic residence. Like a breath of fresh air out of the breathless space it navigates, the delightful gem contributes a rare humane take on the worldly metropolis's divisions with humor and wisdom. As Fong redefines her best life and writer-director Norris Wong reclaims her home city's narrative from outsiders, the profound thrills sparked by their courage will make you wholeheartedly cheer for a woman’s independence and Hong Kong cinema’s rejuvenation.

Director
Yee-Lam (Norris) Wong


Quezon's Game
Philippines/ 125 minutes / Not Rated​ 
​

Picture
Synopsis
In 1938, Philippine President Manuel Quezon, future US president Dwight Eisenhower, and several other notable figures set out to rescue Jewish refugees from the ghettos of Germany and Austria. What seems within their power at first, turns out to be fraught with astronomical obstacles. On top of this, Quezon must battle a relapse of tuberculosis. In his final days, Quezon asks the question “Could I have done more?” before recollecting one of the least known, but most uplifting stories in the
holocaust history.

Director

Matthew Rosen

Starring

Raymond Bagatsing, Rachel Alejandro

Short Films Showcase
USA, China/ 170 minutes / Not Rated​ 
​​






​We are excited to have over 11 Short Films from local filmmakers all over the USA and China. Check out the link for more information on all of these amazing films. 
Learn More

The Celine Archive
USA / 69 minutes / Not Rated​ 
​​

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Synopsis
Adulteress, traitor, heroine, or prey? In 1932, Celine Navarro was buried alive by her community in Northern California. This film digs up herstory. The filmmaker, a grieving mother, with a long-term commitment to exploring race, gender and immigration, digs up Celine Navarro's story, exposing silences that haunt Filipinx American communities today, along with Celine Navarro’s family, community members and scholars who know different details about this largely untold event in American history.

Director
Celine Parrenas Shimizu


Veins of the World
 Mongolia, Germany / 96 minutes / Not Rated​ 
​​

Picture
Synopsis
Amra’s father Erdene is the leader of the last nomads opposing global mining companies digging for gold in the Mongolian steppe. After his father dies in a tragic car accident, Amra sets out to continue the fight in his father's spirit – but with the tools of an 11-year-old boy.

Director

Byambasuren Davaa

Cast
Bat-Ireedui Batmunkh, Enerel Tumen

Contact Us

  • Home
  • Sponsors / Donors
  • 2022 Raffle
  • 2022 Program
    • 2022 Community Conversations >
      • 3/5 - CAPU
      • 3/6 - AGI
    • 2022 Short Films Showcase >
      • #AsianAmResilience Microdocs
      • good enough
      • In Wake of the Crashing Dawn
      • Projections
      • Charlie
      • Desert Lotus
      • Ara, Untamed
      • My Name is not Amy
    • 2022 Emerging Artists Showcase >
      • Sino Ako
      • All Mine
      • Winter Glass Glare
      • Core
      • Maa
      • Heart Sutra
  • About / Contact
  • Previous Programs
    • 2021 Program >
      • 2021 Short Film Showcase >
        • #AsianAMCovidStories
        • Duo Pandemia
        • Mastery I & II
        • Ib Tsug 13 Hnub
        • Ntuj Tsim Txom
        • Mechamorphosis
        • The 3 Day Nun
        • The Loyal Betrayal
        • Voices
      • 2021 Emerging Artists Showcase >
        • Check Box: Other
        • I Put the Bi in Bitter >
          • I Put the Bi in Bitter S2
          • I Put the Bi in Bitter S1
        • Safe
        • In the Spotlight
    • 2020 Program >
      • Digital Program Book
      • 2020 Creative Conversations >
        • 2/21 - Best Tasting Wild Foods of Colorado​
        • 2/22 - Health & Mental Health
        • 2/22 - Mushroom Foraging 101
      • 2020 Asian American Documentaries >
        • Palliative
        • Love Boat: Taiwan
      • 2020 Colorado Showcase >
        • The Rock Within
        • Ma
        • For Tashi
        • people (of water)
        • Not Pictured
        • I Put the Bi in Bitter
      • Ang Larawan (The Portrait)
      • Asian American Artist Showcase
    • 2019 Program >
      • 2019 Film Shorts >
        • Runner
        • Tears of the Sky
        • I Put the Bi in Bitter
        • My Escape
      • 2019 CU Denver Showcase >
        • Three Worlds One Stage
        • Virtual Mandala
      • 2019 Festival Talkbacks >
        • Creative Leadership Talkback
        • CU Filmmaker Q&A
        • Film Industry Talkback
    • 2018 Program
    • 2017 Program >
      • Taipei Story
      • The Last Princess
      • Mid-Length Films Block
      • Ten Years
      • What's in the Darkness
      • Millennium Actress
      • The Future Perfect
      • Youth of the Beast
      • Being Good
      • Heart Attack
      • Bloody Dairy
      • Bruce Takes Dragon Town
      • Cowboy and Indian
      • Dancing Through Life: The Dorothy Toy Story
      • Ho Chi Minh Kim Chi
      • Mango Sticky Rice
      • Night-Fly
      • Sumo Road - The Musical
      • Threads - The Art and Life of Surayia Rahman
      • Twenty Years
    • 2016 Program >
      • Wolf Children
      • Uzumasa Limelight
      • Changing Season
      • Plastic Paradise: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch
      • Awesome Asian Bad Guys
      • Off the Menu: Asian America
      • Winning Girl