April 27: The 12th Spring Showcase’s Closing Night Film, Jamojaya Makes Its West Coast Premiere
April 27, 2023
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Margaret Le, margaret@sdaff.org
SAN DIEGO, April 27, 2023
April 27: The 12th Spring Showcase’s Closing Night Film, Jamojaya
Makes Its West Coast Premiere
Justin Chon’s latest feature film mixes resurfacing familial tensions with
mysticism
WHAT: Pacific Arts Movement In a 15+ film collection, Pacific Art Movement’s 12th San Diego
Asian Film Festival (SDAFF) Spring Showcase returns to the Ultrastar Cinemas in
Mission Valley, San Diego from April 20 through 27, 2022. Audiences will enjoy eight
days of films from Japan, Hong Kong, Iran, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore, South
Korea, UK, USA, and more including a four-film retrospective on legendary actors Leslie
Cheung and Anita Mui. The showcase opens with the genre-bending documentary
Starring Jerry as Himself on April 20 telling the true story of an immigrant father
recruited by the Chinese police to be an undercover agent. Closing night features
Director Justin Chon’s Jamojaya which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival this
January. Other programming includes live Q&As from filmmakers and musical
performances.
WHY: In Rich Brian’s acting debut, Jamojaya marks his first collaboration with Justin Chon.
Making its premiere at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, the film explores James’
struggles to confront his father while grappling with the demands of a major U.S. record
label as an aspiring rapper. As audiences follow along to see how James and Joyo’s
relationship unravels, the movie showcases thoughtful cinematography, presenting
Hawaii as a dreary paradise with an Indonesian folktale as the backdrop. Since Chon’s
film Gook, he has a seeming interest to explore familial relationships among the Asian
and Asian-American community, citing his desire to “bring empathy to the AAPI
community.” With this film, it is one of Chon’s more experimental and contemplative
projects to date.
ABOUT THE FILM:
Director: Justin Chon
Thursday, April 27th at 7:45 p.m.
Location: UltraStar Cinemas Mission Valley
Link: https://sdaff.org/spring2023/movies/jamojaya/