We had a wonderful screening at Boston Asian American Film Festival 2011. The turnout was great; many stayed back for the Q&A with director Minh Duc Nguyen. Some people came up to Minh later to say that they were really moved by Touch. The staff at BAAFF was incredibly kind and supportive. Here’s some pictures of this memorable festival.

[caption id="attachment_289" align="alignnone" width="640" caption="Journalist Flora Chen from NiHao Boston Magazine and Director Minh Duc Nguyen"][/caption][caption id="attachment_291" align="alignnone" width="640" caption="Director Minh Duc Nguyen being interviewed by Comcast"][/caption]

TOUCH premiered in Atlanta on October 8th, 2011 at the Atlanta Asian Film Festival. The movie was shown at Cinefest Film Theatre on the campus of Georgia State University. The attendance was modest but those who came really enjoyed the film and expressed their positive comments to our producer Mellissa Tong, who was on deck for the Q&A. We were surprised and elated when we learned later that we had won the Jury Award, as well as the Audience Choice Award at this festival. Thank you, Atlanta!

Here’s some photos taken at the festival.

[caption id="attachment_281" align="alignnone" width="960" caption="Producer Mellissa Tong with festival founder Li Wong"][/caption][caption id="attachment_283" align="alignnone" width="540" caption="Q&A with producer Mellissa Tong"][/caption][caption id="attachment_285" align="alignnone" width="960" caption="Audience comments after screening"][/caption]

Please take note of the new screening time for TOUCH at OC Film Fiesta, now 6PM instead of 7PM, on Saturday, September 10th, 2011, at the historic Yost Theater, 307 N. Spurgeon Street, Santa Ana, CA 92701.

Free admission. For more info, visit: http://ocfilmfiesta.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=86&Itemid=69.

3 short films (approx. 30 minutes) will precede TOUCH. There will be a Q&A with the cast and crew after the screening.

Come join us for a pre-screening wine reception, from 4:00 – 5:30 PM, hosted by The Vietnamese American Arts & Letters Association (VAALA) at the VAALA Cultural Center (1600 North Broadway, Santa Ana, CA 92706).

If you haven’t had a chance to see TOUCH, our movie will be screened at several film festivals this fall.

OC Film Fiesta, on Saturday, September 10th, 2011, 7PM at the historic Yost Theater, 307 N. Spurgeon Street, Santa Ana, CA 92701. Free admission. For more info, visit: http://ocfilmfiesta.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=86&Itemid=69.

Wine Country Film Festival (aka Santa Rosa International Film Festival), tentatively Sunday, September 18th, 2011, at Deerfield Ranch Winery, 10200 Sonoma Highway, Kenwood, CA. More details to come. For more info, visit: http://www.winecountryfilmfest.com/index.asp.

Tulsa International Film Festival, Friday, September 23rd, 2011, 9:30PM at Hyatt Regency – Green Theater, 100 East Second Street, Tulsa, OK. For more info, visit: http://tulsaiff.festivalgenius.com/2011/films/touch_minhducnguyen_tulsaiff2011

Atlanta Asian Film Festival, tentatively Saturday, October 8th, 2011. More details to come. For more info, visit: http://www.atlaff.org/index.html

We hope to see you at one of these screenings!

For our West Coast Premiere, Touch had 2 great screenings at the 2011 Seattle International Film Festival. Wow, what a beautiful city! The first screening was at the Renton IKEA Performing Arts Center and the other was at the Admiral Theatre in West Seattle. Both turnouts were great and afterward the audience stayed back for a lively Q&A. Many came up to us to say that they were moved by our movie. We felt elated from the positive reactions.

Overall, Seattle was a fabulous experience. There were so many good movies there and from all over the world. We were just excited to be in their company. Also, the moviegoers in Seattle are so adventurous and friendly. Their interactions with us made this trip unforgettable. Here are some pics.

After more than a year of hard work, Touch finally had its World Premiere at the Boston International Film Festival (BIFF) on April 23, 2011. Coming to Boston, we didn’t know what to expect. For some of us, this trip to Boston was the first time we got to visit this beautiful city. We took the T everywhere, from North End to Dorchester, from Harvard to the University of Massachusetts. We walked around and handed our movie postcards to anyone who would give us a minute of their time. The people in Boston was extremely kind to us. Many of them were surprised to hear that there was a movie about a Vietnamese manicurist showing in Boston and were excited to come to the screening. By the way, we learned that Boston has the seventh largest Vietnamese American population in the United States.

The screening at BIFF was a wonderful experience. We had a good turnout that was quite diverse, and the audience response during the screening was very enthusiastic. Many people stayed back for the Q&A with director Minh Duc Nguyen, actor John Ruby and actress Porter Lynn. Afterward, we went to Rock Bottom to drink Samuel Adams with some of our fans that weren’t ready to call it a night yet.

The next night at BIFF’s Awards Ceremony, Touch received three awards: Best Story Line, Best Actress for Porter Lynn, and Best Cinematography! We were thrilled. Overall, it was an amazing time in Boston. We were very sad to leave.

Here’s some photos of BIFF 2011.

We had a successful Sneak Preview Screening at the first annual San Francisco Diasporic Vietnamese Film Festival (SFDVFF) on April 23, 2011, at San Francisco State University. Again, the theater was packed and the audience loved the movie. Here’s what one attendee thought about Touch when he wrote on our facebook page.

Nathan Ly: “I went to a sneak preview of Touch at the Diasporic Vietnamese Film Festival at SFSU yesterday (April 23, 2011) and was moved by this excellent movie. A surprisingly meaningful story of “touch” out of a nail shop, dotted with humor and great acting throughout. Congratulations to director Minh Duc Nguyen for his first feature film. The theatre was full and I noticed emotional faces and nodding heads all around at the end of the movie. The Q&A session offered interesting views from actors Long Nguyen and Bety Le. Thank you SFSU for organising a succesful event.
I am sure “Touch” will be a big hit and can’t wait to see it again on the big screen.”

Here’s some photos of SFDVFF 2011.

actress Bety Le at Sneak Preview of Touch at SFDVFF

actress Bety Le

actor Long Nguyen, his siter Thuy, actress Bety Le and her mother

actress Bety Le with her mom and relatives before the screening

Q&A with Bety Le and Long Nguyen, MC by writer Andrew Lam

Bety Le and Long Nguyen shared a laugh with Andrew Lam

Bety Le

Long Nguyen

Bety Le got emotional during the Q&A

Long Nguyen and Bety Le

Long Nguyen and Bety thanked the audience

Bety Le with a fan

We had a great Sneak Preview screening at the Vietnamese International Film Festival (VIFF) on April 16, 2011 at UC Irvine. The theater was packed. The audience laughed and cried and laughed some more. In general, the response was extremely positive. We couldn’t be happier. After the screening, many people stayed back for the Q&A. It was just a wonderful experience.

To top it off, at the closing ceremony a day later, Touch won the Audience Choice Award for Best Feature Film. The news was so unexpected…so unexpected that director Minh Duc Nguyen wasn’t even in the theater when VIFF announced the award. Minh thought Touch wouldn’t be qualified for any awards since it was shown as a Sneak Preview, so he had slipped out to grab a bite. Thank goodness our actress Eliza Ngo was in the theater and accepted the award on our behalf.

Here are some photos of VIFF 2011.