From the "On The Scene" Archives:

compiled by Mark Rabinowitz

>> The 21st Asian American International Film Festival has announced a partial lineup for this year's event, which is scheduled to run over four weekends in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens. Seven films were announced, five of which are New York premieres, including Eric Koyanagi's "Hundred Percent," which stars Tamlyn Tomita ("The Joy Luck Club"), Dustin Nguyen (TV's "21 Jump Street," "Nowhere") and Garrett Wang (TV's "Star Trek: Voyager"); Harish Saluja's award-winning "The Journey," which took home the Best Independent Film award at the Cleveland Film Festival and the audience award for best feature film at the Florida Film Festival, and Steve Wang's "Drive," starring Mark Dascascos (TV's "The Crow: Stairway to Heaven") and Kadeem Hardison ("Vampire in Brooklyn"). The Manhattan weekends (July 24-26 & July 31-August 1) will take place at Florence Gould Hall in the French Institute/Alliance Francaise 55 E. 59th St., the Brooklyn portion is August 7-9 at the Brooklyn Heights Cinema, 70 Henry St. and the Queens segment will be "A Tribute to Filipino Cinema on "August 22-23 at Sunnyside New Center Cinema, 42-17 Queens Blvd.

>> Two new alterna-Cannes events had successful debuts in France this year, with both Cannes You Dig It? (CYDI?) and Slamdunk holding screenings as alternative mini-fests. Jon Jacobs won the CYDI? Golden Warrior Award for his film "Lucinda's Spell," Derrick Cianfrance took home the New Kid On The Block Award for "Brother Tied" and the Lifetime Achievement Award went to Troma Films honcho Lloyd Kaufman. Executive Director Glasgow Phillips and Festival Director Jason McHugh held a press conference in Los Angeles post-festival, where Phillips remarked that the festival was going to step up the effort in 1999. "We're budgeted at one million dollars, and [are] staffing up right now. We plan to be a major presence in Cannes next summer, though we'll adhere to the promotional techniques that worked so well for us this year -- delivering the underground scene to the local market.

>> San Francisco arthouse The Roxie Cinema and Literary Television (LTV) have put together BRAINWOMB, an evening of poetry films and videos, including live poetry readings from Bay Area poets on Monday, June 15th. Some of the LTV films and videos (and the poets whose work is used) included in BRAINWOMB are Brett Marottoli's "Finished Knowing" (Emily Dickinson), Elizabeth Lewis' "A Kite is a Victim" (Leonard Cohen), Iara Lee's "An Autumn Wind" (Allen Ginsberg), Bill Whittington's "Fear" (Raymond Carver), Cathy Cook's "A Deed Without A Name" (William Shakespeare), Katherine Hurbis-Cherrier's "Ode To A Bar Of Soap" (Pablo Neruda), and many others. In addition, two Bay Area poets, Craig Easley and Thea Hillman, will make live appearances in LTV's "Virtual Cafe." The Roxie is located at 3117 16th Street in San Francisco. Showtimes are 7:00 and 9:30pm.