Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival (PAAFF)
PAAFF is dedicated to supporting and highlighting the experiences of Asian and Pacific Islander diaspora through creative community-focused programs. In addition to their film programs, this volunteer-run organization also presents supporting programming such as live performances, chef demonstrations, panels and lectures, and educational workshops during the festival and throughout the year.
No matter how niche the project is, I have learned that there’s always a lingo you have to understand before communicating to any audience, but what if you had to do it in a different language? 2,300 different Asian languages to be exact. Without a doubt, the Asian diaspora is vast and I asked myself, “how do I get a multilingual community to be excited about a film festival that they might not understand or even care about?” By being inclusive.
Representation matters and when people see themselves in marketing, a connection is established. Being inclusive in marketing can take on many forms. It’s more than just placing visuals of diverse Asian people. It’s about making the community feel seen and heard. Unfortunately there is no “one size fits all” situation so we had to consider several approaches.
Approach number one was to use empathy. By letting the community know that we understood their experiences and challenges, our programming had to be tailored to connect with them on a deeper level. If we had a film feature in Khmer, we weren’t going to make them travel all the way to center city to watch it. Instead, we chose a location within or close to a Cambodian neighborhood or establishment (i.e. temple or restaurant). Doing this made the film feature more accessible while also creating a familiar and a safe space.
Another approach was through language whether it was translation or choice of words. If we had a film series with a Vietnamese topic, we would translate promotional materials into Vietnamese. If we had several films about the the Filipino community and one of the films had a LGBTQ story plot, it was important for us to understand when and when not to use “Filipinx” in our writing. We didn’t want to alienate anyone.
A third approach was using cross cultural marketing by engaging different communities and causes. When we had a documentary about Blasians (an individual of both black and Asian heritage.) we collaborated with a youth poetry group to perform before the screening and suddenly we had a “docu-theatre” experience. To fill seats, we invited organizations such as Blackstar Film Festival and Philadelphia Asian Performing Artists. In return for the free tickets, we asked them to promote the event on their channels.
By establishing a voice behind the brand and implementing strategies driven by representation and inclusivity, we grew a small community of cinephiles and volunteers into the third-largest film festival of its kind in the US.
