It seems as if there is always a film festival going on here, but one of the best, the SF Asian American International Film Festival opens tonight and runs through March 20th.

Opening and closing films sometimes seem like they're chosen more for the stars they will bring to the parties than the quality of the movie. Saving Face which opens the festival tonight is a welcome exception. It is a funny first feature addressing issues of marriage and sexual orientation in a Chinese-American family directed by San Jose native Alice Wu and starring San Francisco resident Joan Chen. If you miss it, the film opens in theaters in May.

This is the 23rd festival and the National Asian American Telecommunications Association is celebrating 25 years. NAATA has distributed more than $3 million to over 200 films and videos. This is the first year there are juried awards for documentaries and features and documentaries. They've asked several filmmakers who've shown work to pick work which has shown at the festival.

Gurinder Chadha and Paul Mayeda Berges who made Bend It Like Beckham met when she showed a film at the festival and he worked there. They chose First Person Plural which was shown on POV in 2000. Deeann Borshay tells her story of being adopted by a white American family after the Korean War. She will be at the screening Friday at 5:15 pm at the Kabuki.

Better Luck Tomorrow director Justin Lin chose A.K.A. Don Bonus which was made in 1995 by the then 18-year-old Sokly Ny along with Spencer Najasako who teaches video to teens in the Tenderloin. They and a number of people in the documentary will be at the showing on Saturday at 2:30 pm at the Kabuki.

Short films are given more respect at than at most festivals. Lin has a short documentary, Spotlighting, in the Brotherhood Best program which screens at 7 pm on Sunday at the Kabuki.

Perhaps the most powerful film is Turtles Can Fly by Iranian-Kurdhish director Bahman Ghobadi. It takes place two years ago in northern Iraq just before the US invasion began. The leaders of a village are frantically trying to get news, so they hire a teenager to get them a dish. He also leads a group of children (many missing limbs) who remove land mines and exchange them for money.