PAAFF SHORTS - Living a Dream
Thursday, November 13, 2025 | Doors: 8PM | Show: 8:30PM | Tickets ($18 general admission, $10 student)
Presented by Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival
Grief, boredom, the mind-numbing chaos of contemporary existence--when we are pushed to the brink, we all can feel the temptation to escape reality. These six dark and disturbing tales showcase variations on this theme: that a grounded life is but one possibility. In the end, though, we must ask ourselves whether it's better to escape the nightmare or live forever inside a dream...
Curated by Arzhang Zafar and Phoebe Schaub.
This program is presented in collaboration with Multiverse Philly.
SHORTS
TIMER (Directed by Shirin Shakhs, Satar Sanjari)
Two hotel employees have started a game with each other, and this game is getting more and more scary for them.
COLLECTION TITLE: TURTLE (Directed by Ehsan Majouni)
A woman is determined to bring her beloved back to life, a man who vanished into the waters in search of a place to call his own. She feels compelled to recall things that have long been dead, hoping her loved one might revive. She believes he will be washed ashore someday, back to her by the tides—a sudden return, as if by magic.
OK/NOTOK (Directed by Pardeep Sahota)
A genre-bending love story set in the very near future with a darkly comic edge. Loretta, a working-class British Asian woman, attempts to navigate a turbulent world, a new stranger in her life and unskippable advertisements.
WHEN WINTER COMES (Directed by Yuan Yuan)
A mother from China searches for her missing daughter in New York. Called to identify a dead body, she insists that the victim is not her daughter. Against the winter cold, she begins to post missing person flyers on the streets, day after day.
OXPLANT (Directed by Chavo)
Once at the center of Japan’s government, Natsumi abandoned his post after unbearable stress and a family tragedy. He returns to his family farm, but his mind is no refuge. Convinced he is constantly monitored and carrying a mission to reshape Japan into a utopia, he is consumed by schizophrenia. Paranoia, hallucinations, and delusions fracture his world, dissolving the line between reality and fantasy. Seen through his eyes, the film becomes a portrait of instability, a vision suspended on the shifting border between life and death.
KUMAR KUMAR (Directed by Kiran Koshy)
Kumar Kumar is all alone on his birthday. His social media feed is dead. He decides he should be too. Just then, the computer dings.