The Only Language She Knows featuring SF Poet Laureate Genny Lim - CAAMFest

Experience a rare screening of The Only Language She Knows, an intimate portrait of poet and playwright Genny Lim and San Francisco’s Chinatown in the early 1980s. Recently restored and remastered, this film will be shown for the first time in more than 40 years. Stay for a post-screening conversation with Genny Lim and filmmaker Steven Okazaki, moderated by CAAM Executive Director Donald Young, followed by an audience Q&A.

This special screening honors one of the city’s treasured gems, Genny Lim—who has been a vital and irresistible force in the cultural, social, and political life of the Bay Area for fifty years; who, in 1980, premiered her groundbreaking play Paper Angels, about Chinese immigrants on Angel Island; and who, in 2026, is San Francisco’s first Chinese American Poet Laureate.

The Only Language She Knows, shot in three days with no budget, was a collaboration among Asian American artists during the early stages of their careers. It was the second film by Steven Okazaki, who received his first Oscar nomination two years later and won the Oscar five years after that for his short documentary Days of Waiting. Producer Amy Hill, then an actor with the Asian American Theater Company, has most recently been heard as a voice in Kung Fu Panda and seen in main roles on Magnum P.I. and Ballard. The film also features cameos by Asian American Theater Company regulars Victor Wong and Dennis Dun, who went on to co-star in Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor and John Carpenter’s Big Trouble in Little China, and Kelvin Han Yee, the star of Peter Wang’s A Great Wall, familiar for his TV performances in Beef, Law & Order, and Glow.

Celebrating its 44th year in 2026, is the nation’s leading showcase for films from Asian America and beyond. This year’s festival takes place May 7-10 in San Francisco Japantown., the nation’s largest, longest-running festival dedicated to showcasing new Asian American and Asian films. Presented annually by the , this San Francisco Bay Area event celebrates AAPI Heritage Month through film screenings, panels, and special events.

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Host or Publisher San Francisco Public Library