I purchased an All Access pass to this year’s New York Asian Film Festival, which was a great deal, as the program this year was especially strong. When buying an All Access Pass it generally includes access to every screening in the series; events such as after parties, receptions, and other gala events would require additional tickets. When I checked out, there was a notice to this effect, though I don’t recall the exact phrasing and I neglected to print or save it.

I expected to be able to attend all the film screenings, but I learned on the opening day of the festival that wasn’t the case. A number of screenings had been designated “special events.” The staff at the theater informed me of this when they turned me away from one of the screenings. I stood off to the side for about 10 minutes while I searched the website on my phone in vain for details on what was excluded from All Access. While I was confident that I should have been able to see every film, I decided not to press the issue since I couldn’t bring up the relevant details. I went to the ticket window to ask which screenings were excluded and the person staffing the booth told me the info was on the web site. The look on their face suggested that I was either the first person or the fortieth to ask, so I figured I would tread lightly and explain that I was unable to find the list of exclusions and if they could list the titles for me, I could avoid the embarrassment of going through this again. They graciously provided me with a handwritten list.

Well, it turns out that I was mistaken. I should have addressed this sooner, but I only found the list of excluded titles yesterday morning. How could I not have seen it sooner? The list of exceptions was only noted here. When the festival was announced, I browsed through the individual detail pages for each film to see what interested me. Each detail page has a link to directly buy tickets; before the festival began, there were also links to buy ticket bundles for multiple films at a discount and a link to purchase an All Access Pass. However, the individual detail pages didn’t specify which films weren’t included in All Access (at least, I didn’t see any notice on the individual pages). I didn’t go through every synopsis, I got to a point where there was enough I wanted to see that the All Access Pass was worth it, so I clicked the link on one of the detail pages and bought my pass from there.

I suppose I could have made more of an effort to confirm what movies I would be able to see before the festival began, but I don’t think I would have successful in that regard. After all, I’ve been searching for the details for the last two weeks and only found them yesterday morning. My constructive feedback is that it would be great if the All Access exceptions were noted on the details page of each; I would have bought tickets for those right off the bat had they been noted there. It’s a minor oversight, but no big whoop in the end. Thanks to the list provided, I was able to search for the other movies. I missed out on tickets for 3 of them. I could have got on a standby line, but the weather was either boiling hot or pouring rain and I’m too old for that shit.

I had a great time at this year’s NYAFF, as I generally do at Film at Lincoln Center events. As I mentioned earlier, this year’s program was top notch, representing a variety of genres and a diverse slate that coalesced around themes both timely and timeless: aging with dignity, humanity’s relationship with nature, the struggles of the working class, the influence of technology on modern society, varied explorations of the LGBQTIA+ experience, alienation and assimilation of immigrants, our endemic world of viral infections, the fight for justice for marginalized and disenfranchised people, a few good old fashioned underdog stories, along with some scares, some laughs, some tears, some heroic action and some total romance. The programmers should be commended as well as the house staff at The Walter Reade Theater for their hard work in ensuring that everything ran smoothly.