You can call it Pac-Arts, or you can call it SDAFF, but "as a kind request" please do not refer to the newly dubbed Pacific Arts Movement as PAM.

"I never grew up thinking I was going to run a non-profit organization," Pac-Arts executive director Lee Ann Kim laughingly admits, "so in the beginning I didn't really know what I was doing." When the San Diego Film Foundation was born, she chose the name "completely without any kind of imagination. I'm a little bit smarter now."

"For the last twelve years we've been operating as the San Diego Asian Film Foundation (SDAFF^1)," Kim said, "and that was very confusing. Because the acronym and the words were so close to the San Diego Asian Film Festival (SDAFF^2) most people thought of us as just a film festival."

Nothing could be further from the truth. In addition to the annual festival Pac-Arts presents its weeklong Spring Showcase, Reel Voices (a documentary filmmaking bootcamp for youth), DigiFest (a free online showcase of feature-length films), and Drive-By Cinema (a new experimental mobile cinema project).

"We're also more of a cultural and social movement than a festival," Kim continued. "When people hear Pacific Arts Movement it doesn't peg us just as a film festival in San Diego. Since we're located on the Pacific Rim it reflects our region and Pacific feels less 'niche-y' than the word 'Asian.' Most people look at us as SDAFF^2 anyway so it makes a lot of sense for us to change the name."

This year, SDAFF^2 runs from November 1 - 9. You'll be hearing more from Matt and I about the festival lineup as screeners arrive. For a complete list of films or more information, visit SDAFF.org.