The 17th edition of the Asian American Showcase runs Friday, April 6, through Thursday, April 19, at Gene Siskel Film Center, with screenings of a dozen features and two shorts programs. The 2011 festival opened with Dave Boyle’s romantic comedy Surrogate Valentine, a tale of unrequited love starring San Francisco singer-songwriter Goh Nakamura as himself, and this year’s follows suit with the sequel, Daylight Savings. Dumped by his college professor girlfriend, the moody musician pursues a rebound romance with a fellow musician (Yea-ming Chen) of similarly ironic temperament. There’s an extended, ostensibly comic interlude in which Nakamura and two pals try to recover his stolen guitar, but for the most part this is one of those indie walk-and-talks—like Medicine for Melancholy or In Search of a Midnight Kiss—that aim no higher than to replicate the buzz of a good first date. Daylight Savings screens Friday at 8:15 PM, with Boyle and Nakamura attending, and again on Wednesday, April 11, same time. For a full festival schedule see siskelfilmcenter.org.
