Daniel Dae Kim is an Asian American actor and producer best known for his roles on “Lost,” “Hawaii Five-O” and “Raya and the Last Dragon.” He’s a vocal activist for the AAPI community and is one of the founders of the Sunrise House, the first official Pan-Asian American Pacific Islander House at Sundance.
Kim said the Sunrise House will offer a think tank during the day with speakers from various industries talking about issues pertinent to the Asian American community.
It will be a different story after hours.
“At night, we transition to some fun, and the celebrations where Sundance happens to fall over Lunar New Year this year,” Kim said. “It’s a perfect reason to celebrate, you know, a number of different things. And then, one of the things we’re really proud of also is that Saturday night we will be hosting an event where all the houses of color will be coming together and celebrating as one. It’s a multicultural party that will include MACRO, Latinx House, Black House, Color of Change 1497, a number of people who are doing great things in their respective areas.”
Kim said he got the idea for an AAPI house the last time he attended the festival.
“I’ve been at Sundance a few times and in 2020 at the Sundance right before the pandemic hit, I was going to events at MACRO Lodge and Latinx House and Black House and I thought to myself, why isn’t there something like this for the Asian American community? We have other communities of color represented. We have a growing presence at festivals like Sundance but there’s nowhere to celebrate what we do. And so that’s when I started talking to the organizers and I wanted to bring some friends along because there is strength in numbers.”
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