The San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival had already established itself as theoldest and largest event of its kind,but in 1997 — its 16th year — it delivered an unprecedented lineup that is still considered a benchmark.

One could make the argument that withoutQuentin LeeandJustin Lin,directors of the dark horror comedy “Shopping for Fangs”; Rea Tajiri, director of the road movie “Strawberry Fields”; Chris Chan Lee, director of the high school comedy drama “Yellow”; and Michael Aki and Eric Nakamura, makers of the black-and-white slacker piece “Sunsets” — known as the “Class of 1997” — there would be no“Crazy Rich Asians,”“The Farewell,”“Everything Everywhere All at Once”or“Beef.”

Even “Joy Ride,” the rollicking girl-power comedythat opens the festival, now called CAAMFeston Thursday, May 11, might have never been greenlit.

So it absolutely seems appropriate to have Tajiri, who has made a career of exploring how internment camps during World War II have informed the Japanese American experience, and indie genre filmmaker Quentin Lee in the house forthe event, which runs through May 21.

Tajiri is being honored with a three-film tribute, including a retrospective screening of “Strawberry Fields” as well as her recent “Wisdom Gone Wild”; Quentin Lee’s latest feature, “Last Summer of Nathan Lee,” is set to make its world premiere.

“It’s really great to be honored in this way, and it’s coming at a really good time,” Tajiri said. “It’s a great time to showcase these films and to think about some of the themes as we think about recovering histories and ancestral knowledge that runs through ghosts.”

“Rea’s strengths and my strengths are very similar,” Quentin Lee added. “We follow our passions and our hearts to do what we really want to do. Even with our newest films, they’re very experimental. You wouldn’t do that movie unless it’s something you really want to do. We really care about them.”

同时将开庭卡斯特罗剧院on Sunday, May 14, when “Wisdom Gone Wild” screens at 3:30 p.m., followed by Tajiri and associate producer Reiko Tahara in conversation; and “Last Summer of Nathan Lee” screens at 6:30 p.m., with the director and much of his young and talented cast in person at a Q&A afterward.

Tajiri is also expected to introduce “Strawberry Fields,” with a terrific early performance by Suzy Nakamura (best known as the co-lead, with Ken Jeong, of the TV sitcom“Dr. Ken”), at 12:15 p.m. Saturday, May 13. An early short documentary, “History and Memory: For Akiko and Takashige” (1991), is scheduled to screen at noon May 20 at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s Phyllis Wattis Theater.

就和李fearl花了三十年essly making independent films. Tajiri, an associate professor of film at Temple University since 2008,makes personal filmsinspired by her family history — her mother, Rose, was incarcerated in an internment camp, and her father, Vincent (laterHugh Hefner’sfirst photo editor at Playboy magazine) served in the famed all-nisei 442nd Regimental Combat Team.

The Los Angeles-based Lee, whose journey has taken him from his native Hong Kong to Canada to UC Berkeley,makes genre moviessuch as“The People I Slept With”(2009),“White Frog”(2012) and “The Unbidden” (2016) through his independent production companyMargin Films.

“Quentin is an amazing producer, and he’s an amazing storyteller,” Tajiri said. “I admire his ability to just keep going. He’s a wonderful director and very versatile. I also admire that he’s able to be both artist and businessperson. He’s undaunted.”

That relentless drive is something the Class of 1997 has in common. Lin scored an indie hit five years later with“Better Luck Tomorrow”and went on to direct five“Fast and the Furious”movies (he co-wrote and executive produced a sixth,“Fast X,”to be released May 19). Chris Chan Lee and Aki have gone on to produce and direct several indie films, while Nakamura is best known for co-foundingGiant Robot,a popular but now-defunct magazine covering Asian pop culture.

But possibly the biggest beneficiary of the Class of 1997 isJohn Cho,now perhaps the pre-eminent Asian American actor of his generation (known for starring in the“Harold and Kumar”and“Star Trek”films), who starred in both “Shopping for Fangs” and “Yellow.” They were among his first film performances.

“When John walked into the room for the audition, both Justin and I knew we wanted to cast him. I knew he was going to be a star,” Quentin Lee recalled. “Both ‘Yellow’ and ‘Shopping for Fangs’ were shooting at the same time. During prep, I reached out to Chris Chan Lee to work out the schedules, sharing John so that both our productions could go as smoothly as possible.”

The Class of 1997 remains close. The San Francisco fest was the first of several Asian festivals across the United States that programmed all four movies, so the filmmakers were essentially on tour together. On Monday, May 8, with Tajiri now on the West Coast for CAAMFest, Quentin Lee hosted a dinner in Los Angeles with Tajiri and Chris Chan Lee (the others were invited but could not attend).

In a weird way, both Tajiri and Quentin Lee’s current films explore similar issues, but from vastly different approaches.

“Wisdom Gone Wild” is a unique and touching portrait of Tajiri’s mother and her long, slow descent into dementia and its effect on her family, as well as a rumination on a history that is in danger of being forgotten.

“Last Summer of Nathan Lee” is about a high school senior (Harrison Xu) who is diagnosed with terminal brain cancer and is determined to have good times with friends until the end. (Think “Porky’s” meets “The Breakfast Club.”)

Yet both films are about living your best life, even in the face of death. In fact, how Tajiri arrived at her title could speak for both films.

“It’s related to a Tibetan Buddhist concept, ‘crazy wisdom,’ ” Tajiri said. “It could be that dementia is something that forces the person to kind of go wild. It’s actually based on a kind of teaching where the lama might take on some very erratic, irrational, quote-unquote ‘crazy’ behavior in order to provoke the student. Ideally the student is supposed to see through the behavior and see that their teacher is still there, to see that your loved one is still at the core the same person.”

Not only has the Class of 1997 endured, their influence has been cited by countless Asian American filmmakers as inspiring them to pursue a career in film and television. Quentin Lee sees the success of “Crazy Rich Asians,” “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and the existence of Asian American content on streaming services as a boon for those trying to bring similar stories to the fore.

“This is the golden age,” he said. “You have so many more distribution outlets and so many more opportunities than when we started in 1997.”

Reach G. Allen Johnson:ajohnson@sfchronicle.com; Twitter:@BRFilmsAllen