If you're in Los Angeles, be sure to mark your calendars for Visual Communications' summer screening series Best of the Fest 2009, a sampling of the many distinctive works that screened this past spring as part of the 25th anniversary Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival.
The program, which screening through early September, includes features like David Boyle's White on Rice, Curtis Choy's Manilatown is in the Heart, as well as an entire program of films curated by VC's summer interns. Things kick off this week with Global Groove, a showcase nonfiction works from all over the world. Read on for details:
Program One: SATURDAY, JULY 25That's this Saturday, July 25 at the David Henry Hwang Theatre in Little Tokyo. My favorite of this bunch is Eric Tandoc's Sounds of the New Hope. Good stuff in there for any globally-minded hip hop head. For more information on the Best of the Fest screening series, visit the Visual Communications website here, or the Facebook event page here.
David Henry Hwang Theatre
120 Judge John Aiso Street | Showtime 8:00 p.m.
GLOBAL GROOVE
Colorful, topical, and at all times provocative, we kick off "The Best of the Fest '09" with a showcase of non-fiction works that take us on a journey to the far corners of the world - and of the mind.
RSVP to this program on Facebook!
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=124771117151
Films:
COTABATO CITY (USA, 2009)
Dir.: Karen Lin | Video, 4 min.
As tribal fusion music brings a deserted urban Bronx playground to life, a young boy's imagination flowers with the movement of multi-ethnic life.
THE DWELLING (USA/Japan, 2009)
Dir.: Sheldon Candis | Video, 16 min.
Tokyo is known for its technology, high-rises, businesses, and pop culture. Yet little is known about its homeless population. THE DWELLING follows one homeless Tokyoite and focus on his home, which often takes indie construction and ingenuity to new heights.
NO JOKE BURMA (USA/Singapore, 2008)
Dir.: Li-Anne Huang | Video, 12 min.
NO JOKE BURMA is a profile of comedians Par Par Lay, Lu Zaw, and Lu Maw - The Moustache Brothers - who served prison terms in their native Burma for performing against the laws of the military government.
GUAM IS CRYING (USA/Guam, 2009)
Dir.: Alex Munoz | Video, 2 min.
A history of colonization and resistance is a legacy that Chamorros (indigenous Guamanians) either run away from-or warily embrace.
SOUNDS OF THE NEW HOPE (USA, 2009)
Dir.: Eric Tandoc | Video, 40 min.
Growing up around Los Angeles neighborhood gangs during the '90s, a young Filipino American named Kiwi turned into an MC and community organizer, using hip-hop to educate youth across different cultures and get them involved in serving their communities, while advancing the struggle for national liberation and genuine democracy in the Philippines.