PROGRAM 57

WEDNESDAY, MAY 5 | PROGRAM 57 | 8:00 PM | A/JAT

VC DIGITAL POSSE VER. 2010 TRT: 61 min.
It’s baaack!!! After a one-year hiatus, the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival is pleased to welcome the return of our annual showcase featuring brand-new works from VC’s Armed With a Camera Fellowship and UCLA’s Video Ethnography Workshop from the Center for Ethnocommunications. Through stories ranging from family relationships, illusions of beauty, to a kid who simply wants what everyone else has, it’s clear that the future of Asian Pacific American cinema is in good hands.
— Abraham Ferrer

DATE: WEDNESDAY, MAY 5
TIME: 8:00 PM
VENUE: A/JAT
BUY TICKETS

BETTER THAN BLUE (United States, 2010) Dir.: Lin Qiu In rural China in 1987, Young Wang Zhang finds his father in despair. Upset, Wang runs away from his father. Only after he runs off with his friends does he realize the true value of his father’s love. Video, 5 min., color, narrative

BRIDES WANTED (United States, 2010) Dir.: Michael Wong Jatesh, a 20-something Indian male must deal with his family and culture face-on, in the matters of traditional arranged marriage customs. While he secretly dates girls against his parents wishes, his parents are heavily pursuing the perfect future daughter-in-law. Video, 5 min., color, documentary

CLEAN-UP (United States, 2010) Dir.: Joseph Kamiya Toshi and Yuka are struggling through marital issues. When a delayed weekend getaway forces Yuka to return home unexpectedly, Toshi must divert her attention from the kitchen or, more specifically, from the recently deceased corpse on the kitchen floor. Video, 5 min., color, narrative

GRANDMA (United States, 2010) Dir.: William Kwok For many Asian American families, grandparents play a particularly large role in the upbringing of their grandchildren. In GRANDMA, the filmmaker, a Chinese American, asks his grandmother, who helped raise him and his brother, to reflect upon his brother’s autism. Video, 5 min., color, documentary

RAISING EYEBROWS (United States, 2010) Dir.: Preeti Sharma RAISING EYEBROWS situates itself inside one beauty salon and outside another. Both are popular threading salons for South Asian women customers and workers, yet each holds differing stories of fear and courage. RAISING EYEBROWS foregrounds the fight against exploitation at one salon to highlight the partnership that sustains WOW Beauty Salon. Video, 5 min., color, documentary

THE SEAMSTRESS (United States, 2010) Dir.: Ngoc Ho Set in a dark workhouse over the span of 30 years, THE SEAMSTRESS is a meditative reflection of a daughter coming to terms with a distant and difficult relationship with her mother. The story weaves an intimate portrait of a mother who cannot express love and a daughter who cannot understand the labor of love. Video, 5 min., color, narrative

SLIP AND SLIDE (United States, 2010) Dir.: Emily Lu Josh is a poor, immigrant child who desperately wants to play on a Slip ‘n Slide on a hot summer day. After being excluded by the privileged children in the neighborhood, Josh refuses to concede. He scours the alleyways of the city, looking for materials to assemble his own makeshift Slip ‘n Slide. Video, 5 min., color, narrative

WHITE ON INFOMERCIAL (United States, 2010) Dir.: James Yamanoha Politicians, police officers, and right-wing pundits all agree: White On™ is the best solution to the race problem since Jim Crow! Never sit through another one of those boring “racial sensitivity trainings” ever again! Give them the gift of White On™ and watch your fears boil away! Video, 5 min., color, narrative

WIND IN A BOX (United States, 2010) Dir.: Tani Ikeda WIND IN A BOX is a documentary film about a young transgender Filipino American named Raf and his spiritual journey as a shaman. Raf is determined to become the next Babaylan shaman in the family, but must heal his spirit without separating queer identity from Filipino tradition. Video, 5 min., color, documentary

WE ARE ABLE (United States, 2010) Dir.: Jonathan Garcia, Kenny Nguyen Frances “Cinderella” Garcia is a developmentally disabled Pilipino immigrant; her brother Benjamin Garcia works for the North Los Angeles County Regional Center, which provides services to people with developmental disabilities. Their story describes how Pilipino families with special needs children have built a community of support in the North Los Angeles area of California. Video, 9 min., color, documentary

LEFT ON LOCKETT LANE (United States, 2010) Dir.: Jonathan Reinert LEFT ON LOCKETT LANE is a story about being adopted, growing up in the Midwest and learning what it means to be Asian American. Video, 7 min., color, documentary

The 2009-2010 Armed With a Camera Fellowship is funded in part by the James Irvine Foundation, Academy Foundation, Morgan Stanley Foundation, and Toyota Motors.

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COMMUNITY CO-PRESENTERS: Tuesday Night Project; UCLA Center for EthnoCommunications