Visual Communications, a community non-profit which has focused on supporting AAPI filmmakers since its founding in 1970, will be holding its annual interns’ summer film screening this year on July 28th at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, California.
This year’s program will include ten short films curated from Visual Communications’ Armed With a Camera (AWC) Fellowship program, as well as entries from the 32nd Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival. The screening’s films will focus on filmmakers’ broad and diverse vision of AAPI and diasporic API identity.
“It’s always exciting to have different, non-Film Festival audiences experience the latest cinematic works that our communities’ artists are creating,” said Abraham Ferrer , Visual Communications’ Exhibitions Director . “I think that the reactions by the crowd we expect for ‘Uprooted From the Scenes’ will offer a true test of whether a work of cinema resonates with its audiences.”
Tickets for the festival are $12 for general admission ($10 for senior citizens, students and VC members with ID) available through this website. At the door ticket price is $15 for general admission ($13 for senior citizens, students and VC members with ID). More information for the screening can be found at its event page.
A preview of the short films that will be included in the screening this year is after the jump.
BA (Brazil/United States, 2015)
Dir./Scr.: Leandro Tadashi
Little Bruno’s life is turned upside down when his “Bá” (from Bachan, grandma in Japanese) is brought to live in his house.
COOK IT YOURSELF (United States, 2016)
Dir./Wtr.: N.J. Nakamura
If you love eating Japanese foods, why not make it yourself? From start to finish, a cooking class at the San Fernando Valley Japanese American Community
HOME IS WHERE THE SUNSETS (United States, 2016)
Dir./Scr.: Kayla Tong
Hong Kong-born Alison’s life and identity turn awry when her family visits her in L.A. for the first time. Stress grew in her as they continue to wreak havoc. She is forced to come to terms with their differences.
NOODLE DELI (United States, 2015)
Dir./Wtr.: David Liu
From China’s Shanxi Province to the San Gabriel Valley region of Los Angeles, chef Jeffrey Zhifeng Yang continues one of the world’s most fabled culinary traditions — the art of making noodles. NOODLE DELI captures a day in the life of Yang’s restaurant in Temple City, California, home to a group of new immigrants on a united quest for community, identity and the American Dream.
NOT JUST GARDENING…(United States, 2016)
Dir./Wtr.: Cathy Uchida
“For my children, I have been working from yard to yard for fifteen years.” Following World War II, many Japanese American men turned to gardening to support their young growing families. To most of their wealthy or middle class customers, they were just gardeners who were employed for their loyalty, work ethics, and artistic flare. Known for their stylized landscapes of manicured lawns, bonsai-like shaped trees, and shrubs, they left an indelible imprint on landscapes across the nation. This is the story of how one generation’s struggle and sacrifice for the sake of their children’s success influenced geopolitical and economic ties between America and Japan.
NUOC (United States, 2016)
Dir./Scr.: Quyen Nguyen Le
A Vietnamese American teen attempts to piece together and understand their mother’s experience as a Vietnam War refugee. The journey pulls us into a fantastical series of iconic historical photographs and images, ultimately highlighting the complexity of fully understanding others’ experiences — and opens up possibilities for building relationships based on being presence and coexistence.
PARACHUTE GIRLS (United States, 2015)
Dir.: Alex Rubens, Scr.: Emily C. Chang
Essentially abandoned as children by their parents, two estranged sisters are reunited when younger sister, Ellie, crashes older sister Evelyn’s dinner party and begins to destroy her suburban illusion of the perfect family.
SAMEER AND THE GIANT SAMOSA (United States, 2016)
Dir./Scr.: Faroukh Virani
In this dark comedy from the director of VIMANA (Festival 2014), a newlywed Indian couple’s diverging views on marriage and tradition give way to a surreal turn of events that reveals the groom’s true, hidden appetites.
SOUNDS WE HAVE NO LETTERS FOR (United States, 2015)
Dir./Scr.: Bernard Badion
As a blind date goes wrong, a man (Eugene Cordero) and a woman (Julia Cho) agree to end the night early, but struggle to leave the conversation when they connect on a ‘dystopian view of dating’ over boba.
US (United States, 2013)
Dir./Wtr.: Seth Ronquillo
The narrative of today’s Dreamer movement has highlighted the experiences of students who desire to become part of American society, but what’s been missing are the experiences of the siblings, the parents, and the families of immigrants. US charts the director’s family’s immigrant narrative as undocumented people in the U.S., and their efforts to make a home in a once foreign place.
