The Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival 2017: Passion, Pain, & History

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Thursday, 20 April 2017 17:04

Written by Brad Balfour

Featuring 180 films from 31 countries, and Asian actors playing Asian characters (something a certain action blockbuster sorely lacked), the The Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival (April 27 - May 4, 2017) presents the breadth and scope of lives, experiences, struggles, and hopes of Asian Pacific and Asian American filmmakers across Los Angeles from Hollywood to Little Tokyo to the Arts District in Downtown Los Angeles to Koreatown to Westwood to West Hollywood and to Buena Park in Orange County with a slate of shorts, narrative features, documentaries, and international films.

Kicking off the festival is the 15th anniversary celebration of Justin Lin’s film Better Luck Tomorrow, with a 35mm print of the Sundance cut being shown. Better Luck Tomorrow delves into the lives of a group of Asian American teens become overcome by a combination of ennui, the pressure of overachievement, and a desire for more out of life. Lin and the cast will be in attendance for the screening.

Commemorating the 25th Anniversary of the L.A. Uprising/Rodney King verdict, Justin Chon’s Gook examines the lives of a struggling community of shop owners in the Los Angeles suburb of Paramount, set against the backdrop of that heated and violent spring of 1992. “Justin Chon has been one of the hardest working actors out there and has been in a number of films at our past fests.  Watching him grow into a formidable writer/director/actor with this film makes us all proud and hopeful.  This film has come at a time when we truly need our voices and our stories out there, while addressing hot button issues such as race and community in an America that is quickly changing and becoming extremely polarized. “ says Festival Co-Director David Magdael.

Closing the fest is Columbus, directed by Kogonada. A hit at Sundance, Columbus stars John Cho, Haley Lu Richardson, Parker Posey, Rory Culkin and Michelle Forbes.  The film centers on Casey (Richardson) who lives with her mother in a little-known Mid-western town haunted by the promise of modernism. Jin (Cho), a visitor from the other side of the world, attends to his dying father. Burdened by the future, they find respite in one another and the architecture that surrounds them.

And with a plethora of panels, screenings, competitions, and events, the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival is a festival to hear voices from the lifeblood of Los Angeles.

To learn more, go to: http://festival.vconline.org/2017/

The Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival
April 27 - May 4, 2017

Various Locations

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