Festival Returns May 5th to 13th – Highlights Include LAAPFF Legacy Award to Mira Nair, LA Premiere’s of BAD AXE, FREE CHOL SOO LEE, EVERY DAY IN KAIMUKI, LEONOR WILL NEVER DIE
The Best of Asian Pacific American Films and Filmmakers from Around the World Come to
Los Angeles at the 38th Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival
Celebrating New Artists, Legends, Leaders, Creators, Indigenous Voices, and World Premieres
Fest Highlights Include:
The LAAPFF Legacy Award to Mira Nair
The HBO Max APA Visionaries Short Film Competition
The 20th Anniversary of ARMED WITH A CAMERA
SXSW Double Award Winner BAD AXE
Sundance Winner LEONOR WILL NEVER DIE
Alika Tengan’s EVERY DAY IN KAIMUKĪ
Eugene Yi and Julie Ha’s FREE CHOL SOO LEE
West Coast Premiere of OMOIYARI: A SONG FILM BY KISHI BASHI
World Premieres of ALL I WANT IS EVERYTHING;
ISTIKHAARA, NEW YORK; and 80 YEARS LATER
North American Premieres of THE ASSAULT, ARISAKA
and THE GIRL FROM THE OTHER SIDE
The Los Angeles Premieres of CROSSING; DAWNING; DEALING WITH DAD;
DELIKADO; MAIKA; STAY THE NIGHT and WATERMAN
Tuesday, April 12, 2022- Los Angeles, CA – The Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival (LAAPFF), presented annually by Visual Communications (VC), Southern California’s leading showcase for new Asian Pacific American and Asian international cinema, announced today the program for the 38th edition of the festival. The festival returns May 5th to 13th in Los Angeles and will feature an exciting lineup of in-person programming, along with virtual programming for our audiences at home in Southern California and beyond.
As Visual Communications premiere annual event, LAAPFF continues to build connections between peoples and generations through the amplification of Asian and Pacific Islander film, video, and media. The festival celebrates Asian Pacific American filmmakers and Asian international artists with profound, important and entertaining films and content from the new voices of cinema while honoring the legends and leaders who keep this cultural movement going forward. Important themes of representation, authorship, responsibility and ethics are at the forefront of content creation. This year’s line up provides incredible examples of those ideas and themes from Asian Pacific artists who are committed to excellence in cinema in America and around the world.
To kick off this year’s fest, LAAPFF will present an Opening Day lineup of films representative of VC communities and values – setting the stage for community-forward film festival. The lineup will include the LA Premiere of EVERY DAY IN KAIMUKĪ, directed by Alika Tengan, a new and important indigenous filmmaker from Hawaii. Anchoring the evening, LAAPFF will celebrate and introduce the world premiere works from the ARMED WITH THE CAMERA Fellowship. The fellowship now in its 20th year, has shepherded the early works notable alums including: Christopher Makoto Yogi (Director, I WAS A SIMPLE MAN), Kristina Wong (2022 Lucille Lortel Awards Nominee for Outstanding Solo Show), Roxy Shih (Director, LIST OF A LIFETIME) and more.This year’s cohort, who gathered during an unprecedented of era social distancing, produced 9 world premieres that tenderly touch upon community movement, family legacy, and ancestral connection.
The 38th Festival edition will also present the LAAPFF Legacy Award to Mira Nair; The HBO Max APA Visionaries Short Film Competition; the SXSW Double Award Winner BAD AXE; Sundance Winner LEONOR WILL NEVER DIE; Eugene Yi and Julie Ha’s timely Sundance hit FREE CHOL SOO LEE; the West Coast Premiere of OMOIYARI: A SONG FILM BY KISHI BASHI (the renowned musician’s directorial debut fresh from SXSW); the North American Premieres of THE ASSAULT, ARISAKA and the animated feature THE GIRL FROM THE OTHER SIDE; the Los Angeles Premieres of MAIKA, WATERMAN, DEALING WITH DAD, DELIKADO,CROSSING and STAY THE NIGHT; and the World Premieres of: ISTIKHAARA, NEW YORK; DAWNING; DIGITAL HISTORIES and 80 YEARS LATER.
The LAAPFF Legacy Award to Mira Nair
This year, the festival will uplift Mira Nair as a pioneer whose storytelling has received industry and critical acclaim, and raised visibility for South Asian narratives. LAAPFF is delighted to present this year’s LAAPFF Legacy Award to director Mira Nair for the way her nuanced narratives reflect an authentic family voice and prompt critical reflection. LAAPFF audiences can watch a Special Presentation of Nair’s award-winning feature SALAAM BOMBAY! on the big screen. Additionally, virtual audiences at home can watch an artist conversation with Nair.
World Premieres at LAAPFF
LAAPFF is also honored to host the World Premieres of the following films:
● Yasir Masood’s narrative feature debut ISTIKHAARA, NEW YORK which follows Reza, an artist and Brooklyn transplant, Babbu, a recent immigrant and revolutionary from Delhi, and Rahul, an aspiring Imam and crony capitalist, finding themselves in an America where they are ever the more important but feeling even more looked over.
● The stylish action thriller ALL I WANT IS EVERYTHING, from director Alexandra Cuerdo.
● 80 YEARS LATER, from Celine Parreñas Shimizu, which captures how families continually grapple with the legacy of Executive Order 9066 which imprisoned Japanese Americans in World War II.
HBO Max APA Visionaries
The HBO Max APA Visionaries Short Film Competition (established in 2016) returns for a special showcase that once again provides a platform for emerging filmmakers to share their unique and diverse perspectives of the Asian and Pacific Islander community. Now in its sixth year, APAV serves to showcase cinematic storytellers of AAPI descent, awarding the top three winners with cash prizes and the opportunity to have their projects premiere on HBO Max following their theatrical screening at the 2022 Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival.
Since 1983, the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival has presented over 5,000 films, videos, and digital mediaworks by Asian & Pacific Islander artists, and features seminars, panels, in-person guest appearances, and filmmaker awards. The Film Festival continues to be the largest festival of its kind in Southern California and is the premier showcase for the best and brightest of Asian Pacific cinema.
The Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival is a proud Academy Award®-qualifying film festival for Short Film Awards. Recipient(s) of the Film Festival’s Golden Reel Award for Narrative/Animated Short Film will be eligible to submit in the Animated Short Film/Live-Action Short Film category of the Academy Awards®.
