Historic 2017 Asian Pacific Film Festival Hosts Entrees from 31 Countries; First Year as Academy Qualifying Festival in the Animated Short/Live Action Short Film Categories; 25TH Anniversary of The Los Angeles Uprising

Visual Communications (VC), the nation's premier Asian Pacific American media arts center, announced its program of outstanding films and events for the upcoming 33rd edition of the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival (LAAPFF) running APRIL 27 - MAY 4, 2017.

This encompassing annual film celebration is presented across the city of 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 . 

VC proudly celebrates 33 years as Southern California's largest and most prestigious film festival of its kind.  The LAAPFF launches the pre-celebration of Asian Pacific Heritage Month through this year's slate of over 180 films from both Asian Pacific American and Asian international artists.  For over three decades, the Festival has presented close to 4,000 films by Asian Pacific American and Asian international talent.  This year, a record number 45 feature films and 139 shorts from over 750 submissions will be showcased throughout the eight-day fest.

This year's Film Festival represents the growing multitude of talent from this diverse creative community, and serves as a reminder of how the Asian American film community continues to thrive and inspire.  With terms like "whitewashing" and "inclusion" being at the forefront of discussions in Hollywood, the festival takes on not only presenting the best of Asian American film, but also the mission of inspiring new filmmakers/storytellers to create, while taking a retro look at the beginnings of a global cinematic genre.   Stories by women, men, LGBTQ artists, seniors, youth, Asian Pacific American, Asian international, and a multitude of ethnicities are all being shared throughout the Festival.

This year's opening night kicking off the Fest is the 15th Anniversary special gala presentation of director/writer Justin Lin's uncut 35mm Sundance original version of the landmark film BETTER LUCK TOMORROW.  Director Lin (THE FAST AND FURIOUS franchise #3,#4,# 5, & #6; STAR TREK: BEYOND) will present this rarely-seen version of the film that launched his career at Sundance 2002, when it was championed by the late iconic film critic, Roger Ebert, and then having MTV FILMS and Paramount Classics pick it up for theatrical distribution nationwide.  The film features Asian American film actors starring in lead roles including John Cho, Sung Kang, Jason Tobin, Roger Fan, Parry Shen, and Karin Anna Cheung. 

BETTER LUCK TOMORROW centers on an accomplished high school student, Ben (Parry Shen) who seems to excel at almost everything except winning over his dream girl, Stephanie (Karin Anna Cheung). When he begins an unlikely friendship with trouble-seeking tough guy Daric (Roger Fan), Ben becomes involved in petty crime that gets increasingly dangerous, with his various illegal ventures extending to include Stephanie and her wealthy beau, Steve (John Cho). Can these restless teens curb their criminal activities before it's too late? The film pushed the boundaries on the "model minority" discussion and inspired Asian American audiences across the nation to come out to the cinema, while positioning director Justin Lin as a Filmmaker to Watch, as recognized by industry publication Variety that year.

Members of the cast and crew will be in attendance for Q/A following the celebratory screening.  BETTER LUCK TOMORROW screens Opening Night April 27 at 7PM at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood.

"In the context of a shifting America, we proudly present an intro/retrospective look at Justin Lin's BETTER LUCK TOMORROW, a landmark film for Asian American cinema in 2002," says Executive Director Francis Cullado.  "Through the Festival overall, we seek to create spaces for connection and add to the dialogues of change.  And we ask ourselves, how far have we come? And how much further do we need to go?"

The Festival Centerpiece Presentation features the 2017 Sundance Film Festival Audience Award winning film – GOOK - from actor turned filmmaker JUSTIN CHON.  This vibrant and insightful film takes place on April 29, 1992 in Los Angeles - the day the Rodney King verdict was announced and the infamous L.A. Riots began.  Chon's film centers on Eli and Daniel, two Korean American brothers, who own a struggling shoe store and have an unlikely friendship with Kamilla, a street-wise 11 year old African American girl.  It's just another typical day at the store until the Rodney King verdict is read and riots break out through the city. With the chaos moving towards them, the trio is forced to defend the store while contemplating the future of their own personal dreams and the true meaning of family.

GOOK will be presented on Saturday, April 29 at the Aratani Theatre at the JACCC in Little Tokyo - Downtown Los Angeles.  The festival is commemorating the 25th Anniversary of the L.A. Uprising/Rodney King verdict with this gala screening featuring the filmmaker, crew and cast.  This screening will top off a day of films, events, community discussions and art presentations memorializing this historic Los Angeles event.

"We are extremely excited to have GOOK as our centerpiece film," says David Magdael, Festival Co-Director. " 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.  And screening this film on the 25th anniversary of this major Los Angeles event is only fitting.  This film is a catalyst for discussion, and Chon is an artist on the rise representing the next generation of our artists telling our stories." 

Closing out this year's eight day film celebration is the Los Angeles premiere of the acclaimed 2017 Sundance hit film COLUMBUS from director Kogonada – a proud immigrant, born in Seoul and raised in the Midwest.   This beautiful and engaging feature directorial debut 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. 

"Having COLUMBUS as our Closing Night film presents our audiences dual opportunities to celebrate a maturation of Asian Pacific American cinema," said Abraham Ferrer, Festival Co-Director and Senior Programmer.  "To have a daring, yet satisfying new work from Kogonada, a filmmaker who himself is a 'new' pioneer of visual storytelling, is a coup.  And, the opportunity to present longtime Film Festival veteran John Cho as he carries this new film in an atypical, commanding leading role is humanizing, life-affirming, and challenging all at the same time.  We are excited to be presenting the film, and we are heartened to expand the parameters of our special #StarringJohnCho tribute spotlight on this excellent Asian Pacific American acting luminary."

COLUMBUS screens on May 4 at the Directors Guild of America in West Hollywood with the filmmaker along with his cast and crew in attendance for post screening Q/A. 

In 2016, in response to the lack of Asian American males in leading roles in films and the continuing whitewashing of Asians by Hollywood studios, William Yu, a young man from New York, established the trending hashtag #StarringJohnCho.  This year's LAAPFF is addressing this theme and presenting three films starring John Cho.  These are BETTER LUCK TOMORROW (Opening Night); YELLOW (the 20thanniversary of the Chris Chan Lee classic); and COLUMBUS (the festival's Closing Night film).  Cho will also be presented the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival Career Achievement Award recognizing his amazing career.

"We felt it fitting to honor John Cho at this year's Fest with this award," states Chanel Kong, Festival Manager.  "For nearly 20 years, John has been constantly representing on screen, stage and television.  We are proud of his contributions as an actor and as a supporter of the Film Festival, VC and fellow Asian American artists.  Last year's hashtag #StarringJohnCho was a reminder of his importance both to our community and to American cinema.  This is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate his career by showcasing his performances in our Opening Film, in our retrospective screening of YELLOW, as well as in his latest lead role in our Closing Film."

Bringing together industry and Asian American talent, the LAAPFF is proud to present the seventh edition of C3 – the Conference For Creative Content where creative and Hollywood industry leaders join together to create a dialogue with the community discussing important issues and trends taking place in the entertainment arena.  The only event of its kind, C3 brings together foremost media professionals and academics in film, television, cable, digital, gaming and transmedia to create a dialogue on the ever-changing media industry, share best practices, network, celebrate and build a collective vision for our community.

C3 will converge on the opening weekend of the Festival on Saturday, April 29th and Sunday April 30th at the Japanese American National Museum, located in the Little Tokyo district of Downtown Los Angeles. There also will be a special free panel on Monday, May 1 in Mid-Wilshire.

Panels are presented together with these industry guilds and partners:

●Directors Guild of America (DGA)

●Korean Film Council (KOFIC)

●Motion Picture Editors Guild (MPEG)

●Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists  (SAG-AFTRA)

●UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs

●Writers Guild of America, West (WGAW) 

"The way we view, consume and create content continues to shift and evolve rapidly," said Milton Liu, Director of C3. "This year, C3's theme is FUTURE FORWARD. It's our goal to dive in and hear from the forerunners of this change, especially from Asian Americans leading the way."

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