Pacific Cinewaves at Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival
Visual Communications Presents
39th Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival
May 4-13, 2023
LAAPFF 2023 Lineup Celebrates Native Hawaiian, Pasifika, Indigenous Voices, and Artists Across the Asian American and Asian Diaspora Communities
PIC is pleased to announce several fantastic offerings to engage with Pacific Islander makers and content at LAAPFF 2023. Please read on for more information, and we hope to see you there!
- Friday May 5: INDIGENOUS NOW! Shorts
- Friday May 5: ARMED WITH A CAMERA VOL. 2023 Shorts
- Saturday May 6: R3: BUILDING COMMUNITY POWER - PACIFIC ISLANDERS IN MEDIA Community Conversation
- Saturday May 6: PACIFIC CINEWAVES Happy Hour
- Saturday May 6: PACIFIC CINEWAVES SHORTS Program
- Saturday May 6: KĀINGA Narrative Feature
- Thursday May 11: FROM VISIONS TO REEL Shorts Program
- Thursday May 11: THE WIND & THE RECKONING Narrative Feature
- Friday May 12: RED, WHITE & BRASS Narrative Feature
- Friday May 12: YOU ARE HERE Documentary Shorts Program
- Saturday May 13: DAME VALERIE ADAMS: MORE THAN GOLD Documentary Feature
- Saturday May 13: WHETŪ MĀRAMA / BRIGHT STAR Documentary Feature
R3: Building Community Power – Pacific Islanders in Media
Saturday, May 6 / 12:00 pm
Join us for a conversation with representatives from the Pacific Islander filmmaking community around authenticity, originality, and representation (on-island and off), and accomplishments in Pacific Islander media making. The panel will include discussions of building capacity and community power with narrative change from a place of restorative values and inclusive solutions that aims to support a thriving and prosperous Pacific Islander media making ecosystem. We look forward to gathering with Pacific Islanders and non-Pacific Islanders in a conversation that brings all of us together as collaborators, to imagine new practices for our work.
PACIFIC CINEWAVES Happy Hour
Hosted by Pacific Islanders in Communications
Saturday, May 6 / 1:30 pm – 2:30 pm
Wolf & Crane | 366 E 2nd St, Los Angeles, CA 90012
After our conversation, let's take a break and toast the Festival’s Pasifika filmmakers and creators.
PACIFIC CINEWAVES Shorts Program
Sponsored by Pacific Islanders in Communications
Saturday, May 6 / 3:00 pm
Japanese American National Museum
Filmmakers in attendance. Film program will be followed by Q&A.
First launched in 2017 in Carson, CA, Pacific Cinewaves strives to amplify storytelling from all parts of the Ocean; centering Pasifika perspectives for audiences in Los Angeles, a way to build better allyship between Asian and Native Hawaiiian/Pacific Islander communities.
This year’s shorts program boldly takes you from Hawai’i, Aotearoa (New Zealand), the Marquesas Islands and back to CA; each story gently connected to each other with a nuanced thread of migration and diaspora.
In this program:
INHERITANCE
Directed by Erin Lau
A struggling nature photographer is forced to confront the pain his family has carried for generations.
FIND WHERE I BELONG
Directed by Kahu KAIHA
Elvis, a homeless teenager must find courage to leave the street life in order to return to his birth island.
A TALE OF TWO SISTERS
Directed by Angelique Kalani Axelrode
Blending narrative and movement based storytelling, two sisters overcome tension in their relationship; inspired by the mo‘olelo of Hi‘iakaikapoliopele.
KE KAHEA: AN INVITATION INTO SACRED SPACE
Directed by Justyn Ah Chong
A group of women heed the calling to make kapa for unearthed ancestral remains.
THE VOYAGER’S LEGACY
Directed by Bailey Poching
In 1970’s Auckland New Zealand, an immigrant family endeavors to give their story a fairytale ending.
FOLLOW ME HOME
Directed by Derek Felipe, Fa'avae Fa'avae, Michael Gray
When a young Pacific Islander boy, in search for his identity, grows up in a neighborhood clothed by gang violence and the tragic loss of his brother, finds peace, passion and purpose in a career in fashion.
E MĀLAMA PONO, WILLY BOY
Directed by Scott W. Kekama Amona
A Native Hawaiian police officer is forced to choose between supporting his family, upholding the law, and doing what is morally right…or PONO.
Categories: Events, Film Festival, PIC Pacific Showcase, Screening