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In Focus: AWC 2022-2023

Intersections and convergences are effective ways for us to safely connect with each other. But we also need to be brave and welcome collisions. It’s easy to coalesce as an Asian American & Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander community when we’re going against hate and white supremacy. However, the required work needed for us to build collective power is to confront issues that divide us. From across the dinner table to discuss why Black Lives Matter with our families, to acknowledging Asian settler colonialism in Oceania, these power structures are replicated and represented in media. Most often, our always-present Indigenous interconnections are made invisible.

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Highlights of the 2021 Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival

After a year and a half of virtual presentations, we brought back the 37th annual Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, presented by Visual Communications, to in-person theatres and celebrated the works of seasoned and emerging artists from September 23 to October 2, 2021. The largest Festival of its kind in Southern California and an Academy Award® qualifying Festival for the Short Film Awards, LAAPFF was a 10-day Festival that recognized the works of more than 140 artists, 19 countries, and 34 languages.

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Welcome to the 37th Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival

We understand that this Festival presentation was not what our artists had imagined when they began creating their projects, with a dream to openly celebrate their films with our communities. To create the Festival’s in-person moments to connect and converge, we are highly focused on protocols and procedures to keep us all safe. We ask you to be mindful and protective of each other. Let us be graceful to one another.

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Visual Communications Announces Dates for the 37th Annual Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival September 23 to October 2, 2021

The Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival (LAAPFF), presented annually by Visual Communications, today announced the first set of films that will screen as part of the 37th edition of the Festival, which will be a hybrid event taking place virtually and in person at select cinemas in the Los Angeles area from September 23 to October 2, 2021.

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Speak Out for Justice: Little Tokyo Towers Evening Session

On the evening of August 4, 1981, NCRR arranged a special evening session at the Little Tokyo Towers in Los Angeles, so that people who worked during the day could attend and participate in the CWRIC hearings. While the testimony footage for this session is incomplete and disjointed, the testifiers provide their heartbreaking experiences of personal loss, trauma, and discrimination.

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Meet a VC Intern: Jason Tiangco

Meet Jason Tiangco, our 2021 LACAC Archives Associate! Learn more about his experience interning with VC, his love for photography, and his dream to change the world through film.

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Speak Out for Justice: August 6, 1981

August 6th, 1981 was the third and final day of the CWRIC Los Angeles hearings, consisting of testimonies from the issei (first-generation Japanese Americans) who chose to testify in Japanese, along with first-hand accounts of internees from Terminal Island. Mental health professionals, educators, and members from various organizations also share the impact that internment has on intergenerational trauma, and demand constitutional remedy through redress and reparations.

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Remembering Janice Mirikitani

Janice Mirikitani was a renowned writer and activist who passed on July 29. She was a pioneer in the Asian American Movement and a literary artist who believed that the arts and culture were an integral part of community building. We join with the extended Visual Communications family in celebrating this influential and warmly remembered pioneer.

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Speak Out for Justice: August 5, 1981

August 5th, 1981 was the second day of the CWRIC Los Angeles hearings, consisting of testimonies from Japanese American veterans, many of whom were drafted for World War II as a way of avoiding internment. Other testifiers experienced economic loss, psychological trauma, and discrimination in schools. This violation of basic civil and human rights due to Executive Order 9066 fueled the growing demand for Redress and Reparations.

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Meet a VC Intern: Zen Tran

Meet Zen Tran, our 2021 LACAC Marketing & Social Media Associate! Learn more about her experience interning with VC, her love for picnics, and how she likes to tell stories that support and empower AAPI voices in the film industry.

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HBO Selects Finalists for the Fifth Annual Asian Pacific American Visionaries Short Film Competition

Visual Communications is proud to continue our partnership with HBO for the 5th annual HBO APA Visionaries Short Film Competition. Congratulations to this year's finalists: Urvashi Pathania (UNMOTHERED) and Jesse Gi (NEH)! Their films on the theme "Taking the Lead" will premiere at the 2021 Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival on Sep 25, and debut on HBO Max on Sep 27.

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Speak Out for Justice: August 4, 1981

August 4th, 1981 was the first day of the CWRIC Los Angeles hearings, consisting of testimonies that cover the personal accounts of Japanese American internees, their children, and the wide range of effects stemming from camp experiences due to Executive Order 9066. Testifiers experienced business and property loss, being forced from their homes, feeling exploited, and then being sent home with nothing to come back to. Internees also shared their post-camp trauma and feelings of shame for being Japanese American.

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Meet a VC Intern: Brandon Waldau

Meet Brandon Waldau, our 2021 Getty MUI Archives Exhibition Associate! Learn more about his experience working remotely with VC, his love for board games, and how social movements and critical theory influence his thinking.

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Meet a VC Intern: Hailey C.

Meet Hailey C., our 2021 Getty MUI Programs Associate! Learn more about her experience interning with VC, her vinyl collection, and her passion for writing reviews and critiques about East Asian films.

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Meet a VC Intern: Matthew Scarlett

Meet Matthew Scarlett, our 2021 Development Associate! Learn more about his experience interning with VC, what’s on his bucket list, and why running competitively brings him joy.

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An Online Multi-Media Exhibit: Where Are You At?

The UCLA undergrads who interned at Visual Communications during their Spring 2021 quarter have endured over a year of remote learning and social isolation. Check out this virtual gallery to see how Leah Janelle “LJ” Isorena, Keana Mataalii, Yang Xi, and Janice Yun have harnessed the power of the creative arts to show us how they are coping with the effects of the pandemic in their respective parts of the world.

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Visual Communications Recognized as One of "America's Cultural Treasures" and Receives LA Arts Recovery Fund Grant

We are thrilled to be a recipient of the LA Arts Recovery Fund! As one of 90 nonprofits receiving grants, we are humbled to be recognized as one of “America’s Cultural Treasures,” and are excited to continue serving our community and contributing to the rich cultural fabric and economic recovery of LA County.

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VC Connect #21: Kith and Kin

Whether it be a nuclear family or individuals banded together to memorialize the good times, the need for “family” is strong within the Asian American & Pacific Islander community. So it is in this set of intimate portraits of people whose bonds are unshakeable, created by our Armed With a Camera and Digital Histories filmmakers.

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