Closing night for the 23rd Annual VC Filmfest: The Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival ended with a bang, chop, and flying kick with Charlie Nguyen’s crowd pleasing film “The Rebel (Dong Mau Ahn Hung) on Thursday.
The VC Filmfest is part of the Los Angeles based Visual Communications, “a year round, full service media art center with a mission to promote intercultural understanding through the education , presentation, preservation, and support of Asian Pacific American Media” (from VC Mission Statement).”
Visual Communications is headed by Executive Producer Leslie Ito, Co-Director in charge of programming, Abraham Ferrer, and Co-Director in charge of development and publicity David Magdael.

The Festival, which ran from May 3 to May 10, is the showcase event of the organization. Certain programs, such as the “Love in Translation” shorts programs by students, and the “Digital Histories” program by senior citizens, were a direct result of the year round educational programs of VC.

In addition to the 161 films screened on four different venues in the City (including the Directors Guild of America), panels on cinematography, screenwriting independent films, Asian American themes dotted the program. Among these, the signature events were a conversation with directors Wayne Wang (“The Joy Luck Club”, “Maid in Manhattan”) and Justin Lin (“Better Luck Tomorrow”, “Fast and the Furious Tokyo Drift”, and “Finishing the Game”), and a spotlight on actor Dustin Nguyen. Although best known in mainstream circles for “21 Jump Street”, he has starred in many independent films, including three in this year’s Fest (“Finishing the Game”, “Saigon Eclipse”, and “The Rebel”).
The weeklong festival also celebrated the life and career of the “Godfather of Asian American Theatre”, Makoto Iwamatsu; popularly known for his shortened name Mako. The actor, who passed away last July from esophageal cancer, had a career that spanned decades. Along with roles that had him nominated for Academy and Golden Globe Awards (1966 for “The Sand Pebbles”), and Tony Awards (Sondheim’s “Pacific Overtures”), his co-discovery and artistic direction of the Pan Asian Theatre group, the East West Players afforded him legendary status in the Asian American community.
The respective opening and closing night films were a representative bookend of the cross section of Asian American and Asian themes. Lin’s opening night film, “Finishing the Game”, a mockumentary about the attempt following Bruce Lee’s death to complete his unrealized film “The Game of Death”, points to the ridiculousness of Hollywood, and the role of Asian and Asian Americans who have to navigate within it. For Lin, this marked the second time (“Better Luck Tomorrow” in 2002 was the first) his films played at the VC Fest after opening at Sundance.
Nguyen’s “The Rebel”, was the apropos choice to close the festival at the Aratani/Japan America Theatre in the City’s Little Tokyo section. In addition to its crowd pleasing elements of high action, comedy, and amusing romance, the Vietnamese and French language film was set during the French occupation of Vietnam at the beginning of the 20th Century. The movie marked a family reunion of sorts, with his brothers Johnny Tri Nguyen starring, and Dustin Nguyen co-starring in a scene stealing performance. All three were in attendance.
The award ceremony was highlighted by the crowd’s ecstatic reaction to the selection of the closing night film as the Best Narrative Feature. A Special Jury Prize went to “Baby”, directed by Juwan Chung. David Hyunh, the title character of the film, won a breakthrough performance award. In a comical moment, the director held up a cell phone to the microphone for an impromptu acceptance speech.
In an awards program without pomp or pretense, the acting award winners Esai Morales (“American Fusion”) and Meredith Scott Lynn (“Finishing the Game”) were more than game to continue with the spirit that accompanies independent film. While Morales expressed mock concern that the “Grand Jury” was summoning him, Scott Lynn, jokingly wondered aloud if it was “okay” that she wasn’t Asian American.
Best Documentary went to Lisa Hattendorf’s “Cats of Mirkitani”. A special jury prize was given to Lissette Marie Flannery for “Na Kamalei: Men of Hula”. Ruby Yee’s Oscar winning film for short documentary, “The Blood of the Yingzhou District” won the Golden Reel Award. The winner of the Linda Mabolot/New Directors New Visions Award went to Tadashi Nakamura for his film “Pilgrimage”. Accepting on his behalf was his mother Karen Ishizuka, who also was a producer of the film. In addition, his father Robert Nakamura, an accomplished filmmaker, was an inspiration for the film; a chronicle about the journey back to Manzanar, the Japanese Internment Camp where the elder Nakamura was forced to live as a child.
Audience Awards went to Frank Lin’s “American Fusion” for narrative feature, and Socheata Poeuv’s “New Year Baby” for non-fiction.
Following the awards ceremony and film, the festival concluded with a lively open air party complete with free flowing Heineken Beer amidst the latest Honda automobiles (two of the fests sponsors) under the watchful eye of famed actor Chow Yun Fat (Alas it was just a poster advertising his likeness in a new video game “Stranglehold” , another fest sponsor). But despite this journalist’s (and short film juror for the fest) disappointment on not meeting one of his favorite the actors, fun was had by all.
Mike Takeuchi is the programming manager for the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.
He is also an award winning non-fiction writer and a contributor to Filmfestivals.com.