The Long Beach Indie International Film, Media + Music Festival will take place Wednesday, August 31 through Sunday, September 4.
Before the weekend’s full schedule of events, conferences and screenings, two standout films are available to watch before the larger crowds roll in. Aviatrix: The Katherine Sui Fun Cheung Story on Thursday and The Passionate Pursuits of Angela Bowen on Friday tell the inspiring stories of two trailblazing women and will both be screened at Cinemark at the Pike.
The festival will also open on Wednesday with the film South Bureau Homicide at Cinemark at the Pike at 7:00PM, followed by the official Opening Night After Party with Isaiah Walker and the Iconic Music Experience.
Aviatrix, presented by From the Heart Productions and Asian American Film Lab is a Best Documentary Short Nominee, and features Katherine Sui Fun Cheung who was one of only a handful of Chinese women pilots to earn a pilot’s license in the states during the 1930s, according to the release, not to mention a part of the less than one percent of pilots who were women at the time.
Image courtesy of Aviatrix.
“All in one story you have a woman who absolutely had no sense of a glass ceiling,” said Leslie Ishii, East West Players Director of Taking Flight, during the trailer, which you can view here. “The sky really was the limit.”
In true Long Beach fashion, the documentary film also shows archival Universal newsreel from a 1935 women’s air show, held right here in this seaside city, showing the storied pilot performing stunts with her biplane. She attended, along with a group of 99s members, an organization consisting of women pilots led by Amelia Earhart, according to the release.
“She represented, to me, the social awakening of Chinese women in the 1930s,” said Judy Yung, author of Chinese Women of America: A Pictorial History, also for the trailer. “That they were leaving their homes and pursuing male-dominated occupations.”
Visit the Facebook event page here for more information.
The Passionate Pursuits of Angela Bowen by Jennifer Abod, PhD, is sure to hit close to home, giving viewers a look into the history of a driven woman who grew up in Boston during the Jim Crow era and moved on to become a legendary dance teacher, black lesbian feminist activist, writer and professor at Cal State Long Beach (CSULB), according to the event page.
Image courtesy of The Passionate Pursuits of Angela Bowen.
“Passionate Pursuits is a compelling portrait of an important figure in the evolution of contemporary Black feminist history in the United States,” wrote Beverly Guy-Sheftal, Professor of Women’s Studies at Spellman College, in a review. “The extraordinary life of Angela Bowen—dancer, writer, scholar, activist, professor— provides a window on important aspects of 20th century African American history, women’s history and LGBTQ history.”
The documentary, distributed by Women Make Movies, describes the life of Bowen’s 60 years of compelling work as a challenger of race, class, gender, age and sexuality in an albeit evolving, but less than welcoming society.
“Jennifer Abod’s documentary film is inspirational, informative, complex, humorous, a must-see for Women’s Studies, Black Studies, and Queer Studies classrooms,” said Guy-Sheftal in a statement. “Great film.”
You can view the trailer here and visit the Facebook event page here for more information.
For more information, the full schedule of events and to purchase passes for the Long Beach Indie International Film, Media + Music Festival, visit the website here or Facebook page here.
Cinemark at the Pike is located at 99 South Pine Avenue.
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