The Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival is holding its closing weekend at the Art Theatre in the festival’s attempts to reach new audiences across the Southland. 

The Long Beach program will have some encores of popular films that were shown in Los Angeles, but also comprise of film premieres including the Long Beach-based Cambodian tale Two Shadows. Amongst the list of premieres:

The Orator (New Zealand/Western Samoa)

  • From award winning director Tusi Tamasese comes this poetic and artful film shot entirely in Western Samoa. World premiered at Venice Film Festival. The film also serves as the Opening Night Film of the Festival in Long Beach.

Two Shadows (USA/Cambodia)

  • Long Beach hipster wannabe Sovanna receives a cryptic letter from Cambodia claiming that her long-lost brother and sister are still alive. Ditching her dead-end lifestyle and alcoholic father, Sovanna travels to her birthplace alone to seek out her two siblings who disappeared during the civil war 20 years earlier.

In the Family (USA)

  • This award winning film from Patrick Wang is a touching portrait of a gay Asian American man living in the South who’s idyllic life is torn asunder when he loses his adopted son after the death of his partner. A film with subtlety, humanism, and a bravura performance from Wang makes this film a highlight of the festival.

Golden Slumbers (Cambodia/France)

  • Discover the unknown history of the birth and destruction of Cambodian cinema, from the first film ever made in 1960 to the arrival of the Khmer Rouges in 1975. In 15 years, about 400 films were produced. Only 30 films remain today. The film tries to bring back to life the myths and legends of this lost cinema. From Davy Chou, a Cambodian French filmmaker, is the grandson of Van Chann, a famous film producer in the 60s and the 70s.

Papa Mau: The Wayfinder (Hawaii)

  • A documentary that takes a retrospective look at the influence of Mau Piailug, a native from the tiny Micronesian atoll of Satawal, in reviving the art of non-instrument navigation in Polynesia.

There Once Was an Island: Te Henua E Nnoho (Papua New Guinea/New Zealand)

  • Three people in a unique Pacific Island community face the first devastating effects of climate change, including a terrifying flood. Will they decide to stay with their island home or move to a new and unfamiliar land, leaving their culture and language behind forever?

For the full schedule to Long Beach portion of the Festival, you can view it here.