August 30th, 2002
For Immediate Release
Contact: George Lin

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS FOR 2002 WASHINGTON, DC ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCED

Washington, DC - APA Film, a local Asian Pacific American (APA) non-profit arts organization has announced the schedule for its third annual Washington, DC-area APA showcase. The "2002 DC APA Film Festival" will be held October 10-19 at the Smithsonian Institution's Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery (Freer) and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (Hirshhorn). The Festival will showcase film shorts, documentaries, and feature length films by Asian filmmakers based in North America.

The 2002 DC APA Film Festival opens at the Hirshhorn with Romeo Candido's Lolo's Child on Thursday, October 10th at 8:00pm. This film is a soul-stirring yet whimsical narrative about a Filipino-Canadian artist who copes with his family and relationship issues by composing music. A Q&A session with the filmmaker and opening night reception will follow the screening.

Highlights of this year's Film Festival:

On Friday, October 11th, 7:00pm, the Festival continues at the Hirshhorn with Michael Parker's Lunch with Charles,a screwball romantic comedy about a transpacific relationship starring Hong Kong screen idols Sean Lau and Teresa Lee.

To celebrate the third anniversary of the Festival and to honor guest filmmakers, the annual DC APA Film Festival Opening Weekend Party will be held at MCCXXIII on Saturday, October 12th, at 9:00pm.

On Monday Oct. 14th, APA Film is excited to promote it's first ever live music event at HR-57 featuring "The Romeo Candido Karaoke Show" and other locally based APA musicians.

On Thursday, October 17th, 7:00pm, the Hirshhorn will host Pamela Yate's documentary Presumed Guilty,which takes a close look at the San Francisco criminal justice system from the perspective of Public Defenders and the accused.

Continuing on Friday, October 18th, 7:00pm, the Hirshhorn will showcase local filmmaker Eric Byler's Charlotte Sometimes, a film about a young mechanic who is forced to choose between a daring tryst with an alluring stranger and the habitual comfort of his bittersweet obsession. This film was co-winner of the Audience Award for Best First Narrative Feature at the recent South by Southwest Film Festival. The filmmaker and cast will be present to conduct a Q&A with the audience.

The Festival closes on Saturday, October 19th at the Freer with two Sundance Film Festival selections about cultural differences, longing, and the personal legacy of war. At 4:00pm, Vicente Franco and Gail Dolgin's award winning documentary, Daughter from Danang,chronicles a young woman's journey from Tennessee to Vietnam to reunite with her mother. At 7:00 pm, Timothy Linh Bui's feature length film, Green Dragon,is a poignant story of Vietnamese refugees housed at Camp Pendelton in 1975, focusing on a young brother and sister in search of their mother. The film's star-studded cast includes Patrick Swayze, Jennifer Tran, and Forrest Whitaker.

Other highlights of the Festival include: "It's a She Thing," an all-female filmmaker's program featuring four short films by female filmmakers; "So Happy Together," a queer Asian cinema short films program; "Looking in the Mirror," a program about ethnicity and racial issues in America; and "Frame X Frame," an all animated short films program. In addition, many short film programs will be followed by panel discussions.

"We are extremely excited about the quality and the richness of the films this year," said George Lin, President of APA Film. "Besides showing films that appeal to the intellect as well as emotions, our main goal is to showcase unique and diverse viewpoints of Asian Pacific Americans. By achieving that, we will open a lot of people's eyes to APA experiences and hopefully, breakdown negative stereotypes of APAs."

Admission is free to all showings at the Smithsonian, but tickets are required. Tickets (up to two per person) are distributed at the Freer and Hirshhorn one hour before film screenings. For a more complete schedule and description of programs please visit the APA Film website at: http://www.apafilm.org.