“2020 marks the 50th anniversary for visual communications,” said Francis Cullado, Executive Director of Visual Communications. “The organization was born because our founders began searching for visual resources to build a greater consciousness of Asian Pacific history in America ….
By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)
Runs Sept 24 to Oct 31
The complete lineup of the 36th Annual Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival is here! The list is extensive and to figure out what to see for its virtual event took more than days to figure out. Because of this event being region specific, most of these movies are geolocked to those residing in the county to see. However, with a lot of film festivals offering an online component, it’s safe to assume that these films will become available for another region in no time. Failing that, some works are already available on home video for purchase in the country it was made.
Over 225 filmmakers will be featured in the five weeks which starts very soon! There’s three feature film world premieres and plenty of shorts to see.
BC-based Abbott has been making films about urgent social, political and environmental issues for 25 years, including co-directing the 2003 Sundance award-winning The Corporation. She’s also back at VIFF this year with The New Corporation: The Unfortunately Necessary Sequel, co-directed with Joel Bakan.
The Great Malaise by Catherine Lepage
In the voiceover for this animated short, a young woman attempts to describe herself, casting her life in the ideal light that society expects. The film’s imagery, however, tells a different story, poignantly illustrating the intense anxiety that comes with the quest for perfection and the pursuit of happiness. A film that’s both funny and moving, and above all, profoundly human.
The 2020 Fantasia International Film Festival is taking place online! It will run from August 20th to Sept 2nd, and the producers behind this event worked hard with Festival Scope and Shift72 to ensure that for Canadian audiences, they will have an experience to remember.
According to Fantasia’s FAQ: Unfortunately, we can’t make new films available across the world without potentially hurting their future distribution and exhibition options, which is a key concern to us. The only exception is Troma’s latest, an interpretation of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, which will be available to audiences in Canada and the United States.
Signing up to this event is easy. All anyone has to do is to visit Fantasia’s website and make an account. Options exist to make a wish list, and tickets can be pre-purchased early for those shows with a set time of broadcast, or viewed at leisure, beginning August 20th. The showtimes advertised on Fantasia’s PDF Guide and social media platforms and the like are listed in Eastern Standard Time.
After watching this latest Ninjago season, it’ll be up to the Ninjas to unite the people to bring villainy down. The spirit of LEGO is never far.
Spoiler Alert
Television networks in North America are very behind in keeping pace with the animated LEGO Ninjago property. In Asia, Master of the Mountain, season thirteen of the Masters of Spinjitzu series, is now available. It may well head west, to broadcast in Europe next before crossing the Atlantic for the Americas.
In SDCC@Home’s programming lineup, I hoped the LEGO Company would make some mention. No recent announcements were made since season twelve is now broadcasting in the States. Whatever the reason is for the delay, fans will have to wait or subscribe to foreign streaming sites to watch this latest chapter.
The series is showing no signs of slowing down. A new direction for the boys (and girl) in red, white, green, blue and black is to see them leave the Ninjago kingdom and explore another. Perhaps this time much further away. They’ve done the trip to other dimensions enough times. These other realms are simply representations of other cultures or are aspects of the paranormal.
LEGO Ninjago: Prime Empire is a tribute to everything I love in video games.
Episodes 1-6 available through Cartoon Network app / on demand
Airdate: North America – July 19, 2020
Other Territories – Repeat
TT Games can learn a lot from Prime Empire, the latest season of LEGO Ninjago finally airing in North America. I’ve played enough of their products to see their licenced products from this toy line have hardly ever changed. The platform puzzle solving coin gathering engine rarely includes concepts unique to each franchise. For the most part, players are blasting or punching enemies in a non-violent manner rather than fully reliving highlight moments—ranging from racing simulations to martial arts fighting—from their favourite movie.
The story for season twelve offers a lot of ideas I wish to see in a game and in a TRON: Legacy sequel. Unagami is essentially MCP. He’s a self-aware program created by Milton Dyer to deliver players the ultimate experience and he’s also feeling very confused. He wants to find his creator and go mono a mono.
Marona’s Fantastic Tale is more than just a meditation on life—a reflection of what was—of a beloved dog fading away. Unlike The Call of the Wild which is based on Jack London’s novel of the same name, with a happy ending this animated movie is an original work written and directed by Anca Damian and her son, Anghel, which is much more sombre and philosophical.
The titular character voiced by Lizzy Brochere reveals all that she’s experienced in a Parisian town filled with colourful humans. Sometimes, what the pup dealt with in the beginning is not as telling as her other encounters. There are some weird people out there, and they are definitely caricatures of people exhibiting some weird vices.
By Ed Sum
By Ed Sum
Spoiler Alert
Episodes 1-6 available through Cartoon Network app / on demand
By Ed Sum