LA Asian Pacific Film Festival 2025

By Jana Monji

Today, May 1sth is the first day of the 41st Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival which runs until May 7th. The opening night Cinema Musica party which features two musical performances (Filipino Americans Monica Anne Parales and David Galvan) is sold out, but here are some of the movies screening in Los Angeles.

Molokaʻi Bound (1 May 2025) Directors Guild of America (7920 W Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90046), 7 p.m.

This Pacific Cinewaves narrative by writer and director Alika Tengan follows a Hawaiian man, Kainoa De Silva (Holden Mandrial-Santos), just out on parole after serving seven years, who attempts to reconnect with his adolescent son, Jonathan (Austin Tucker), and Jonathan’s mother, Jessica (Kalena Charlene).

He’s staying with his younger sister, ʻŌlena (Kamalani Kapeliela) whose husband Keala (‘Āina Paikai)  is dubious about hosting a felon. Their young daughter Pua (Racie-Lee Kahealani Molale) has vacated her very pink room for her uncle.

Although he’s warned by his sister and his parole officer, Kainoa quickly falls in with his old friends, one of whom ʻAukai (Kawika Kahiapo) provides him with a legitimate job, as part of a crew on a tourist charter fishing boat. The film moves slowly, contrasting the majestic scenery with the limited expectations of Kainoa’s life. He will get to Molokaʻi, but it’s how he gets there that matters. 

This film has its world premiere at the Seattle International Film Festival last May where it was nominated in the New American Cinema Competition and Holden Mandrial-Santos received a Best Performance nomination. If you’re not in Los Angeles, you can check out future screenings at the film’s official website: MolokaiBound.com. In English and Hawaiian. 

Mistress Dispeller (3 May 2025) AMC Atlantic Times Square 14 (450 N Atlantic Blvd, Monterey Park, CA 91754), 6 p.m.

At the very beginning, the audience is informed that: 

In China, people who discover their spouse is cheating can hire professionals to break up the affair. This documentary follows a real, unfolding case of “mistress dispelling.” Nothing was scripted or re-enacted.”

Everyone agree to participate both at the beginning and end of the production as, their understanding of the film and the mistress dispeller’s role evolved over time.

If you’re expecting yelling and screaming, you’ll be disappointed. There’s a calm that permeates under the guidance of the mistress dispeller. It’s interesting to watch her work as she notes that the person who actually needs the most support, at least in this case, is the mistress. 

“Mistress Dispeller” premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2024 where it won Best Director, Authors Under 40 Award for Elizabeth Lo as well as a Netpace Award. It has won several Best Documentary awards including the Chicago International Film Festival’s Gold Hugo and the Maysles Brothers Award at the Denver Film Festival. 

Softshell (3 May 2025) AMC Atlantic Times Square 14 (450 N Atlantic Blvd, Monterey Park, CA 91754), 7 p.m.

Death haunts this film about recently orphaned Thai American siblings living in Queens and there’s a film content advisory warning that violence toward animals is shown. The recently graduated Jamie (Caledonia Abbey Benjakul) starts a new job at a zoo while her brother, Narin (Legyaan Thapa Arayaprayoon), continues to work at a local martial arts dojo, wishing he could rise a bit higher into teaching certain classes. Both are socially awkward in both the Thai community and the general population. 

Even as they mourn the loss of their mother, Jamie begins seeing a chef (David Santino) who has a fascination with Thai food. But that suddenly makes her want to leave New York for Atlanta where they have a fishing adventure. 

Written and directed by Korean American Jinho Myung, “Softshell” makes its West Coast premiere at the festival. The film subtly asks questions about cultural identity and the possibility of brushing with people who fetishize Asian Americans. No dogs die, but still, this was painful to watch and not for the squeamish.

“Softshell” premiered at the New/Next Film Festival I 2024. Jinho Myung Won the Grand Prix Janine Bazin Award at the Entrevues Film Festival in 2024 for “Softshell.” In English and Thai with English subtitles. 

Bitterroot  (3 May 2025) AMC Atlantic Times Square, Theater 8 (450 N Atlantic Blvd, Monterey Park, CA 91754), 8 p.m.

If your life was thrown into catastrophic chaos from the recent LA fires, this might be a tad triggering. The film begins with a hillside fire in western Montana but it isn’t presented as a dire threat. Eventually we’ll see that it is an opportunity for the recently divorced Hmong American man Lue (Wa Yang).

Lue finds solace in fly fishing and singing karaoke while he works a dead-end job in maintenance. His mother has a root vegetable farm. Lue also works the family stand at the farmer’s market.  His widowed mother (Qu Kue) is frustrated that Lue resists all of her efforts. “Do you know I devoted my entire life to you?” She wants him married, with someone to take care of him. He’s not ready to date, particularly after he is laid off. 

His sister May (Gia Vang) had married outside of the Hmong community and her husband Dan (Zac Thomas) attempts to help at the farm. While his sister chides him for his behavior and the worry he cause their mother who consults with a local shaman, Lue tells her, “You’re not even Hmong anymore.” 

Lue has emotional baggage that he needs to deal with, but his mother’s increasing poor health coupled with his job loss almost emotionally disables him. Yet in tragedy, there are still moments of hopeful possibilities. 

Vera Brunner-Sung is an associate professor in film at the Center for Ethnic Studies in the Department of Theatre at Ohio State University. The child of immigrants from Korea and Switzerland, she grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The film glances at the cultural differences between generations in a casual manner of very day life of one ordinary man. 

“Bitterroot” was nominated for the Founders Award, Best US Narrative Feature at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2024. Ki Jin Kim was given a Special Jury Mention for Cinematography in a US Feature Film at Tribeca where it made its world premiere. 

The Grocery List Show (3 May 2025) Democracy Center @JANM, 3 p.m.

Three of the five episodes of former Top Chef contender Chrissy Camba’s “The Grocery List Show” will screen at the festival. The documentary cooking series explores cultural grocery stores as well as the communities they serve. Although these episodes will be making their world premiere in Los Angeles, audience members won’t be able to run to these feature grocery stores because all five episodes feature grocery stores on the East Coast. Directed by Emily M. Strong and produced by Diane Quon, the full series will be available on 28 May 2025 via the PBS Food YouTube channel and the PBS app. 

Episode 1: Seafood City (12 minutes 41 seconds)

Filipina American Camba remembers the opening of Seafood City in Chicago. It was the first Filipino grocery store. “It was a huge deal,” she recalls, and added, “Some people like to go to a spa to relax, I like to go to a grocery store to relax.”  She also speaks with Natalia Roxas, a local Filipino Gastronomy Advocate before the show moves to Camba’s home kitchen where she and her husband prepare crab torta.

Episode 2: Balady Halal Foods (12 minutes and 6 seconds)

“Balady” means “hometown” or “local” in Arabic and this Bay Ridge Brooklyn grocery store was founded in 2003 by the father of the current owners, Palestinian American Essa, Mosa and Abraham. Bay Ridge is also known as “Little Mecca” and the store serves the Muslim community. The brothers’ mother, Ferial Masoud, who co-founded the store with her late husband, cooks and traditional Palestinian-Jordanian dish (mansaf) that features lamb, rice and a yogurt sauce.

Episode 3: Labay Market (10 minutes, 32 seconds)

Grenadian MacDonald “Big Mac” Romaine owns and operated the Caribbean grocery store located in Brooklyn’s Little Caribbean. He named it after a famous story in Grenada. During this episode Camba meets with the founder of CaribBEING, Shelley Worrell, who helped get the official designation for Little Caribbean and discusses the important of preserving Caribbean cultural identity in New York.  

Episode 4 features Piccolo’s Gastronomia Italian in Ridgefield, New Jersey and Episode 5 features the Latin American grocery store La Placita de Brooklyn in Brooklyn, New York. Even if you can’t go to these stores, these programs should inspire you to explore similar stores in your own hometowns and cities. 

Te Puna Ora (The Source of Life) (4 May 2025) AMC Atlantic Times Square 14 (450 N Atlantic Blvd, Monterey Park, CA 91754), 2:15 p.m.

Directed by Virginie Tetoofa, this documentary looks at three strong Tahitian  women: 

• Hinano Teavai-Murphy
• Poema Duprel
• Anuavai Hucke-Soboul

Written by Virginie Tetoofa, Gordana Othnin-Girard and Kiran Jandu, the documentary follows these women as they unite a community to protect a beach from privatization on the island of Mo’orea. The film touches on the topics of unsustainable development and the lingering effects of colonialism while intertwining the Maragai tribal world creation myth of Hina (Goenda Reea) and Ru (Marurai Robson). 

The emotional and political content are inspiring, but the images under director of photography Michael Latham are as well. This documentary is like an adult follow-up to Disney’s animated feature film “Moana.”

“Te Puna Ora (The Source of Life)” premiered at the New Orleans Film Festival in October 2024. In English, French and Tahitian. 

The Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival (LAAPFF) celebrates and contemplate diversity and inclusivity. It screens films in venues in Monterey Park (AMC Atlantic Times Square), Downtown Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo (JACCC Aratani Theatre and JANM’s Democracy Center), Los Angeles (Landmark Theatres Sunset and the Directors Guild of America) and Los Angeles’ South Bay (Gardena Cinema). LAAPFF does have a limited online offering as well. For more information or tickets, visit the LAAPFF website.