Movies: Visual Communications

For all intents and purposes, 2015 was seemingly a banner year for singer/songwriter Bobby Choy (aka Big Phony). His melodic and quiet songs had garnered him a following as he performs at SXSW while also starring in his first feature film. However, r...

The film looks back at the life of a man named Oda and other Japanese Americans through the decades as they face great challenges and joys living in the United States....

In the face of AAPI violence, an intergenerational coalition of Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, People of Color organizers come together to organize a march across historic Washington Heights and Harlem, as a continuation of the historic and radica...

1935 Los Angeles, community leader Sei Fujii uncovers the corrupt activities of his community's underground mafia. He must choose between saving the face of his deteriorating community and confronting the issues head on through his newspaper. Based o...

Modern kite maker Tom Joe seeks to preserve the craft of kite making as well as the traditional Asian folklore behind it. Alan Takemoto illustrates Tom Joe’s tales of the Polynesian fish kite made from leaves and branches to fool fish; the Chinese ge...

An aspiring social worker, Pedro must confront political restrictions as a blind, undocumented immigrant to get his college degree and support his family. But when attaining his dreams leads to new and unexpected challenges, what will Pedro do?...

This important tribute to the issei (first generation Japanese Americans) integrates the stories of three people who describe a collective history through their personal memories....

A young woman contends with her role as a Daughter of Guam. Contemplating the inherited burden of her island’s collective loss, the Daughter of Guam learns to navigate her responsibility to her island’s collective healing....

This documentary tells the story of the LGBTTI communities who have suffered persecution, prison and torture for their sexual condition under different military dictatorships in recent decades. The idea borns from the photographic and archival projec...

After the trigger of a hate crime, an undocumented Indian American convenience store clerk comes crashing into his subconscious as he grieves the passing of his father during an attempted border crossing....

After Dom begins having suspicions about his wife, he goes to the seemingly wrong person for advice, leading him down a rabbit hole of drug fueled paranoia that threatens his mind, his heart, and his groin....

Living in the USA illegally for over 20 years, Miko Revereza reflects on his family's relocation from Manila to Los Angeles in this introspective essay film. Patching together self-portraiture and home-movie footage, his sombre yet resolute voice-ove...

Celebrates the music and influences of contemporary Asian American culture on Dan Kuramoto, June Okida Kuramoto, and Johnny Mori — three musicians who make up the core of the jazz fusion band Hiroshima. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partn...

Short film produced by Visual Communications, the United States first Asian American film production company. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2012....

June Pouesi, director of the Office of Samoan Affairs, describes the waves of immigration from American Samoa that led to the development of the Samoan community. She also comments on VC’s photo documentation of work, cultural performances and youth ...

Inspired by the 1978 documentary “Omai Fa’atasi: Samoa Mo Samoa,” a teenage girl growing up in a strict Samoan household lives the same day everyday cooking, cleaning, and taking care of her siblings until she joins a community organization that help...

The dilemmas and challenges facing Samoan Americans are frankly explored in this film about Omai Fa’atasi, a Southern Californian community group. It is one of the first films documenting Pacific Islander communities on the North American continent....

A follow-up to the groundbreaking Visual Communications documentary OMAI FA'ATASI: SAMOA MO SAMOA, this fictionalized account of Vaitafe Futu, a gifted Samoan youth who travels from Pago Pago to pursue an education in Los Angeles offers a wholistic p...

Capturing the all-American fervor of parade competition, CHINATOWN 2-STEP profiles the Los Angeles Chinese Drum and Bugle Corps, an important fixture of the Chinese American community....

Documentary on the Los Angeles-based media arts group, Visual Communications. The one-hour film chronicles their first twenty years, 1970-1990, of producing media by and about Asian Pacific Americans....