Sunday, April 26, 2009

APRIL 2009: Taking Time to Remember...


It has been a l-o-n-g time since I last entered a diary entry in this blog, but it hasn't been for a lack of trying. Between braving the cold of Berlin back in February to enduring the crazy up-and-down weather of Southern California the past few weeks, me and the Film Festival organizing team have been busy "sealing the deal" for this year's edition of the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival. As I sat and perused the review copy of the program catalog that is rolling off the presses this weekend, I am reminded of all the works that came OH-SO-CLOSE to being included in this year's edition, only to get left out due to scheduling conflicts with distributors and other film festivals, the dreaded "premiere policy" issue, and a lot of other stuff that doesn't deserve to get mentioned. But that is water under the bridge. And there is so much more work to do between now and the start of Festival Week 2009 on April 30.

I could be using this entry to hype one of our "big event" pictures like CHILDREN OF INVENTION, TREELESS MOUNTAIN, or DEPARTURES; or even one or more of the exceptional works we are showing from Japan, the Philippines, or other parts of Southeast Asia -- truly, there are indeed a lot of highlights to talk about, but in the middle of all that planning, we got word of a rather sad event that helps to put things in perspective.

A couple of weeks ago, David and I were in the middle of finalizing reception plans with one of this year's filmmakers when he noted that he got word of the sudden passing of Joselito Torres, a filmmaker whose works we've shown at the Film Festival in years past. Lito, who began making films while studying at Los Angeles City College in the late 1990s, was a very personable fellow and very persistent in bettering himself. I wouldn't exactly call him the most technically accomplished filmmaker we've seen rolling through our doors -- his 1998 short, A BOX OF COOKIES, a revenge fantasy that underlined his fervent interests in foregrounding the AIDS epidemic in ways that didn't hew to the "victim" mentality, was also typical of the need for him to hone his craft and storytelling aesthetic, as his early works were of such a quality I could best describe (charitably) as heartfelt, but crude. Yet, as David would tell me time and again, there was a "there" in Lito's work -- an intangible gift for storytelling and a genuine desire to become more polished, more accomplished, that was itching to get out of that body-builder physique of his. The fact that his works involved the participation of a stable of friends and acquaintances that over the years became a sort of support network for Lito and his ever-evolving creative vision -- a kind of "St. Elmo's Fire" clan, of sorts. I would always see Lito and his friends at the Film Festival, or around town at other film events that his works would show at. And, in spite of the subsequent protestations by our program committees past that we'd be doing a lot better -- a WHOLE lot better -- than taking on his works, me and david would continue to invest in Lito's vision. And you know what? Little by little, the work actually got better, more accomplished. Oh, sure, he still had a ways to go, as evidenced by a long-form documentary he completed and presented at the 2005 Film Festival, QUEEN OF ASIA, about the contestants of a transgendered/cross-dressers' beauty pageant and their reasons for choosing to flaunt their innate beauty in such a public, cruel forum. But it was clear from looking at that work, with a large and supportive audience, that Lito, from a filmmaking point of view, was growing up.

The Festival, with the participation of Lito's good friends and members of select organizations who have supported him (and vice versa) will gather at this Friday evening, May 1 at the DGA to celebrate his life and filmmaking accomplishments. For me, Lito's passing is just another unpleasant duty that I, as a film festival co-director, must acknowledge -- he certainly wasn't the first, nor will he be the last. But I'll instead be filled with warm recollections of an irrepressible, at times goofy, but always sincere and earnest gentleman whose desire to better his filmmaking craft and ingratiate himself into his community of fellow Asian Pacific American artists exemplifies why me and David "keep the door open" for filmmakers who are worth supporting, even when others might not think so.

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