Event 1: Los Angeles Asian Film Festival

For my first event, I attended the Screening of VC_Digital_Posse_2016, held by the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival.

The night of my attendance [04/24/2016], this event show-cased 9 short films created by rising talents, surrounding the theme of Asian-Pacific Heritage. Some films also focused on the general and simple theme of "heritage" within their own culture, not just of the Asian Pacific.                                 

My favorite film  of the event was the "Hand Fart" created by Travis Ashkenazy &Stanley Wong. This film is a humorous depiction of the symbolic representation of having the fate of your life in your own hands. [http://laapff.festpro.com/films/section/shorts_program_vc_digital_posse_ver_201]

At the end of the screening, the filmmakers all came up to the stage to describe the process of creating their films. Each filmmaker was assigned to deliver a message and theme through their five-minute movie (sometimes more), and keep the audience entertained with the keen calculation and usage of video-editing. Camera-technology was utilized at its outermost potential to bring out the best artistic result of their projects. In order to create their one piece of 5-minute short-movie, these filmmakers put weeks in editing every little sound effect, visual effect, and sentimental effect of each second. 

This was where I was able to learn that technology was utilized to create art, and that the art conclusively expressed the greater purpose of human mind. Specifically mentioning the "Hand Fart" film, the filmmakers stated that they had to use the real set of a hospital scene with real medical instruments in order to gain the depth and true humor of the film. 

Through this event, I was able to think deeper into the third world as described by C.P. Snow in the Third Culture, as mentioned in our class week 1. Contrary to my disagreements back in week 1, I came to realize that the world of technology was essentially like the middle bridge connecting different worlds of art and different science. Technology was used to create the filmmaker's artistic expressions, in subjects and genres of sciences. Moreover, I came to realize that anything can be expressed through art like science/math, and art can express anything and everything. I believe everyone will enjoy the event, it is not only interesting but also very eye-opening.