Films of Remembrance Encore at Sacramento Asian Pacific Film Fest May 28

SACRAMENTO — The Sacramento Asian Pacific Cultural Village presents the 2017 Sacramento Asian Pacific Film Festival on Friday, May 26, and Saturday, May 27, at the Guild Theater, 2828 35th St. in Sacramento, with an encore presentation of Films of Remembrance at the California Museum on Sunday, May 28.

This year’s theme is “RESIST!” — featuring projects that explore the Asian Pacific Islander immigrant, refugee, and indigenous experience in America, and common struggles for justice and equality.

More than two dozen films will screen across three days and five separate showtimes, with a free film and panel discussion the morning of May 27. The May 28 programming features films related to the wartime incarceration of Japanese Americans in American concentration camps. Full Festival Pass and all-Sunday tickets include May 28 admission to the museum ($9 value).

In partnership with Nichi Bei Foundation and the California Museum, the Sacramento Asian Pacific Film Fest will hold an encore presentation of Films of Remembrance at the museum, located at 1020 O St. (at 10th Street) in downtown Sacramento. Films include those showcased at the Nichi Bei Foundation’s Films of Remembrance in San Francisco in February.

Films of Remembrance Encore commemorates the 75th anniversary of Executive Order 9066 — which set the wheels in motion to forcibly remove and incarcerate some 120,000 persons of Japanese descent from the West Coast, most of whom were American citizens. It coincides with the closing day of “Kokoro: The Story of Sacramento’s Lost Japantown,” while the California Museum’s longest-running exhibition, “Uprooted! Japanese Americans During WWII,” will also be on display.

See the Films of Remembrance Encore trailer here.

May 28 from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.:

• “One-Two-One-Seven: A Story of Japanese Internment” (2016, 13 min.) by Brett Kodama. Sharon Shizuko Okazaki’s mother was killed by her father, who committed suicide in the Manzanar concentration camp.

• “The Orange Story” (2016, 18 min.) by Erika Street Hopman. A proud corner grocery owner must leave for incarceration.

• “A Bitter Legacy: Secret WWII Citizen Isolation Prisons” (2016, 74 min.) by Claudia Katayanagi. Secret prisons separated citizens deemed “trouble-makers” from the other Japanese American prisoners.

May 28 from 2:30 to 5:30 p.m.:

• “First to Go” by Myles Matsuno (2017, 20 min.). Aki Hotel owner Ichiro Kataoka was the first to get picked up from San Francisco’s Japantown after Pearl Harbor was bombed.

• “Yonsei Eyes” by Jon Osaki (2016, 22 min.). Two Yonsei journey to the former Tule Lake concentration camp, where their grandparents were once incarcerated.

• “Relocation, Arkansas: Aftermath of Incarceration” (2017, 81 min.) by Vivienne Schiffer. Mayor Rosalie Gould saw the prisoners not as the enemy, but as Americans who were wronged. Along the way, the former prisoners and the camp’s art teacher left her their valuable treasure — the haunting art of the camps.

Films of Remembrance Encore screenings are $15 each, or $25 for both screenings.

Films at the Guild Theater, 2828 35th St., May 26-27

Opening Night: May 26 from 6:30 to 10:30 p.m.

• “Stand With Standing Rock,” a music/dance video created by Sacramento hip-hop legends the Lor Brothers of Kinjaz fame. Followed by Official Selection shorts.

• “American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs,” Grace Lee’s award-winning biopic on a legendary Asian American activist, at 9 p.m.

May 27 from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

• “Who Killed Vincent Chin,” Renee Tajima-Peña and Christine Choy’s seminal 1988 documentary that helped catalyze the second wave of pan-Asian political consciousness. Free screening followed by “API Films, Issues, and Activism,” a panel discussion with filmmakers and local community leaders.

May 27 from 1 to 5 p.m.

 • Official Selections in documentary and narrative shorts categories. A special presentation of Duc Nguyen’s “Stateless” at 2 p.m., and a special presentation of Spencer Nakasako’s “Refugees” at 4 p.m.

May 27 from 5:30 to 10 p.m.

• Corinne Manabat Cueva and Brian Redondo’s inspirational short “Why We Rise,” followed by more Official Selections.

• Closing Night special presentation at 7:30 p.m., “The Chinese Exclusion Act” by Ken Burns and Li-Shin Yu, co-produced by the Center for Asian American Media.

A complete list of Official Selections will be announced at: www.sapff.org.