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The history of every city is reflected in the rich and diverse narrative told in each of its parts. What makes it so interesting and eventually engaging to explore one of the world's capitals or a metropolis on your own is to find these, and explore them on your own. Some of these places we know through pop-culture, but at the same time, the majority of them stay hidden, although their influence on local culture remains. One of the places is the Atomic Cafe in Los Angeles, which, even though it was closed in 1989, still holds a very special spot in people's hearts, especially those who were part of the L.A.'s underground scene. In their short documentary “Atomic Cafe: The Noisiest Corner in J-Town” directors Akira Boch and Tadashi Nakamura tell the story of the Atomic Cafe, its owner and its influence on the city's culture.

Atomic Cafe:...

The Sundance Institute announced a new annual scholarship and fellowship program for Asian American filmmakers, in partnership with the Asian American Foundation (Taaf).

Officially titled “Sundance Institute | The Asian American Foundation Fellowship and Collab Scholarship,” the program provides Asian American and Pacific Islander (Aapi) artists with “creative and tactical support to develop their skills and grow professionally” and improve Aapi representation in film and TV.

The new fellowship will annually promote emerging artists in both fiction and nonfiction storytelling with funding provided by Panda Express and the MacArthur Foundation. The Fellowship and Scholarship are made possible by support from Taaf, through a 400,000 grant provided by its Aapi Giving Challenge partner Panda Express, with MacArthur contributing 140,000.

The fellowship will offer six Aapi artists a year-round learning experience to advance their professional development in the arts. Through the fellowship, each artist will receive a 20,000 unrestricted grant to support their individual projects, as...

Sundance Institute, the organization behind the yearly film festival in Park City, has partnered with the Asian American Foundation to create a fellowship and scholarship, which will be granted to 12 recipients a year. The goal, the groups say, is to provide Asian American and Pacific Islander artists with creative and tactical support to develop their professional skills, as well as improve Aapi representation in film and television industries.

The fellowship will offer six Aapi artists per year a 12-month learning experience to advance their professional development in the arts. Through the fellowship, each person will receive a 20,000 unrestricted grant to support their individual projects, as well as customized support from the Sundance Institute based on their goals.

The Asian American Foundation’s support will also fund the Sundance scholarships for six emerging Aapi creatives each year. Scholarship recipients will be able to enroll in a live online course focused on their discipline of choice,...

The Sundance Institute and The Asian American Foundation (Taaf) are partnering to launch the Sundance Institute/Asian American Foundation Fellowship and Collab Scholarship in support of rising Aapi filmmakers. The program is geared towards increasing Aapi representation in film and TV by investing in talent and spotlighting their stories.

Six participants will be chosen for the programs each year. On the fellowship side, artists will receive a 20,000 unrestricted grant in support of their individual projects and year-round educational opportunities. Scholarship recipients will participate in live online classes of their choosing, gain access to Sundance master classes online, attend exclusive networking events and receive project guidance from the Sundance Collab Advisors.

The first cohort of fellows includes Vera Brunner-Sung (“Bitterroot”), Desdemona Chiang (“Made in USA”), Shayok Misha Chowdhury (“Rheology”), Tadashi Nakamura (“Third Act”), Neo Sora (“Earthquake”) and Sean Wang (“Dìdi (弟弟)”).

The scholarship recipients are Georgia Fu (“Approximate Joy”), Leomax (Ziyuan...

The Sundance Institute has partnered with The Asian American Foundation to launch a new fellowship and scholarship, which will look to improve Aapi representation in the film and television industries over the long term by providing up-and-coming Aapi artists with the creative and tactical support necessary to grow professionally.

The Sundance Institute | The Asian American Foundation Fellowship and Collab Scholarship are made possible by support from Taaf, through a 400,000 grant provided by its Aapi Giving Challenge partner Panda Express, as well as The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, which will contribute 140,000. The funding will provide artists with grants and resources to support their work in the program over the course of the next two years.

Sundance and Taaf’s Fellowship will offer six Aapi artists per year a year-round learning experience to advance their professional development. Each fellow selected will receive a 20,000 unrestricted grant to support their individual projects,...

Firelight Media today revealed the 14 Fellows selected for the 2020-22 Firelight Documentary Lab. The 18-month program supporting Black, indigenous and other filmmakers of color is now in its 11th year.

The projects the new class bring to the Fellowship range from stories of generational Black farmers in the American South and the crisis of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls in Montana to personal stories revolving around family, immigration, ancestry, identity and more.

“It has been an extraordinarily challenging year for documentary filmmakers, especially emerging filmmakers of color, which Firelight’s Documentary Lab is designed to support,” said Loira Limbal, SVP Programs at Firelight Media. “Between the dual crises of the global pandemic and the national reckoning with racist violence in the U.S., filmmakers like the 14 Fellows we’ve just welcomed into the Lab need funding, professional networks, and a supportive community of peers perhaps more than ever before.

Kcet picked up eight wins tonight at the Los Angeles Area Emmy Awards, including awards for local color, culture and sports programming. Kmex followed with five wins.

Kvea’s wins included best news series and live coverage of an unscheduled news event. ABC7 took the honors for best evening newscast. Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic the awards were presented without audience in front of the Television Academy’s Saban Media Center in North Hollywood and livestreamed on YouTube.

Below is the complete list of winners at the 72nd Los Angeles Area Emmys, including a breakdown of wins by each outlet.

L.A. Local Color

Transformation (Broken Bread) Kcet

Juan Devis, Executive Producer

Roy Choi, Executive Producer

Host Emily Mraz

Producer Matthew Crotty

Producer Elizabeth Collins

Producer Natasha Phan

Producer Aaron Warzynski

Editor Jacqueline Reyno

Associate Producer James Mann

Director, Director of Photography

Jt Smith, Editor

Live Special Events – Programming

60th Annual L.

Yuzo Kawashima’s films are like Rube Goldberg machines, where you never know in which direction you will go from one point to another, or how do so many subplots are meant to come together into something meaningful. In his work, there is always an element of surprise whenever a new character enters the film, a location changes, or simply a cut allows for an even slighter change of perspective. And yet, somehow he always succeeds in finding the right threads among all the convoluted narratives to come up with something surprisingly simple. “Sun in the Last Days of the Shogunate” contains all of those trademark “tricks”.

“Sun in the Last Days of the Shogunate” was dubbed as the fourth best Japanese film ever by Kinema Jumpo, and although it’s clearly aimed at the domestic audience and many references were lost on me, there is still a lot of...