The ayes are bright for 'Yellow Rose' of Texas opening LA Asian Pacific Film Festival

Broadway's Eva Noblezada stars in 'Yeellow Rose.'

UPDATED March 31 to include Vincent Rodriguez information.

A Filipina American country singer? Really? The motion picture Yellow Rose will break more than a few stereotypes when it premieres on the opening night of the prestigious Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival (LAAPFF) this May 2.

As the opening night selection for the film festival, Yellow Rose will get a lot of attention from Hollywood, the movie industry's capitol.

Yellow Rose stars Tony Award-winning actress and Broadway icon Lea Salonga and Tony Award nominee Eva Noblezada. It tells a tale of a young undocumented Filipina (Noblezada) who grows up in Texas with her dream to become a country music artist, complete with cowboy hat and guitar.

DIANE PARAGAS

Noblezada, 23, was just nominated for a 2019 Tony award for her perforance in the musical Hadestown. Her earlier Tony nomination was as Kim in Miss Saigon.

“I am grateful that I am making my feature film debut with Lea, who plays my Auntie,” she said. “Yellow Rose is the first-ever Filipina American film opening night presentation of the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival (LAAPFF). It addresses issues that people don’t really discuss that are specific to our current politics. I am grateful to play somebody that needs to be represented, a huge majority in the United States. And to represent our Pinoy community is special in itself.”
Director and producer Diane Paragas' first feature also includes Gustavo Gomez (The Walking Dead), Libby Villari (Boyhood) and Texas country music favorite, Dale Watson. With its unique take on East-meets-the-Wild-West, Yellow Rose challenges audiences and their presumptions of what it means to be an "American."

Paragas says that representation of Filipino Americans was important to her in order to tell this story. “As a Filipina American, I feel like we are mostly invisible as a subset of Asian Americans. Filipinos have played other Asians, but you rarely see a Filipino being a Filipino," said Paragas, who grew up in Austin, Texas, the setting for the movie.

That's true. With the recent exceptions of Nico Santos (Superstore), Manny Jacinto (The Good Place),  Vincent Rodriguez III (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend),Vanessa Hudgens (the short-lived Powerless) and award-winning Darren Criss (American Crime Story: The Assassination if Gianni Versace), Filipino Americans usually end playing other Asians or Latinos. 

(You would think Hawaii Five-0 or Magnum P.I. would have a Filipino character since Filipinos are the largest ethnic group in that state.}

The aforementioned shows are all on television. For motion pictures, unless the movie takes place during WWII, Filipinos are almost nonexistent..

The 35th rendition of the LAAPFF launches the celebration of Asian Pacific Heritage Month through this year’s slate of over 100 films from both Asian Pacific American and Asian international artists. For over three decades, the Festival has presented close to 4,000 films by Asian Pacific American and Asian international talent. 

This year the Festival has over a dozen films from local filmmakers. The festival’s full line-up will be announced on Monday, April 1.

Besides Paragas as producer with Cecilia Mejia, Orian Williams, Rey Cuerdo and Co-Producer Jeremiah Abraham. Yellow Rose is supported by New York-based Asian CineVision, Cinematografo Originals (ABS-CBN Global), and was awarded the Ravenal Foundation Feature Film Grant last year by the New York Women in Film & Television.

Yellow Rose premieres at 7 pm on May 2 at the Aratani Theatre at the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center (JACCC) in Little Tokyo in Downtown Los Angeles. The LAAPFF is presented by the nation’s premier Asian Pacific American media arts center Visual Communications. The full LAAPFF lineup will be announced on April 1.

Both Eva Noblezada, left, and Tony award winning Lea Salonga starred on Broadway in Miss Saigon. 

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TGIF FEATURE: L.A. Asian Pacific Film Festival showcases AAPI talent

Steven Lam / Instagram

HEY HOLLYWOOD! Looking for new stories that reflect the real America? Looking for talent to diversify your products or staff? Looking for filmmakers, writers, directors, actors so you can walk-the-walk when you talk-the-talk about the need for diversity in the television and motion picture industry?

Head on down to the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival. Over the next two weeks, the festival will showcase some of the best work in video and film by Asian and Asian/Americans in perhaps the largest film festival of its kind in the country.

The fest runs April 21-28 at various L.A. venues, with the roster including 34 feature films and 106 shorts, assembled from 20 countries including six world premieres.Francis Cullado, Visual Communication's executive director, said in a statement that the lineup of films “certainly highlights the amount of Asian American directorial talent out there. The big word this year in Hollywood has been ‘diversity,’ and the festival is one of the ways we address this issue at Visual Communications and for our community. For us, it’s not just about diversity – it’s about inclusivity.” The roster includes stories by women, men, LGBT artists, Asian Americans, Asian international and a multitude of ethnicities.

The six world premieres are “The Last Tour,” from director Ryan Yu; “The Unbidden,” Quentin Lee; “Vampariah,” Matthew Abaya; “Signs of Remarkable History,” Maryam Kashani; “Rebel With a Cause: The Life of Aiko Herzig Yoshinaga,” Janice Tanaka; and “The Tiger Hunter,” Lena Khan’s film that was previously announced as the opening-night attraction. All of the directors will be at their screenings for Q&A discussion.

The Artist Spotlight will offer three works from documentary vet Dai Sil Kim-Gibson, including the Los Angeles premiere of her latest, “People Are the Sky.” There will also be the West Coast premiere of Salima Koroma’s “Bad Rap,” a documentary that asks why there hasn’t yet been an Asian-American rap star.

On the weekend of April 23-24 will be C3 — the Conference for Creative Content, a series of conversations to discuss the changing technological and cultural landscape of Hollywood and to address the constant battle for diversity/inclusion.

The fest’s International Showcase offers a dozen new works from India, Vietnam, the People’s Republic of China, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Cambodia, Taiwan, Malaysia, Japan and Hong Kong.

Among the tributes will be a salute to ABC’s series “Fresh Off the Boat,” screening two episodes and a Q&A with cast and crew.

The LAAPFF again presents two programs: Armed With a Camera Fellowship (which nurtures the next generation of Asian Pacific American media artists) and Digital Histories (for underserved, ethnic-minority seniors in the L.A.-based Asian Pacific American community).

As previously announced, the closer is “Pali Road,” a Chinese production filmed in Hawaii and directed by Jonathan Lim. 

The fest’s centerpiece will be documentary “Tyrus,” about Chinese-American artist Tyrus Wong, best known for his concept art for Walt Disney’s “Bambi.” The director is Pamela Tom.

The fest is offered by Visual Communications, touted as the nation’s premier Asian Pacific American media arts center. 

Festival co-director David Magdael added: “Asian Pacific American directors are more than half of our feature film lineup. These filmmakers are not waiting for a studio or someone else to approve them to make their film. No longer can it be said that Asian Pacific American talent is nonexistent. We are active in writing, directing, producing, acting, film distribution and exhibition, below-the-line positions and executive roles in the film industry.”

Some of the events are free. There will be lots of parties and galas throughout the festival, concluding the awards ceremony on April 28.

The festival will screen at various venues, including the Aratani Theatre in Little Tokyo; Tateuchi Democracy Forum, Little Tokyo; the Downtown Independent; CGV Cinemas in Koreatown; the Great Company, Downtown L.A.; and Directors Guild of America, West Hollywood.

The complete schedule and times can be seen here.
Tickets are now on sale.