For Immediate Release
April 22, 2010
Asian Pacific Health Care Venture, Inc. Will Serve As Community Co-Presenter at The 26th Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival
Los Angeles, California (April 22, 2010) – Asian Pacific Health Care Venture, Inc. is proud to be a Co-Presenter of the 26th Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival which will take place beginning April 29th through May 8th. The Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival was created in 1983 as a vehicle to promote Asian and Asian Pacific America cinema. The event is a 10-day showcase of new work by established filmmakers and emerging artists alike to bring recognition to Asian and Asian Pacific American cinema. The Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival is produced every year by Visual Communications, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit organization established in 1970, dedicated to the honest and accurate portrayals of the Asian Pacific American people, communities and heritages through the media arts.
This year, Asian Pacific Health Care Venture, Inc. will partner with the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival as a Community Co-Presenter for the film “THE MOUNTAIN THIEF,” from Executive Producer Douglas Morse and Producers Gerry Balasta and Nina Balasta. Haunted by childhood memories in Manila of the unbearable stench that wafted from nearby Payatas, where the country's largest dump site stands, filmmaker Gerry Balasta vowed to himself to share the story of the nation's most destitute who make the mountainous heap of trash their home and sole source of income. Several years in the making, Balasta's THE MOUNTAIN THIEF depicts one of the world’s most horrendous living conditions in a touching motion picture that is more than just a film but an agent of philanthropy and a plea for change. THE MOUNTAIN THIEF is a story of Julio and his handicapped son Ingo who has fled the war torn region of Mindanao only to find no other option for survival than to seek refuge in a shanty village called Little Hope. They start a new life picking through the city's garbage for cans, bottles and anything else they can sell in order to make enough money to keep themselves from starving. It's an impossible situation, but they begin to make do, even making friends and finding love. Eventually, they get embroiled in the malicious business of one fellow villager and their existence, already teetering ever so precariously, gets a deadly jolt and they are forced once again to flee.
In a decision that adds a considerable amount of weight and authenticity, the film called upon the real life trash collecting inhabitants of Payatas. The production went so far as instituting acting workshops for what eventually would make up the cast. But, regardless of any acting aptitudes, the cast lends the film its genuine realism more than any professional thespian could have. As evident, this film has made a direct impact on its subject matter more than most films that deal with the plight of the disadvantaged and downtrodden. Acting workshops is one thing, but the filmmakers also created the Mount Hope Project to help raise funds for the scavengers who acted in the film. A positive change has already affected these people directly and it is the call for benevolence that this film's impact will be felt. Balasta has created a dramatic and suspenseful film told with multiple perspectives and an oft times adventurous sense of non-linear narrative. However, he never loses sight of the human story. A project of sincere intention and great passion, THE MOUNTAIN THIEF is a startling insight into a nightmarish world made more remarkable because of the slight glimpse of the ever enduring human spirit. – Joel Quizon
As a community health center, serving the Pilipino and other Asian and Asian Pacific communities for over 20 years, Asian Pacific Health Care Venture, Inc. has seen first-hand the struggles many Asians deal with in their home countries and the lengths they will go to provide a better life for their families. THE MOUNTAIN THIEF provides a rare look into the daily lives of some of the Philippines’ most destitute and an example of what hundreds of families endure around the world. This film reminds us of the connections many people living in the United States still have to their home countries and how we can create change through awareness. Join Asian Pacific Health Care Venture, Inc. for a screening of THE MOUNTAIN THIEF on Saturday, May 1st at 12:30 pm at the Director’s Guild of America, Theater 3. Tickets can be purchased online, by phone or in person. Please visit the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival website for more information at asianfilmfestla.org/2010/program-guide/program-13/.
Asian Pacific Health Care Venture, Inc. (www.aphcv.org) located in Hollywood and serving the greater Los Angeles area, is a Federally Qualified Health Center that provides culturally competent health education and primary care services to over 12,000 patients annually, more than 77% of whom are uninsured. APHCV provides over 46,400 medical and mental health visits each year in multiple Asian languages (Bengali, Cantonese, Hindi, Japanese, Khmer, Korean, Indonesian, Mandarin, Tagalog, Thai, Urdu, and Vietnamese), English and Spanish. APHCV can be reached at (323) 644-3880. Medical appointments can be made by calling (323) 644-3888.
Visual Communication’s (www.vcoline.org) mission is to promote intercultural understanding through the creation, presentation and support of media works by and about Asian Pacific Americans. VC was created with the understanding that media and the arts are important vehicles to organize and empower communities, build connections between generations, challenge perspectives, and create an environment for critical thinking necessary to build a more just and humane society. For more information, call Fung Wu at (213) 680-4462.
