OCA - Orange County Chapter

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED
Friday May 26th to Monday May 29th
Garden Grove Strawberry Festival
At the Village Green, between Euclid and Main Street

The Boys and Girls Club of Garden Grove is having a food booth at this year’s Strawberry Festival and they need volunteers to help man the booth. The following shifts are currently available:

Friday, May 26th
Shift #1: noon to 4 p.m.
Shift #2: 4 to 7 p.m.
Shift #3: 7 to 10 p.m.

Saturday, May 27th
Shift #4: Filled
Shift #5: 1 p.m.-4 p.m.
Shift #6: 4 p.m.-7 p.m.
Shift #7: 7 p.m.-10 p.m.

Sunday, May 28th
Shift #8: 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
Shift #9: 1 p.m.-4 p.m.
Shift #10: 4 p.m.-7 p.m.
Shift #11: 7 p.m.-10 p.m.

Monday, May 29th
Shift #12: 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
Shift #13: 1 p.m.-4 p.m.
Shift #14: 4 p.m.-7 p.m.
Shift #15: 7 p.m.-8:30 p.m.

This is a good opportunity to support an organization that makes a difference in our community as well as promote our chapter in orange county. Some of the officers and I will be volunteering and/or attending. If you have time to help out, contact Vicki Ta at 562-832-7998.

In celebration of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, the Center for Asian American Media, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and OCA-OC are proud to screen the following films with CSUF and Cerritos Library:

“GRASSROOTS RISING”
By Robert Winn and Visual Communications
56 mins. | Documentary

“This is an old story, and it is new. From enslaved garment workers in El Monte to Koreatown restaurant and market workers, labor continues to be a vital part of the Asian American experience. GRASSROOTS RISING shares the stories of Asian immigrant working families as they struggle to claim their place in Los Angeles and America.”

Thursday, May 25th, 7-9 p.m.
Cerritos Library
Skyline Room
Cerritos, CA
Free! For more info, contact Marie Farrows at 562-916-1340 or Vicki Ta at 562-832-7998.

To find out when these and other films will air on your local public television station, visit www.asianamericanmedia.org/heritagemonth.com.

Sunday, May 21st, 6-9 p.m.
OCA-Orange County General Membership Meeting and Mixer
El Torito Mexican Restaurant
7591 Carson Blvd. A-2
In the Long Beach Towne Center Mall, one block west of 605 Fwy
Restaurant Phone: 562-377-5750
For more information: rsvp@oca-orangecounty.org

Celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month with us! For members and
curious non-members alike, this is your opportunity to meet other members and
the OCA-Orange County officers. We’ll recap what we’ve done in 2005 and 2006
and detail our plans for the coming year in education, community service
and activism. This is your chance to get involved and chime in with your
own ideas about what the chapter can do!

Saturday, May 13th, 8-10 a.m.
Asian Business Association-Orange County & NORDSTROM
Spring Awards Ceremony
Nordstrom @ Brea Mall
Brea, CA
Free! RSVP: Jocelyn Kuno, info@abaoc.org

The Spring Awards Ceremony honors Orange County community leaders
and role models during Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.
Champagne and food will be served!

In celebration of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, the Center for Asian American Media, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and OCA-OC are proud to screen the following films with CSUF and Cerritos Library:

“MONKEY DANCE”
By Julie Mallozzi
56 mins. | Documentary

“Three Cambodian American teenagers come of age in a gritty world
shadowed by their parents’ nightmares of the Khmer Rouge.
Opportunities beckon: fast cars, hip consumerism, the blood ties of
gangs-and the distant promises of college and success. Struggling to
relate to their parents’ culture, what will these teens make of
their uniquely American possibilities?”

Thursday, May 11th, 1-2 p.m.
Cal State University, Fullerton
McCarthy Hall 502
Fullerton, CA
Free! For more info, contact Prof. Eliza Noh, enoh@fullerton.edu or Vicki Ta at 562-832-7998

To find out when these and other films will air on your local public television station, visit www.asianamericanmedia.org/heritagemonth.com.

OCA is co-sponsoring one of the films at the Los Angeles Asian Film Festival. It’s my first time going to the film festival and to be quite honest, it was totally awesome. It’s nice to see asian americans in the big screen. It’s nice to see movies written, directed and played by asian americans. We *should* support other asian americans. Sooo the movie that I saw was Purity. It was very, very cool. Very well polished and very funny if you had an asian american hertiage.

VC FILMFEST 2006 - Presented by Honda
PURITY

(United States, 2005) Dir.: NaRhee Ahn

Nineteen year old Grace Kim is the standard of purity in her small town Korean church and the pride of her Reverend father. All of her life she has followed the rules, obeyed her family’s wishes and upheld the expectations of her community. Until now. When Grace’s mother dies in a tragic car accident, her world falls apart. She loses faith in God, her father and herself. Paralyzed by grief, Grace refuses to leave the house. She spends her days cooking and cleaning obsessively to distract her mind from her increasingly disturbing dreams that turn into nightmares. Her father, her best friend Naomi and her counselor Jonah, the Youth Minister try their best to cheer Grace up. But try as they might, they can’t bring back their friend from the depression she has fallen into. Grace needs the one person that has suffered the kind of pain she’s going through….

VC FILMFEST 2006 - The Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival

LOS ANGELES - APRIL 13, 2006

The 22nd edition of VC FILMFEST: The Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival presented by Honda will feature a record number of feature films from Asian American filmmakers during its eight-day film fest beginning May 4 - May 11 in Los Angeles. Visual Communications (VC), the nation’s pioneering premiere Asian American media arts resource and education center will present over 140 films, shorts and videos with an unprecedented 16 feature films from 18 Asian American artists.

“This is truly an historic number of feature films from our own artists,” states VC executive director, Leslie Ito. “This year’s showcase of Asian American films underscores the fact that these filmmakers are not waiting for Hollywood to call and are doing it on their own. With Ang Lee being the first non-white director to win the Oscar for Best Director, we are hopeful that these emerging storytellers will also become future contenders. For VC, these artists and their stories illustrate the strength that our organization has in terms of developing, shaping and supporting their works.”

Established in 1983, VC FILMFEST is Southern California’s leading showcase for Asian Pacific American and Asian international cinema. This year, the eight-day movierama will also include a complement of filmmaker seminars and panel discussions, workshops, and filmmaker awards. The Festival will take place at the Directors Guild of America, Laemmle’s Sunset 5 Theaters, National Center for the Preservation of Democracy/JANM, and the Aratani/Japan America Theatre.

MORE!

VC FILMFEST 2006 is presented by Honda and supported by the following sponsors:

PREMIUM - Directors Guild of America;PLATINUM - L.A. Weekly, National Endowment for the Arts, Workplace Hollywood;GOLD - Multicultural Radio Broadcast, Inc., Project by Project, Sony

Pictures Entertainment, Wahoo’s Fish Taco, Heineken; SILVER: Department of Cultural Affairs -City of Los Angeles, Eastman

Kodak Company, FOX, Los Angeles County Arts Commission, Mole-Richardson Co., MTV Films, MUSE, Tiger Cinema BRONZE - Diskovery Center, East West Players, Hitachi, Ltd., Japanese American Cultural & Community Center, National Center for the Preservation of Democracy/JANM, SAG Indie, Southwest Airlines, Union Bank of California, Warner Independent Pictures, and Writers Guild of America, West Inc.

Pictures!
[photopress:IMG_0855.jpg,full,pp_image][photopress:IMG_0850.jpg,full,pp_image]

Washington, DC – OCA, a national Asian American social justice organization with over 80 chapters and affiliates, will honor Asian Pacific American Heritage Month (APAHM) at events all across the country this May.

“OCA is so pleased to be part of this year’s Asian Pacific American Heritage Month festivities,” said OCA National President Ginny Gong. “We have been a part of APA Heritage Month from the beginning and look forward to working with communities of all colors to expand knowledge and appreciation for the myriad Asian cultures in America.”

This year’s national theme, “Dreams and Challenges of Asian Pacific Americans,” was set by the Asian Pacific American Heritage Council. OCA local chapters will be hosting events that reflect this theme in cultural shows and banquets that will highlight the diversity of the Asians and Pacific Islanders (APAs) in America as well as educate the American mainstream public.

“There will be many opportunities for Americans to learn about the dreams and challenges of Asian Americans,” said OCA Executive Director Dorothy Wong. “All of the APAs here in the US have either descended from immigrants or are immigrants themselves. With the ongoing debate over immigration reform issues, we can re-visit the dreams of APAs as they first arrived in America, whether they were here hundreds of years ago, or if they were newly minted citizens last week. The challenge we have before us is to recognize our ethnic differences while maintaining a unified APA identity.”

OCA is proud to have played an integral role in the founding of APA Heritage Month. The first APA Heritage Month was proclaimed in May of 1990, under President George H.W. Bush, and OCA is proud that the tradition has continued strong ever since. Inspired by the proclamations for Black History Month and Hispanic Heritage Week, congressional staffers Jeannie Jew and Ruby Moy, sought to have similar legislation enacted for APAs. The nationwide effort was coordinated by the National Coalition for a Pacific/Asian American Heritage Proclamation, which was founded and chaired by Ms. Jew, an OCA National Board member and included K. L. Wang, founder of OCA.

For more information on APAHM events in your local area, please contact

Anh Phan: 202 223-5500
aphan@ocanatl.org

Sunday, May 7, 2006, 6:45 pm
VC FILMFEST 2006: The Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film & Video Festival
OCA-OC is pleased to be a co-presenter of:

“Asian Stories (Book 3)” - Screening, Q&A Session, and VIP Reception

Directors Guild of America
7290 Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90046
www.AsianStoriesMovie.com

Tickets ($8): http://vconline.chainreactionweb.com/product_info.php?
cPath=1&products_id=37
(You need to buy this ticket yourself - however, if you’re a member
of OCA-Orange County, you’re allowed to pick the $2 discount :-))

To get on the guest list for the VIP reception following the
screening (meet the cast and crew of the movie!):
http://www.evite.com/app/publicUrl/rsvp@oca-orangecounty.org/book3

“Jim, the cheapest Chinese American dude in LA, has recently been
abandoned by his fiance two weeks before their wedding. In order to
ease his pain, he asks his best friend, a Japanese hitman whose
passion for cooking fancy entrees extends far beyond his kitchen, to
kill him just in time to miss the Hallmark holiday. With less than
four days to live, Jim, while wearing his wedding tuxedo the entire
time, treks to the mountains to find his fate, meet a pizza delivery
boy with lucky charms, the funeral spot of his choice, and a girl…”

Trailer - http://www.asianstoriesmovie.com/clips/trailer/trailer.html
Scene #1 - http://www.asianstoriesmovie.com/clips/spamku/spamku.html
Scene #2 -
http://www.asianstoriesmovie.com/clips/southern/southern.html

* * * *

Thursday, May 11, 2006, 1-2 pm
CSUF Asian American Studies Program & OCA-Orange County
with the Center for Asian American Media & the Corporation for
Public Broadcasting present a film screening of:

“Monkey Dance”
By Julie Mallozzi

Cal State University, Fullerton
McCarthy Hall 502
Fullerton, CA
Free! RSVP: Prof. Eliza Noh, enoh@fullerton.edu

“Three Cambodian American teenagers come of age in a gritty world
shadowed by their parents’ nightmares of the Khmer Rouge.
Opportunities beckon: fast cars, hip consumerism, the blood ties of
gangs-and the distant promises of college and success. Struggling to
relate to their parents’ culture, what will these teens make of
their uniquely American possibilities?”

* * * *

Saturday, May 13, 8-10 am
Asian Business Association-Orange County & NORDSTROM
Spring Awards Ceremony
Nordstrom @ Brea Mall
Brea, CA
Free! RSVP: Jocelyn Kuno, info@abaoc.org

The Spring Awards Ceremony honors Orange County community leaders
and role models during Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.
Champagne and food will be served!

* * * *

Save the Date!
Sunday, May 21, 6 pm
OCA-Orange County General Membership Meeting and Mixer
Location TBA
For more information: rsvp@oca-orangecounty.org