Jennifer Yuh Nelson, inset, directed “Kung Fu Panda 2” (DreamWorks Animation, Distributed by Paramount), which is nominated for Best animated feature film of the year by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 84th Annual Academy Awards. (Photo courtesy of Paramount)

AAP staff report

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ announced the nominees this week for the 84th Annual Academy Awards, with a few notable Asian Americans up for the Oscar.

The 84th Annual Academy Awards will be aired Sunday evening, Feb. 26, 2012 on ABC TV.

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Robert A. Nakamura (UCLA photo)

With respect and admiration for his stellar record of achievement and with gratitude for service to campus and community, we announce, effective July 2012, the retirement of Professor Robert A. Nakamura after a thirty-three year career teaching Asian American Studies and Motion Picture/Television at UCLA.

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AAP staff report

Approaching 40 years in the US, there are many Lao Americans who love science fiction, fantasy, horror, myths and legends.

Now several Lao American writers are looking your stories and art for the very first full-length anthology of Lao American speculative art and literature. Their goal is to publish it later this year.

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Minnesota filmmakers Pete K Wong and Julia Kong present Part 1 of a 3 part web series, CPI: Center for Paranormal Investigations. The debut segment, “It Happened on the Way” follows two CPI agents, Benny and Dana, as they unravel the mysteries of the paranormal.

The short, independent movie stars Punnavith Koy, Margaret Sinarath, Danny August Mason, HT Altman, Saikong Yang, Fred Haeusler, Wa Yang, Micheal P. Keaton, and Brian Stevenson.

The film hit the Web on Dec. 16th and can be viewed using the Vimeo viewer at www.rev1productions.com. There is also the Behind the Scenes Look at the making of CPI. Leave a comment, and Like the film on Facebook.

The Second and Third part will be out in January and February 2012.

NEW YORK (Dec 19, 2011) — Liquid Comics and Tiger Hill Entertainment today announced the launch of the first four episodes in a 13 episode animated web series from acclaimed filmmaker, John Woo (Mission Impossible 2, Face-Off, Red Cliff).

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Jack Soo

The Center for Asian American Media has a mission to bring the stories of Asia and Pacific Islander communities to light. It is introducing four new dynamic titles to its film collection.

Each of the four new films will be released this November. They will each be paired with a related pre-existing title from the CAAM film collection to better illuminate the multifaceted Asian and Asian American experience.

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(L-r) JOHN CHO as Harold, NEIL PATRICK HARRIS as NPH and KAL PENN as Kumar in New Line Cinema’s and Mandate Pictures’ comedy “A VERY HAROLD & KUMAR 3D CHRISTMAS,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. (Photo by Darren Michaels)

John Cho and Kal Penn reprise their title roles in “A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas,” which picks up six years after their last adventure. The film opened nationwide on Nov. 4 and should run through the holiday season.

Following years of growing apart, Harold Lee (Cho) and Kumar Patel (Penn) have replaced each other with new friends and are preparing for their respective Yuletide celebrations. But when a mysterious package mistakenly arrives at Kumar’s door on Christmas Eve, his attempt to redirect it to Harold’s house ends with the “high grade” contents — and Harold’s father-in-law’s prize Christmas tree — going up in smoke.

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The APACL short-animated film in online on YouTube.

LOS ANGELES (Nov. 10, 2011) — The Asian Pacific American Legal Center (APALC), a member of the Asian American Center for Advancing Justice, has unveiled an animated video short to inform the general public about the exploitation of immigrant workers here in the United States.

The informative, animated short is based on the true-life harrowing story of 72 Thai laborers who were held captive and forced to work 18-hour days for many years in a Southern California sweatshop.

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Pushing the Pen
By SAYMOUKDA VONGSAY
AAP staff writer

An interview with whom Governor David A. Paterson and the State of New York has honored for his “legacy of leadership to the Asian American community and the Empire State” in May 2010, Taiyo Na is a singer, songwriter, MC and producer.

Taiyo has studied at the world renown Robert X. Modica’s Acting Studio at Carnegie Hall, has dropped two albums Love is Growth (2008) and Home: Word (2010) a collaborative sonic tome with California-based Hip Hop duo Magnetic North, and has performed with Maya Angelou and Janice Mirikitani before he was of legal drinking age.

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Kristina Wong’s comedy often spoofs everyday life. She has paraded around San francisco’s Chinatown in a “Miss Third-Runner-up” pageant queen’s outfit; has spoofed an over-educated graduate student’s presentation at an arts conference; created a fake Asian mail-order bride website, and here she pokes fun at the formal glamour photo that never seems to go out of style. (Contributed photo)

By SAYMOUKDA VONGSAY
AAP staff writer 

Kristina Wong is a Los Angeles-based powerhouse renaissance woman who writes, acts, educates, and makes films among other monumental endeavors.

Wong is a recipient of the Creative Capitol Award for Theater, a PEN USA Rosenthal Emerging Voices Fellowship, and a Creation Fund from the National Performance Network to create her solo-show, “Wong Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.”

She has written essays for Playgirl Magazine, Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul, the anthologies Yell-oh! Girls and Catching a Wave, and has contributed to numerous online publications.

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