LOS ANGELES (April 17, 2017) — The Justin Chon film that explores the 1992 Los Angeles Riots, “Gook” will be screened at 8 p.m., April 29, at the Aratani Theatre as part of the 33rd Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival.
The screening is presented by UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs with community partners including Korean Churches for Community Development KCCD/FACE.
GOOK, the electrifying sophomore feature effort by multi-threat filmmaking talent Justin Chon (MAN UP!, Festival 2015), frames its slow-burning drama against events in a courtroom in faraway Simi Valley, where a predominantly white jury are deciding the fates of four officers accused of bludgeoning African American motorist Rodney King.
Just like many Angelenos, in Eli’s family shoe store scant attention is being paid to the events playing out on local television. Instead, there is money to be made, a mortgage to be paid, an insolent brother who must be dealt with, and a sassy interloper who may be the closest thing to a confidante that Eli can ever have.
But things don’t stay copasetic for long: Kamila’s uncle Keith (Curtiss Cook Jr.), already resentful of both Eli and Daniel, explodes when Kamila is discovered hanging out at the shoe store. Already being pulled towards South Central L.A. and the promise of “free stuff” in the maelstrom following the “not-guilty” verdicts in the King beating trial, Keith and his homies foment a new, lethal plan: head east, to Eli and Daniel’s store and teach the two “outsiders” a lesson for supposedly corrupting his young niece.
The 33rd Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival will be presented from April 27 through May 4, 2017. A key highlight leading up to annual Asian Pacific Heritage Month activities, the Festival is produced by Visual Communications, the nation’s premier Asian Pacific American media arts center, and enjoys broad support from cinema artists and audiences alike. Go to festival.vconline.org for showtimes and tickets.
