We had a great screening at the Visual Communications’ Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival last Friday night at the Director’s Guild. The house was packed and AKIRA was one of four shorts in the program. The picture and sound was excellent and the audience very responsive.

Afterwards, we had a lively Q&A moderated by Jim Herr, the former head of diversity for Film Independent and an all-around cool guy. There were three other filmmakers on stage including the dynamic Rocky Jo (his Bunny & Clydo is a whole lot of fun if you haven’t seen it… it also stars Akira’s own James Kyson Lee). We didn’t have much time, but we got the usual questions about budget and format. One of the more interesting questions had to do with casting and I relayed the story about how I chose the performers I did. I relayed the casting drama I had to deal with relating to casting a non-Japanese performer in a Japanese role.

Following the screening we milled around in the atrium then went into the VIP room for more mingling and drinks. Then it was off to Koreatown for the filmmaker’s afterpary at Club Kool which was, true to its name, pretty cool.

I met a lot of cool people and connected with some new old friends I’ve made on the film fest circuit over the past year (Juwan Chung, the director of Baby and Michael Kang of The Motel and West 32nd fame just to name drop a few). My producers and I reflected on how far we’ve come, while planning where we want to go with the feature version. All in all, it was a great night.

I returned to the fest on Sunday to take in some other films and do some more networking. I was glad I did as I ran into Akira himself! James Kyson Lee was hanging out after watching The Sensei, an unconventional martial arts film starring the daughter of Jeet Kune legend Dan Inosanto. James and I got to talk and catch up. He just returned from shooting a SciFi flick in Bulgaria of all places and only missed our Friday night affair because he was shooting something with Bobby Lee of MadTV fame. It was great seeing him and listening to all that’s going on in his career. We’re both excited about expanding the character and world of AHHS.

Next up for me is a trip to the Bay Area next weekend and then on to New York for our screening in Brooklyn on June 3rd! Details to come. Thanks for visiting and be good to the planet and each other.

- Joey D.