Founded in 1970, VC has been a pioneer in the development of Asian Pacific American film, video, and media. VC was founded by Duane Kubo, Robert Nakamura, Alan Ohashi, and Eddie Wong. Along with a core group of artists, filmmakers, photographers, and educators, VC’s founders began searching for visual resources to build a greater consciousness of Asian Pacific history in America. Fueled by the burgeoning Civil Rights and Anti-War movements, they set out creating learning kits, photographing community events, audiotaping stories, and collecting historical images of Asian American lives. In the 1970s and 80s, VC took on several ambitious projects in the independent film production arena. That first period of production saw the creation of over fifty films and videos, as well as the production of several educational filmstrips and major photographic exhibits – visual statements on the history and contemporary issues of Asians in the US. VC premiered the first ever full length Asian American film in 1980: Hito Hata: Raise the Banner. This landmark film was a building of a community-in-progress, involving artists, professional media personnel, scholars, community organizations, and countless number of individuals and community businesses in the making of the film. In the 1990s and 2000s, VC transitioned from a film production collective to a full-service media arts center. While VC still produced films in this period, the organization also provided support services for Asian American artists and filmmakers, workshops and trainings for the community, and more presentation opportunities for independent media in Los Angeles. Throughout our history, VC programs have evolved to meet the changing needs of a diverse Asian Pacific Community of over 25 different languages, cultures, and nationalities. The organization has created award winning productions, nurtured and given voice to our youth, promoted new artistic talent, presented new cinema, and preserved our visual history. Today, VC continues to be a conduit for the Asian Pacific global communities to the American public through its numerous arts programs. Our programming includes: the annual Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival and year‐round screenings and exhibitions; the Armed With a Camera Fellowship for Emerging Media Artists; the Digital Histories video production and digital storytelling program for senior citizens; a Media Development Fund for independent filmmakers; and C3: The Conference for Creative Content. Visual Communications is also home to the VC Archives, one of the largest photographic and moving image archives on the Asian Pacific experience in America. We see media as a powerful tool to create and share meaningful perspectives, and our programs ensure that the AAPI community has access to the resources tell their unique stories.
The Union Center for the Arts anchors the northwestern end of the Little Tokyo Historic District. It was formerly Union Church, the combined home of three Japanese American congregations, was completed in 1923. With the onset of World War II, it was in front of this building that residents of the district joined the residents of Terminal Island, whose community had been razed 48 hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Residents lined up with a single suitcase allowance awaiting transportation to join 10,000 people sent to the War Relocation Center in Manzanar in 1942. Most of those transported to the internment camps lost all of their property, and were unable to return to living in their old community after the war, scattering the population throughout the city. During the war the building was used as a community center for African Americans arriving from the deep south in search of work in wartime industry as part of the 'Great Migration'. The neighborhood had some of the only housing in the city that did not have restrictive housing covenants based on color, and quickly became highly populated. Three years into the war, the neighborhood was renamed Bronzeville, and was home to crowded conditions and 'breakfast clubs' - jazz clubs that were known to stay open until dawn. In 1943, a part of the 'Zoot Suit Riots' spread into the area. At the close of 1945 the Japanese Americans gradually began re-establishing a community center, where LIttle Tokyo remains a very diverse part of central Los Angeles. The building located on Judge John Aiso Street was damaged during the 1994 Northridge earthquake, leaving it unusable. The Little Tokyo Service Center Community Development Corporation completed a multi-million dollar renovation of the building in 1998 to house three arts organizations - the East West Players, Visual Communications and LA Artcore, and is a successful example of adaptive reuse.
For the audiences that attend the live screenings, Channel 101 is a chance to sit in the worn-out chair of the fat network exec, drunk on the blood of lowly artists whose right to exist is given in exchange for their ability to nourish. If there are 10 shows in the screening and 7 of them are good, that means 2 good shows aren't coming back and the power of life and death is in your hands. Base your decision on whatever you want. You run the network. You pick the programming. Then come back in a month and see the next episodes of the shows you picked- plus a healthy crop of new pilots. Dump the whole lineup and start fresh, or keep your favorite show running all year. Unlike "real" television, at Channel 101, what you want is what you get more of, and the day you stop wanting something is the day it stops. For the creatives that participate, Channel 101 is where the rubber meets the road. The deadlines are unreasonable, the time limit is impossible, the pay is non existent and the judgment is blunt. The amount of ego and sense of entitlement with which you enter is exactly proportional to the amount of pain you'll experience before you leave. Channel 101 is where you learn three things: How to fail, how to succeed, and finally, how there is no difference between the two. After all, the only thing as bad as being told your pilot failed is being told that your third episode was worse than your second. And the only thing as good as having the number one show is having a chance to come back with something new. In the mean time, you become harder, faster and fearless. You surrender to the audience as life-giving God and acquire total creative freedom through that surrender. You make connections with fellow creatives, you have something to look forward to all the time and for a few shining moments here and there, you're in the zone and your life takes on a little meaning. Audiences: Please join us at our next FREE screening. We have one every month here in Los Angeles. Directors: Be a part of our movement. Every month you sit around and think about what you're going to do is a month you could've done something. Turn yourself loose and submit to Channel 101.
The Little Tokyo Art Complex is an artist studio work-space, art gallery and artist community. During the downtown Artwalk the LTAC opens it's doors to the public, to allow studio tours, live mural paintings and public art projects that allow the walking public to stop by and paint.
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