VCS is excited about the First Light: AAPI Film Festival! To kick the event off, we are excited to announce five featured films screening on Saturday, September 26th ✨

📅 Oct. 18 at 3:00 PM
📍telos.haus at 303 Ten Eyck St

🎬 First Winter
Directed by Schantelle Alonzo (@Mishipiku)
Ángel is a newly arrived immigrant who is experiencing his first winter in Chicago. The film follows his realization of what it may mean to be away from home for a very long time.

🎬 Wedding Flowers
Directed by Madeleine Tran (@weddingflowersfilm @Madeleinetraan)
A begrudgingly adept family outcast and her overbearing mother struggle to find connection as their family reunites for a wedding celebration. Forced into close proximity, mother and daughter clash over responsibility, resentment, and the roles they have been unable to escape. Set against the intimacy of a Vietnamese-American wedding, the film explores the quiet loneliness that can exist between a mother and a daughter, even while surrounded by family.

🎬 ANALOG
Directed by Sanjeev Kumar (@sanjeev0417)
As Aditya navigates the demands of his career, his relationships with his wife, Lakshmi, and their daughter, Mithra, unravel in the face of his neglect. Through a series of haunting voicemails and poignant memories, Aditya is forced to confront the consequences of his actions and reckon with the passage of time.

🎬 Midnight Fiction
Directed by Gino Click (@nottoosweetfilms @ginobot)
A starry-eyed dreamer wins a trip to the moon.

🎬 Silver Needle
Directed by J Wang (@jsmwang)
After moving to China from New Zealand, two sisters try to adjust to their new ballet class, only to find that the teacher has an unusual teaching method.

Come watch, support, and celebrate these filmmakers as they take their first steps into the industry. ✨The festival is split into two program throughout the day A & B. More details to come about films featured in both! Tickets are available for either or both program.

​Block A Showing starts at 3:30

​First Winter dir. Schantelle Alonzo

​Wedding Flowers dir. Madeleine Tran

​ANALOG dir. Sanjeev Kumar

​Piña Colada dir. Yu Yang

​Silver Needle dir. J Wang

​MIDNIGHT FICTION dir. Gino Glick

​We Grow in the Cracks and the Crevices of the Concrete dir. Elan Nguyen

​The Pink Funeral dir. Iven Tu

​Block B Showing starts at 5:30

​Come Home dir. Katelyn Park

​VISA dir. Chi Tran

​TAEMONG dir. Sophia Lim

​To My Unnie dir. Hosan Kim Shin

​Enshrine dir. Dani Ha

​Mùa Xuân Của Mẹ (Mother’s Spring) dir. Trâm Anh Nguyễn

​Goodbye Party dir. Sophia Lou + Nathan Pearson First Light: