Inaugural World Culture Film Festival In Los Angeles To Open With ‘The Monk And The Gun,’ Close With Wim Wenders’ ‘Perfect Days’
The inaugural World Culture Film Festival kicks off in Los Angeles Thursday, a four-day event “dedicated to showcasing films that inspire, educate, and celebrate diverse cultures.”
WCFF opens with Oscar-shortlisted dramedy The Monk and the Gun, directed by Pawo Choyning Dorji. The Bhutanese filmmaker — whose Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom earned a 2022 Academy Award nomination for Best International Film — will be present for a Q&A to follow The Monk and the Gun screening.
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The festival closes with Wim Wenders’ Oscar-nominated Perfect Days, a drama about Hirayama (Koji Yakusho), a man who cleans Tokyo’s public toilets, which are renowned for their immaculate appearance.
“Hirayama clearly derives enjoyment from performing his work well,” the New York Times wrote in a rave review, “but there’s more to his life than labor, and more to this movie than a simplistic celebration of manual toil.”
The WCFF program includes more than 60 films, originating from North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. The festival, inspired by the peaceful message of spiritual leader and humanitarian Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, “promises entertainment that uplifts, bringing stories from every part of the world that elevate human consciousness through the art of cinema,” according to a release. The event is hosted by the Art of Living Foundation — an international NGO formed by Ravi Shankar – and in partnership with USC.
“The World Cultural Film Festival is meant to celebrate those films which uplift the human spirit and unite people from all walks of life,” Ravi Shankar said in a statement posted to WCFF’s website.
Films in the program will be screened at USC’s Ray Stark Theater and the newly reopened former Downtown Independent Theater, and online via streaming platform EOFlix. WCFF is under the leadership of Jatin Chaurasia, CEO of Sumeru Inc. and Sumeru Studios; filmmaker Anabelle D. Munro, and filmmaker and visual artist Sej Saraiya. Munro and Saraiya serve as executive directors of the festival, and they jointly programmed the event.
“We are thrilled to be launching the inaugural World Culture Film Festival, hosted by the Art of Living Foundation and in partnership with USC,” Munro and Saraiya said in a statement. “The overwhelming response we have received from filmmakers across the globe has been nothing short of inspiring. We are particularly grateful to be entrusted with the vision of a remarkable and kind spirit who stands as one of the most influential humanitarians of our time. WCFF warmly welcomes everyone from around the world to join us in this celebration of film as a powerful medium for envisioning a better tomorrow.”
The WCFF program showcases both fiction and nonfiction films, features and shorts. Along with The Monk and the Gun and Perfect Days, prominent selections include Justin Grant and Laurens Goud’s Our Voice, Our Heart (2024 Golden Doc Winner, Asia & Australia); Radha Mehta’s Dosh (2024 Slamdance George Starks Spirit Award Winner); Julio Palacio’s Makayla’s Voice: A Letter to the World (2024 Tribeca Best Short Documentary); Dash Kolos’ Crown, Harry Holland’s Last Call starring Tom Holland, and Common Ground, a documentary about soil health and regenerative farming that features Jason Momoa, Rosario Dawson, Donald Glover, Ian Somerhalder, and others.
Eleven USC student films are on the program. Among other shorts at WCFF is Dame, a fictionalized telling of Elizabeth Taylor’s grief over the tragic death of her husband Mike Todd, and her effort to return to work. Joe Buffalo, a documentary short directed by Amar Chebib, shares the story of an Indigenous Canadian man who showed exceptional talent as a skateboarder but struggled with the psychic trauma of being sent as a boy to the notorious “residential schools” that tried to extinguish the culture of children of Indigenous heritage. Joe Buffalo won the Audience Award at SXSW, Best Indigenous Short at the BendFilm Festival in Oregon, and a Special Jury Award for Best Indigenous Film at the Cordillera International Film Festival in Nevada’s Reno-Tahoe area.
In addition to films, WCFF will feature a number of special events and industry panels including a live table read of the script Logic of Love with director-producer Barnet Bain (What Dreams May Come, The Celestine Prophecy), the Film Festival Director’s Panel, an Environmental Panel, and a Storytelling Panel with Vernon Foster, Gil Junger (10 Things I Hate About You), and Sebastien Siegel (Grace and Grit).
Jurors for the inaugural festival’s awards include Brazilian-American social impact producer Sandra de Castro Buffington; former Miss India and actress Manasvi Mamgai; writer/director and president of the Filmmakers Alliance (Los Angeles) Jacques Thelemaque; filmmaker and brand strategist Anusha Srinivasan Iyer; executive producer and founder of The Flow Project Alex Moreno, and filmmaker Sweta Rai (A Pandemic: Away from the Motherland).
More details on the program can be found here. In addition, the trailer below highlights many of the films in the augural edition of the World Culture Film Festival.
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