Newport Beach Film Festival 2008

The year is 1959 and Japan is about to embark on a decade-long boom, fueled by construction for the just-announced Tokyo Olympics. Ryunosuke Chagawa is still writing pulp fiction while running a candy shop to make a living. He is taking care of Junnosuke, who has come to live with him. He has been waiting for Hiromi, who was once engaged to him but has suddenly disappeared, to return. Junnosuke’s father visits Chagawa to take Junnosuke away with him, saying that Chagawa is not good enough to be a guardian of his son. Chagawa starts writing a serious novel, which he once gave up, to make Junnosuke’s father approve him of living with Junnosuke, and to be a famous novelist for Hiromi. In the meantime, the Suzuki family accepts their relative’s daughter, Mika, to come to live with them for a while, as her father has failed in his business. Mika, who used to be well-off, cannot stand the Suzuki family’s modest life. However, she gradually becomes aware of true happiness, seeing the Suzuki family’s kindness. POST PARTY: This screening will be part of the Asian Showcase. The post party will be held at the highy acclaimed Fury Rok and Rol Sushi Lounge. The restaurant will be featuring many of their signature appetizers and dishes. The bar will be hosted by Absolut vodka and Karl Strauss beer.

In this multi-layered portrait of contemporary India, we follow Amal, an auto-rickshaw driver in New Delhi, who is content with his small but vital role in life. One day he drives an eccentric billionaire who, disguised as a vagabond, is searching the streets for the last morsel of humanity, and someone he can leave all his money to, and Amal's life may never be the same.

American Sinner, follows Cosmo and Mackenzie Carpenter, a quirky Evangelical couple as they try to 'Save' their rebellious, offensive daughter, Tiffany. Will Cosmo and Mackenzie be able to save their daughter before it's too late--or will she forever remain an American Sinner?

Hopes, dreams, highs, and lows of five high school students in Indiana are chronicled during a ten month period during their senior year. Revealing a fresh, heartwarming take on what it means to be a modern American teenager.

Ting, sits at her dying Grandmother's bedside, fearing that Death will come and take her. Her only hope is a mysterious one legged stranger. Winner of Best Short Film at SCI-FI LONDON 2007. Best Mini-Short at The California Independent Film Festival 2007. Best Short Film at Sow Off Your Shorts 2007. Honorable Mention: Kansas City Jubilee (2nd place)

Short films screening in this program include: Exact Change Only, Grim Fetch, The Interior Monologue of Gill the Goldfish, My Happy End, The Needful Head, Over The Hill, Simulacra, 'Till Death Do Us Part, The Toll, Yellow Sticky Notes, Yoga Noga Reyoga; The Enlightenment Competition

On a familiar public beach, a man is beckoned by a beautiful woman to apply sun tan lotion to her back. What would you do?

April, a blossoming sculptor, is blind but fiercely independent. Unfortunately, years of rejection by her father has robbed April of her self-worth and led her on a path of self-destruction. Then she meets David, who sees through her pain. But hard as he tries to get close, she refuses his advances and continues her destructive ways. When he learns why, he does something so selfless that for once in her life April confronts her fears and allows herself to risk intimacy.

David and his two buddies, the youngest members of the Boston Aquarium Society, make their way to a monthly BAS meeting, but David harbors a secret he is reluctant to share.