7:30pm Movies

The Visual Communications Asian Pacific Film and Video Festival kicks off with the premiere screening of director Gene Cajayon’s film “The Debut,” about a Filipino-American teen who wants to become an animator, much to the dismay of his traditional father. Other films in the series, which runs through May 25, include, from the U.S., Janice D. Tanaka’s “When You’re Smiling: The Deadly Legacy of Internment” from South Korea; Lee Myung-se’s “Nowhere to Hide” from Taiwan; Emily Liu’s “Woman Soup”; and from Hong Kong, Ruby Yang’s “Citizen Hong Kong.” The closing night film is Deann Borshay’s autobiographical documentary “First Person Plural.”

* Visual Communications Asian Pacific Film and Video Festival: Directors Guild of America, 7920 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood; Sunset 5, 8000 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood; David Henry Hwang Theatre and the Japan America Theatre, 244 S. San Pedro St., Little Tokyo section of Los Angeles; Village at Ed Gould Plaza, 1125 N. McCadden Place, Hollywood. Today: “The Debut,” 7:30 p.m. Opening night tickets, $25 to $100; regular admission, $6.50 to $8.50; closing night, $15 to $20. Festival passes are also available. Tickets, (213) 680-4462, Ext. 68; https://www.vconline.org/filmfest

7:30pm Movies

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s latest film series, “Artificial Humans in the Cinema,” kicks off today with a screening of Swedish filmmaker Peter Cohen’s new documentary, “Homo Sapiens,” an exploration of the controversial eugenics movement. The rest of the series, which continues on Fridays and Saturdays through June 10, is composed of feature films ranging from the 1927 German silent film “Metropolis” to Paul Verhoeven’s “RoboCop” to the surreal feminist drama “The Stepford Wives,” Disney’s animated “Pinocchio” and, of course, James Whale’s “Frankenstein.”

* “Artificial Humans in the Cinema,” LACMA, Bing Theater, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. Today: “Homo Sapiens,” 7:30 p.m.; Friday: “Del Golem” (1920) and “Frankenstein” (1931), 7:30 p.m.; Saturday: “Frankenweenie” (1982) and “The Revenge of Frankenstein” (1958), 1 p.m., and “Blade Runner” (1982) and “Metropolis” (1927), 7:30 p.m. See the Special Screenings list in Sunday and Weekend Calendar each week for the full schedule. $5 to $7. (323) 857-6010.

8pm Theater

Amy Hill, Alvin Ing and Sab Shimono are among the cast of seasoned Asian Pacific American actors from Broadway and the national stage who are performing in East West Players’ production of the Stephen Sondheim-James Goldman musical, “Follies.”

* “Follies,” East West Players, David Henry Hwang Theater, Union Center for the Arts, 120 N. Judge Aiso St., Little Tokyo. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays and Sundays, 2 p.m., except no matinee this Saturday. Ends June 11. $30 to $35. (800) 233-3123.

8pm Pop Music

Michael Penn and Aimee Mann, the first couple of literate, singer-songwriterly pop, will take the kind of intimate collaboration that packs ‘em in at the tiny Largo club to the larger spaces of the Henry Fonda Theatre. Their “Acoustic Vaudeville” show will feature their distinct but harmonious bodies of work, with banter provided not by the stars but by comedian Patton Oswalt.

* Aimee Mann and Michael Penn, Thursday and Friday at the Henry Fonda Theatre, 6126 Hollywood Blvd. 8 p.m. $31. (323) 480-3232. Also next Thursday at the Sun Theatre, 2200 E. Katella Ave., Anaheim. 8:30 p.m. $25. (714) 712-2700.

FREEBIE

L.A.-based groove-pop quartet Watsonville Patio plays at noon in Pershing Square, 532 S. Olive St., downtown L.A. (213) 847-4970.