ACM Accelerator, Made In Hawaii, Special Screening
''In August of 1970 a ho‘olaule‘a, a musical get-together, was held in Hana on the island of Maui and the best of the authentic old style musicians were brought there…
Documentaries, Kau Ka Hōkū Award Nominee
In the small Himalayan country of Bhutan, Happiness Agents are working for the Ministry of Gross National Happiness (GNH). They are collecting data for the Happiness Survey in order to…
Documentaries, New American Perspectives
A follow-up to her award-winning documentary on the trials and tribulations of Philippine journalist Maria Ressa (who also won the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize), director Ramona Diaz looks at the…
Documentaries, New American Perspectives, YES
An inspirational film that captures a moment in time when the lithe and self-aware Ashima Shiraishi, who at 13 was considered one of the best rock climber in the sport,…
Documentaries, Spotlight on Japan
Journalist Shiori Itō turns the camera on herself in a breathtakingly courageous investigation of her own sexual assault, which resulted in a landmark case for the Me Too movement in…
HIFF Extreme
Documentarian and ''King of Cinephilia'' Alexandre O. Philippe returns to HIFF with CHAIN REACTIONS, an exploration of the legacy of Tobe Hooper’s classic THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE. He interviews five…
Documentaries, Kau Ka Hōkū Award Nominee, Spotlight on China
Former nightclub dancer Coby Yee decides to get back on stage again after joining the senior dance troupe Grant Avenue Follies. In their heyday, they were all part of the…
Documentaries
From 2004-10, O’ahu was a stand-in location for a mysterious island that was a pivotal point of an episodic sci-fi television series that captured the pop culture zeitgeist internationally and…
Documentaries, Spotlight on Japan
The story of a legendary Taiwanese-style home cooking restaurant in Tokyo called Fumin, where patrons not only fall in love with the food, but also the character of Chef Sai…
Documentaries, Kau Ka Hōkū Award Nominee
The film is an unflinching chronicle of Americans at war with each other. Three right-wing activists—a newly politicized father-to-be in New Jersey, an Air Force veteran organizing conservatives in New…
HIFILM Industry Hub, Indigenous Lens, Pacific Showcase, Shorts Program
This program comprises of eight documentary short films made by emerging BIPOC filmmakers living in the U.S. territories, Hawai‘i and their diasporic communities, focusing on stories grappling with issues of…
Made In Hawaii
KANIELA: THE DANNY KALEIKINI STORY, is a biographical documentary based on the life of the man known as Hawaii’s Ambassador of Aloha, as told in his own words. Born into…
Pacific Showcase
This urgent documentary takes us into the remote highlands of Papua New Guinea and one indigenous woman’s fight against the insidious influence of sanguma – sorcery violence. Enter a cinematic…
Pacific Showcase
We’ve all seen her, the hula girl swinging from the dashboard, the sultry South Seas siren smiling languidly in postcards, and the alluring topless native belle telling you to come…
Documentaries
Basel Adra, a young Palestinian activist from Masafer Yatta, has been fighting his community''s mass expulsion by the Israeli occupation since childhood. Basel documents the gradual erasure of Masafer Yatta,…
Documentaries
Weaving together interviews, performances, and rare archival footage spanning over 70 years, this documentary follows the life and artistry of Nobuko Miyamoto, a Japanese American multidisciplinary dancer, singer, performer, and…
Made In Hawaii
PERSEVERE is a story of sacrifice, loss, and the consequences of war. But itʻs also a story of strength, of perseverance, of circumstances that create opportunities for lives and families…
Made In Hawaii, Made In Hawaii Shorts
Produced by all-women directors, camera crews, writers and editors, this series of short film portraits reveal untold stories of women creatives who preserve Hawai‘i history and culture through film. Now…
Documentaries
In the early 20th century, before the height of the Harlem Renaissance, the New York neighborhood San Juan Hill was a center of cultural innovation. Musical phenomena like bebop and…
Made In Hawaii
SHAKA, A STORY OF ALOHA investigates the origins, history, and meanings of the iconic Shaka gesture. The film begins with surfers throwing Shakas and questioning where it came from, leading…
Film For Thought, Kau Ka Hōkū Award Nominee, Made In Hawaii, Pacific Showcase, YES
Standing Above the Clouds highlights the movement to protect Mauna Kea through the intergenerational stories of women in three Native Hawaiian families as they stand for the sacred mountain. The…
Documentaries
An impassioned surfer, Taylor Lane, creates a functional surfboard with 10,000 littered cigarette butts collected from California beaches. The Cigarette Surfboard takes Taylor around the world to learn from professional…
Documentaries, Indigenous Lens
In collaboration with Brazil’s indigenous Yanomami people, THE FALLING SKY follows the Yanomami leader and shaman Davi Kopenawa as he fights to return the world to balance in closely observed…
Made In Hawaii
In 2018, filmmaker Kevin D’Angelo and conservationist Justin Luafalemana met on a beach cleanup in Molokai and became friends. Upon fulfilling a promise to Justin to return to Molokai, Kevin…