THOUGHTS / BAD AXE: A Companion essay by scholar Kim Compoc // Director David Siev’s riveting documentary BAD AXE takes its name from his predominantly white hometown in rural Michigan. Siev began the project in March 2020 to chronicle his family’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, namely the lockdowns and difficulties in keeping the […]
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THOUGHTS / NIGHT RAIDERS: A Companion essay by scholar Bryan Kamaoli Kuwada // There is a beautiful dream at the heart of the ramshackle brutal future Danis Goulet (Cree and Métis) conjures in NIGHT RAIDERS—that we don’t have to live like that. Our future can be one of pilina and possibility. In the film,
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THOUGHTS / KARMALINK: A Companion essay by scholar Ida Yoshinaga // Who remembers spiritual cinema, the early-2000s trend, which promoted feature films with messages of uplift and inspiration? Few of these spiritual-cinema entries addressed macro-societal aspects of living in the 21st century, such as globalization and unequal impacts of the digital era. These overlooked issues
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THOUGHTS / THE ISLAND IN ME: A Companion essay by scholar Caryn Lesuma // Filmmaker Gemma Cubero del Barrio’s The Island in Me follows Florence “Johnny” Frisbie and Amelia Borofsky as they make a homecoming journey to Pukapuka, a Cook Islands atoll, where both women spent their formative years. The film frames Frisbie and
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THOUGHTS / HIGH TIDE, DON’T HIDE: A Companion essay by scholar Jaimey Hamilton Faris // The youth are our future ancestors. The Youth Climate Strike generation, who organized the largest-yet direct action for the climate in 2019, are especially important elders-in-the-making as they mobilize for their future families and generations to come. Emboldened and
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THOUGHTS / CROSSINGS: A Companion essay by scholar Vernadette Gonzalez // In 2015, an assembly of women who wanted to take a walk, raised a stir on the Korean peninsula. Their intention was simple, gather, talk, and sew—to create community through the simplest of acts, and to make imaginable a vision of peace on
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FILM FOR THOUGHT Presented by the Hawai‘i Council for the Humanities THOUGHTS: LUNANA: A YAK IN THE CLASSROOM LUNANA: A YAK IN THE CLASSROOM (2020) As an elementary school teacher in the small island community of Lānaʻi, I felt an instant connection to director Pawo Choyning Dorji’s LUNANA: A YAK IN THE CLASSROOM. Sent to
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FILM FOR THOUGHT Presented by the Hawai‘i Council for the Humanities THOUGHTS: LANDFALL LANDFALL (2020) “Connections are made during tough times, and they happen for a reason.” LANDFALL begins on a beach. The ocean whispers, voices whisper, and shadows flicker over the faces of two women. Their voices grow stronger, as their friendship has, in
FILM FOR THOUGHT Presented by the Hawai‘i Council for the Humanities THOUGHTS: DOWN A DARK STAIRWELL DOWN A DARK STAIRWELL (2020) Directed by journalist and filmmaker Ursula Liang, DOWN A DARK STAIRWELL centers on the story of Akai Gurley’s murder by NYPD officer Peter Liang (no relation to the filmmaker) in the stairwell of a
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FILM FOR THOUGHT Presented by the Hawai‘i Council for the Humanities THOUGHTS: THROUGH THE NIGHT THROUGH THE NIGHT (2020) In the documentary “Through the Night,” filmmaker Loira Limbal turns a loving gaze on the intimate labor of Deloris “Nunu” Hogan who, with her husband Patrick, nurtures children in their 24-hour daycare in New Rochelle, New
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