With problems on the home front, 16-year-old Murra (Shantae Barnes-Cowan) is on the verge of lashing out. That is, until her policeman uncle averts her self-destructive behavior with a lifeline: a “photo-safari for at-risk kids” in Pilbara Country in Northwest Australia. Joined by three other teens – cantankerous Kylie, highly strung Sean, happy-go-lucky Elvis – …
With unprecedented access, SURF NATION tells a story beginning in Hainan, China’s southernmost province where hundreds of athletes as young as 9-years-old train as part of the Chinese National Surf team. These young recruits have left their families around the country and are paid to become surfers with Olympic aspirations. Shot in a tropical paradise …
There are currently 40 million piano students in China. With many practicing up to ten hours a day, “piano-mania” has truly gripped the nation. Shanghai Conservatory is the nation’s most prestigious music academy…and there are only 30 spots for budding Lang Langs. PIANO DREAMS follows three young hopefuls and their dedicated families–eight year-old Xia Zidi …
Sarya has lived in Japan since she was five. She pretends to be German to her friends, which is easier than telling the truth. In reality, Sarya’s parents are Kurds who traveled from Turkey to Japan as refugees. Furthermore, she is responsible for her younger siblings while her father is at work. Despite the hardships, …
Samay, a 9-year-old boy living with his family in a remote village in India discovers films for the first time and is absolutely mesmerized. Against his father’s wishes, he returns to the cinema day after day to watch more films, and even befriends the projectionist, who, in exchange for his lunch box, lets him watch …
Léo and Charlie are the textbook definition of youthful freedom and possibility. Running through flower fields, exploring the world around them, these grinning, glowing, skinny 13-year-olds appear to have inexhaustible energy and boundless joy. Best of all, they have each other, as close as brothers. But as the boys enroll in a new school, the …
It’s 2049 and AI controlled spaceship February Dawn needs to return to its home planet Rainbow’s Root before the apartment block in which it secretly embedded is demolished. Who else to help but Yuma, Shingo, and Gin, a trio of space-nerd rocketry obsessed boys! On a sunny afternoon, Yuma notices something strange on a nearby …
In the small village of Alcarràs, Spain, the Catalonian Sole family spend every summer farming peaches together at their family orchard. Yet industrialization is invading the village and new plans of installing solar panels threaten the agricultural traditions of the family. As the doom of the orchard becomes glaringly evident, conflict erupts between the members …
With aloha, HIFF acknowledges its occupation of ancestral, traditional and contemporary lands of the Native Hawaiian people, the Kānaka Maoli.
With gratitude, we honor the ʻāina itself and the generations who steward it.
