A testament to the power of investigative journalism, SHE SAID details the journey of reporters and editors engaged in the unrelenting pursuit of the truth and highlights the courage of survivors and witnesses who chose to come forward to stop a serial predator in his tracks. Together, their commitment and fortitude sparked a national conversation, …
WE DON’T DANCE FOR NOTHING is a photo-montage love letter to the Filipina Domestic Workers of Hong Kong. This visual recreation of true memories shared by this community of 400,000 women (millions globally) follows one woman’s plan to run away. Captured on Super-16 amidst the Hong Kong Protests, stills blend with motion to highlight the …
In the small, rural village in Gaotai, two lonely, middle-aged people—Cao, a timid woman suffering from chronic illness and a disability, and Ma, an unassuming farmer with little to his name—are pushed into an arranged marriage by their respective families. Cast aside as burdens, Cao and Ma’s relationship is tepid at first but warms as …
BLURRING THE COLOR LINE follows director Crystal Kwok as she unpacks the history behind her grandmother’s family, who were neighborhood grocery store owners in the Black community of Augusta, Georgia during the Jim Crow era. The film weaves personal family stories with memories from the larger Chinese and Black communities, opening up uncomfortable but necessary …
On January 13, 1903, the first group of Koreans arrived in Hawai‘i, marking this day as Korean American Day. But the U.S. and Korea first established diplomatic relations through a treaty in 1882. In the treaty, Korea is referred to as ‘Chosen.’ However, since 1903, only two Korean Americans have been elected to US Congress. …
In a hayloft on a prairie far away some Mennonite women gather to conspire. They have choices—just like us: they could stay silent and do nothing; they could stand up and fight; or they can leave. The setting of this story is a clear metaphor of patriarchal oppression, for they need to outlast the abuse …
Harry, a British Afghan war vet crippled by depression and PTSD, arrives at an animal rescue program deep in the Peruvian jungle and finds solace while nurturing an orphaned baby ocelot whom he is preparing for reentry into the wild. He’s assisted by the project’s creator Samantha—-a brilliant, academically trained American conservationist with her own …
For Pakistani refugees, there’s little sunshine on either side of the unwelcome Hong Kong streets where they are forced to live on the edge. They can’t work to earn a living, while often waiting years for their asylum claims to be heard. Some turn to crime, while others are forced to eke by on the …
Young Sohee (Kim Si-eun) is a bubbly, tenacious vocational high-school student with a fiery temperament living in rural Korea. She is excited when she lands an externship at a major internet provider’s call center, but the prized office job turns out to be a nightmarish workplace. She is placed under immense pressure from the company …
Hla and Nyo Nyo live in a country torn by conflict. Hla is a Buddhist and the owner of a makeshift medical clinic in western Myanmar, where the Rohingya (a Muslim minority community) are persecuted and denied basic rights. Nyo Nyo is a Muslim and an apprentice midwife who acts as an assistant and translator …
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.