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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The world’s first comedy horror film is thought to be ONE EXCITING NIGHT (1922), which was written, directed, and produced by D.W. Griffith. As the last century added a profound amount of films to this genre, it is valuable to observe why the comedy horror genre has survived in cinemas for this long. Despite being
COMEDY HORROR MOVIES: The Embodiments of “Camp” Are Here to Stay Read More »
Watch the HIFF41 presentation of MONEYBOYS online November 15 – November 28, 2021 Anderson Le: What was the inspiration for MONEYBOYS? First of all, “Moneyboys” never intended to seduce the audience with explicitly dramatized documentary insight of a hustler´s daily work life to foster the voyeurism in every one of us. I don’t like the
MONEYBOYS: A Q&A with Director C.B. Yi Read More »
Albert Pyun had Hollywood dreams. He was sneaking onto Kaneohe Marine Corps Base to shoot his 8mm movies with school buddies, and was a voracious reader of detective noir and frequented the movie houses around Oahu that would play new Asian films, from Akira Kurosawa to King Hu. He was also an admirer of other
HIFF41 Honoree Spotlight: Why Albert Pyun Matters Read More »
The news earlier this week that Rappler founder and embattled journalist Maria Ressa became the first Filipino to be awarded the prestigious Nobel peace prize was greeted by human rights activists around the world. The award has put a spotlight on the struggle of journalists and activists fighting President Rodrigo Duterte’s attacks on press freedom.
Revisiting HIFF’s Q&A with just announced Nobel prize honoree Maria Ressa Read More »
A Sweet Transgender Story Drowned in Motor Oil and Wrapped in Titanium Body Horror // This review DOES contain spoilers for TITANE – I do believe this movie is most effective without having any idea what will happen before going in. With that being said, it feels next to impossible to write about it without
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Sign up for HIFF Selects, a monthly curated streaming club Love in All Its Awkwardness Aspiring jazz singer Bertie is effortlessly beautiful in her voice and demeanor. As a New Orleans native living in the South of France, you hardly ever get the impression that she’s out of place. Lane is a slightly different story.
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With aloha, HIFF acknowledges its occupation of ancestral, traditional and contemporary lands of the Indigenous Hawaiian people, the Kānaka Maoli.
With gratitude, we honor the ʻāina itself and the generations who steward it.
