Portraits and Dreams revisits photographs created by Kentucky schoolchildren in the 1970s and the place where the photos were made. The film is about the students, their work as visionary photographers and the lives they have led since then, as well as the linkage of personal memory to the passage of time.
Directors: Elizabeth Barret & Wendy Ewald, Producer: Robert Salyer
The amazing, untold story of the radical underground radio station WBCN-FM, set against the dazzling and profound social, political, and cultural changes that took place in Boston and nationally during the late 1960s and early 70s.
Six Native American women fight to restore personal and tribal sovereignty in the face of ongoing colonial violence against indigenous women in the United States.
REEL WĀHINE OF HAWAI‘I is a film series that redresses gender inequity in the film industry by documenting the real-life stories of Hawai‘i women filmmakers through a female gaze. Directed and filmed by all women crews, these six short portraits reveal untold stories of local activists and artists who preserve Hawai‘i history and culture through film.
The second season’s six new films feature award-winning filmmakers Lisa Kealohilai Altieri (editor, PAPA MAU, UNDER A JARVIS MOON), Marlene Booth (director, KŪ KANAKA/STAND TALL, PIDGIN THE VOICE OF HAWAI‘I ), Lisette Marie Kaualena Flanary (director, TOKYO HULA, NĀ KAMALEI MEN OF HULA, Erin Lau (writer & director, THE MOON AND THE NIGHT), Myrna Kamae (Producer, HISTORY OF THE SONS OF HAWAI‘I, LI‘A LEGACY OF A HAWAIIAN MAN), and Laura Margulies (Animator, HEPA! ROLLING DOWN LIKE PELE). The subjects recount their philosophies, challenges and triumphs in creating original films and telling unique local stories through a camera lens.
The Reel Wāhine series is an intergenerational project where the directors and camerawomen collaborated with and mentored young women graduates of Hawai‘i Women in Filmmaking’s programs. REEL WĀHINE OF HAWAI’I is produced by Hawai’i Women in Filmmaking with major funding by the National Endowment for the Arts.
Series producers: Shirley Thompson & Vera Zambonelli
Directors: Kimberlee Bassford, Taylour Chang, Robin Lung, Renea Veneri Stewart, Shirley Thompson & Vera Zambonelli
From the mothers of Hawai’i independent filmmaking to cutting edge artists at the top of their game, REEL WĀHINE OF HAWAI’I is a series of portraits of Hawai’i’s top women filmmakers. The subjects represent pioneering filmmakers as they recount their roles, philosophies, challenges and triumphs in building the Hawai’i film industry and telling unique local stories through a camera lens.
Season 1 features: Connie M. Florez (Indie film producer), Ciara Leinaʻala Lacy (director, OUT OF STATE), Jeannette Paulson-Hereniko (Producer, THE LAND HAS EYES, and founding director of Hawai‘i International Film Festival), Victoria Keith (Camerawoman and news producer, THE SAND ISLAND STORY), Anne Misawa (Cinematographer, UH Mānoa ACM Professor) Heather Haunani Giugni (Producer, FAMILY INGREDIENTS, Founder of ʻUluʻulu: The Henry Ku‘ualoha Giugni Moving Image Archive of Hawai‘i
Directed by: Heather Giugni, Leah Kihara, Laurie Sumiye, Shirley Thompson and Vera Zambonelli.
Series producers: Shirley Thompson & Vera Zambonelli for Hawai‘i Women in Filmmaking
Albuquerque’s Rusty Tidenberg, auto mechanic and drag-racing aficionado, shocked friends and family by coming out as trans. Followed for eight years by filmmaker Harrod Blank, Rusty guides us through the aftermath of her transition, as growing acceptance among her straight-talking Southwest community still doesn’t ease her romantic and professional woes. A sensitive and unpredictable love letter to people who fight to be unapologetically themselves.
The documentary A DANGEROUS IDEA: Eugenics, Genetics and The American Dream reveals how biologically determined politics has historically disenfranchised women and people of color, provided a rationale for state sanctioned crimes committed against America’s most vulnerable citizens, and now gains new traction under the Trump administration.
“Tomorrow, We Carry On” highlights Dulce Garcia, the Dreamer who risked the life she leads in America to sue the President for rescinding the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Winner of the 2019 San Diego Latino Film Festival Migrant Voices competition.
