Opening Night Screening
Friday, June 14, 2024, 7:00 PM, Presidio Theater
all films open captioned in English, with audio description available
⚠️Content Advisory: some of the films have content advisories, noted in the full description.
“From reviving traditions to revisiting memories, these films soar alongside ancestral legacies and diaspora to honor the resilience and power of past generations through the persistence, perseverance, and revitalization of Indigenous cultures around the world.”
- Painted Ones by Julia Husain Nacario, 2024 USA, in English and Bisaya, 5 min. 👍
- Drumbeat of Our Hearts by Cynthia Gutierrez, 2024 USA, 4 min. 👏
- A Place to Call Home: An Inside Look at La Peña’s Rotating Mural Program by Clara Pérez Medina, 2023 USA, 10 min. 👏
- The Making of Hana Makgeolli by Esther Chan, 2023 USA, 9 min. 👍
- علاش ماديريش بروشينغ؟ (My Hair is the View) (literally Why Don’t You Brush It?) by Sanae Lahgazi-Alaou & Safae Lahgazi-Alaou, 2023 Morocco, in Arabic, French, and English, 7 min. 👏
- grandmother’s eyes by Victoria 程, 2024 USA, in Mandarin Chinese and English, 4 min. 🙂
- Hoa by Trâm Anh Nguyễn, 2022 Vietnam, in Vietnamese, 14 min. 👏
- Snack by Lauren To’omalatai, 2023 USA, in English and Sāmoan, 8 min. 👏
- E Le Malemo Se I’a (A Fish Does Not Drown): Pasifika Communities During Prop 8 by Sauliloa Niumeitolu, 2023 USA, in English and various Pasifika languages, 20 min. 👏
- Ka’ā’ume’ume: Navigating Home by M. Kaleipumehana Cabral, 2023 USA, in Hawai’ian and English, 8 min. 👏
Painted Ones
by Julia Husain Nacario, 2024 USA, in English and Bisaya, 5 min. 👍
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| Painted Ones |
Bio: Julia Husain Nacario (they/siya, she) is a Bay Area based Bisaya filmmaker invested in the cultural revival of underrepresented Filipinx communities.
It’s an interesting look at the cultural significance of tattoos as much more than just decorative. Recommended.
• IMDb • Official website • Filmmaker • Instagram: @PaintedOnesFilm • preview • other •
Drumbeat of Our Hearts
by Cynthia Gutierrez, 2024 USA, 4 min. 👏
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| Drumbeat of Our Hearts |
Bio: Cynthia Adriana Gutierrez is an award-winning first-generation Nicaraguan-Salvadorian public speaker.
A woman is learning the traditional drumming of Nicaragua and El Salvador, and wants her baby to see her in that process of learning. It’s interesting and well done, and the baby is cute. Highly recommended.
• IMDb • Official website • Filmmaker • Twitter • Instagram • Facebook • preview • other •
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| A Place to Call Home: La Peña’s Rotating Mural |
Three generations of artists map the contours of their communities onto a rotating mural wall.
Bio: Clara Perez Medina is a photographer and filmmaker who loves to make people look and feel beautiful.
The La Peña Cultural Center in south Berkeley (3105 Shattuck @ Prince) had a blank wall, so inez inok’t decided to paint a mural on it, which she titled “Sueños de Mestizas” (Dreams of Mixed-race people). She then decided that a new mural should replace hers each year, to feed new energy and creativity into the Center and give young artists an opportunity to express themselves in a big way, passing down from generation to generation. The murals and the muralists are impressive, and the documentary captures their vibrant spirit. Highly recommended.
• IMDb • Official website • Filmmaker • watch on YouTube • La Peña • Clara Perez Medina La Pena’s Rotating Mural
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| Hana Makgeolli |
A Korean woman makes waves brewing traditional jeontongju (전통주) alcohol, specifically including makgeolli (막걸리), a milky rice wine, in a brewery in Brooklyn. It’s an interesting story, well produced. Recommended.
Bio: Esther Chan is a queer Chinese-American director and co-founder of Oof Stories, a video collective that produces documentary shorts featuring AAPI stories.
• IMDb • Official website • Filmmaker • Instagram: @OOFStories @HanaMakgeolli • Facebook • watch on vimeo • Hana Makgeolli brewery •
علاش ماديريش بروشينغ؟
(My Hair is the View) (literally, Why Don’t You Brush It?)
by Sanae Lahgazi-Alaoui & Safae Lahgazi-Alaoui, 2023 Morocco, in Arabic, French, and English 7 min. 👏
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| My Hair is the View |
Bio: Sanae and Safae Lahgazi-Alaoui are Afro-Arab filmmakers and community organizers of Moroccan upbringing who dream of alternative worlds. Co-sponsored by Fidadoc (فيدادوك) (ⴼⵉⴷⴰⴷⵓⴽ).
• IMDb [Safae] • Official website • Filmmaker • Instagram • LinkedIn: @SanaeLAlaoui • preview • other •
grandmother’s eyes
by Victoria 程, 2024 USA, in Mandarin Chinese and English, 4 min., 🙂
World Premiere
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| grandmother’s eyes |
⚠️Content Warning: Emotional pain
It’s an intensely personal remembrance of the filmmaker’s grandmother and their sometimes complicated relationship. Unfortunately, I didn’t really feel drawn in to the story, but it’s well made, so Recommended.
Bio: Victoria 程 is a work in progress who enjoys customizing their clothes, painting her feelings, and sharing stories over food.
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| Hoa |
The filmmaker’s grandmother, Trần Thị Tuyết Hoa, wrote a memoir, Hồi Ức Tuyết Hoa (Memories of Tuyết Hoa),
to preserve her life before her memory disorder takes hold. Each day, she reads the book, experiencing her memories again as new from one day to the next. Her grandchild made this film as a poem to honor her. Very well done, although there were a couple of scenes that could be trimmed, starting with the seemingly endless “happy birthday” near the beginning. Highly recommended.
⚠️Content Warning: Mentions of war and grief
Bio: Nguyễn Hữu Trâm Anh (Trâm Anh Nguyễn) is a visual artist from Vietnam and Toronto who specializes in documentary-experimental filmmaking from Vietnam and Toronto.
• IMDb [director] • Official website • Filmmaker • Instagram: @NgHTAnh • watch it on YouTube • other • Nguyen Huu Tram Anh Nguyen
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| Snack |
A Sāmoan woman and her grandmother navigate currents of grief. They make some sweets for a late night snack and have a good talk. Well done, sweet (almost as sweet as the snack itself!), Highly recommended.
⚠️Content Warning: Grief
Bio: Lauren To’omalatai is a Sāmoan storyteller and community organizer based in unceded Eastern Shoshone and Goshute land, now known as Salt Lake City, UT.
A Sāmoan woman wearing a bun and gold hoops shares a loving look with her grandmother.
community, family, narrative, Pac Islander
E Le Malemo Se I’a (A Fish Does Not Drown): Pasifika Communities During Prop 8
by Sauliloa Niumeitolu, 2023 USA, in English and various Pasifika languages, 20 min. 👏
Queer Pasifikas grapple with intolerance within their own communities.
⚠️Content Warning: Mentions of homophobia, Mentions of attempted suicide
Bio: Sauliloa Niumeitolu is a Tongan poet, community organizer, educator, and farmer.
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| E Le Malemo Se I‘a |
The title is from a quote in the film: “Fish don’t drown. It’s their nature to swim. Don’t let anyone shame you for following your nature.”
• IMDb [director] • Official website • Filmmaker • Facebook: @LoaNiumeitolu • preview • Loa Niumeitolu at the San Francisco Public Library [YouTube] •
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| Ka’ā’ume’ume: Navigating Home |
Six Kānaka ʻŌiwi maneuver between the tidal pull of home and the struggle to stay. What does it mean to be Kānaka (native Hawai‘ian) living in colonized Hawaii? For that matter, what does it mean to be a native from some other Pacific island living there? Tourists are the source of a large share of the economic activity in Hawaii, but also the source of many problems. They consume vastly more than their share of food, with much of it going to waste, and they also drive up housing costs. It’s a serious conversation about indigenous identities and their connection to the land. Highly recommended.
Bio: Pumehana is a proud Kanaka ʻŌiwi with an emphasis on social justice, ‘āina-based education, and community building with other māhū and BIPOC folks.
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