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SHORTS: BE/LONGING

Ticket purchase includes bonus Q&A with select individual filmmakers in this program!

Shorts that probe the soft spots of belonging-to and longing-for a place in the world.

In this program


Standing Above The Clouds

Directed by Jalena Keane-Lee

Matriarchal power shines in this fascinating doc featuring elder women and the next generation resisting the building of a telescope on the sacred Mauna Kea.

Kapaemahu

Directed by Dean Hamer, Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu, Joe Wilson

Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu chronicles the discovery of four stones in Waikiki Beach, stones who are also mahu, a group of third gender divine healers brought to Hawai’i from Tahiti. Told in Olelo Niihau, the only form of Hawaiian that has been continuously spoken since prior to the arrival of foreigners.

Alienated

Directed by Seok-Young Yang

A Korean undergrad in California explores body issues and their entanglement with family and being a student abroad.

The Mourning Papers

Directed by Negin Farsad

Niloo and Elham are undocumented Iranian American sisters living in New York City who hilariously grapple with how to grieve for a dad they have never known.

Big Happiness

Directed by Da Hee Kim

The uncanniness of adoption from the POV of the filmmaker, an adult Korean adoptee, navigating awkward dinner table conversations and the labor of finding yourself in uncharted personal territory.

Forget Alberto For Now

Directed by Beina Xu

Alberto keeps getting refused refugee status. Alberto also keeps refusing to participate in this film (about refugees).

Heading South

Directed by Yuan Yuan

Young spitfire Chasuna travels from the grasslands of Mongolia to the big city to visit her father for his birthday. To her surprise, her father is remarried to a Chinese woman which makes for a very uncomfortable party.

Kama’āina (Child of the Land)

Directed by Kimi Howl Lee

Blending fiction and reality, Mahina, a queer Native Hawaiian teenager is unhoused and navigates a life of stolen phones, candy bars hidden in Slurpee cups, and the enthusiasm of volunteers. That is, until she meets Auntie Twinkle and the radical miracle of Pu’uhonua o Wai’anae, a Hawai’i unlike anything we have seen.

SDAFF Mini Q&As – BE/LONGING!

Follow up your shorts screenings with a treasure trove of 10 minute mini Q&As with select filmmakers from SHORTS:…