Kayla Mak Harrison aspires to become a filmmaker, but she faces additional stigma regarding her mental health. As a Chinese person, her culture dictates she must suppress emotions to achieve harmonious relationships at all costs. This documentary examines the roots of this deep-seated shame, how it affects family relations and its consequences on the individual and the community.
2022
NAFAS NAKESH
To exert more tyranny and suppression, the ruling power has done something to its dissenters that they exhale smoke when they breathe, and the agents must take into custody such people wherever they find them. Unaware of the law, a man meets one of the dissidents and it changes the course of his life, until he decides to immigrate to a better land with the dissident for a better life.
Roads of Ithriyah
Ahmad, a Syrian militant, wakes up concussed in the desert after an explosion and can’t remember what side of the war he was fighting for. As he survives the walk to a safe outpost called Ithriyah, he discovers a small vial of perfume in his pocket that triggers memories of his mother and sister. The memories begin to paint a picture of uncomfortable truths of his past and set him on a collision course against his current self.
Beat
After a heart transplant a young woman finds herself connecting with a homeless man through her new found talent of classical piano.
Through-out a series of dramatic events and emotional performances the two worlds begin to merge as one.
Sixty Seconds
In a single minute, Tyler Turner’s life changed during a routine skydive. His life is cleaved into two segments: life prior to and after sixty seconds that he’ll never get back. This award-winning short documentary follows Turner after his accident as he pursues a nuanced physical and nuanced emotional recovery.
Pili Ka Moʻo
The Fukumitsu ʻOhana (family) of Hakipuʻu are Native Hawaiian taro farmers and keepers of this generational practice. While much of Oʻahu has become urbanized, Hakipuʻu remains a kīpuka (oasis) of traditional knowledge where great chiefs once resided and their bones still remain. The Fukumitsus are tossed into a world of complex real estate and judicial proceedings when nearby Kualoa Ranch, a large settler-owned corporation, destroys their familial burials to make way for continued development