Filmmaker Scheduled to Appear
Movement: Asian/Pacific America
Showcasing the Asian American and Pacific Islander community through film. Q&A with one of the filmmakers to follow!
A Q&A with director Gelareh Kiazand will follow this screening.
Unpacking Immigration (dir. Harleen Kaur Bal | 2023): Unpacking Immigration explores the lives of immigrant meatpackers whose unseen and undervalued work bridges the crucial missing steps in “the farm to table” concept in food production. This short film, written and directed by Harleen Kaur Bal, shares the story of a longtime Punjabi Sikh meatpacker in California’s Central Valley, tracing his migration journey, the human toll of meatpacking work, and the fraught notions of home and belonging for working-class immigrants and their families in the “land of opportunity.” Youth activism in the Jakara Movement will also be highlighted. [12 min; English]
Kai Hali'a (Sea of Memory) (dir. Angelique Kalani Axelrode | 2023): In the abstract realm of memory, a diasporic Kanaka struggles to connect with their family and lover. By engaging with their moʻokūʻauhau (genealogy) and calling on their kūpuna (ancestors) and ke kai (ocean), they are able to cope with buried trauma and come back to themselves. Seeing memory as an intricate ʻupena (net) of both intangible and tangible threads of reality, intertwined with visceral feelings that intimately connect us with our kūpuna (ancestors) and the ʻāina (land), the art of remembering brings us back to our core. [9 min; English and Hawaiian]
Wouldn't Make It Any Other Way (dir. Hao Zhou | 2024): Having built a colorful queer life in an American prairie town, an aspiring costume designer visits their island homeland of Guam to make costumes for a children’s theatre while reconnecting with distanced parents. [20 min; English]
Preserving Taste (dir. Gelareh Kiazand | 2023): Chef Hanif Sadr, born in Tehran, Iran, hopes to open his first Iranian regional restaurant in San Francisco. Through this journey, he moves between Iran and the US and explores the depth of a unique forgotten Persian cuisine. [21 min; English]
Leading (dir. Grace Lee | 2024): Leading follows two budding activists: Audre (10), who fights against Asian hate by creating a teach-in presentation at her school; and Kali (11), who belongs to a Radical Monarchs troop, where she learns about and helps organize a march for Black Lives Matter. [27 min; English]
Any film screened at IU Cinema may contain content that viewers find sensitive or upsetting. Visit our Audience Advisories page to learn more.
