For this year’s FFT schedule please visit the Hawaiʻi International Film Festival Website HERE.
For more HIFF 42 programming click HERE.
In 2022, as the crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic begins to dissipate, we are bearing witness to war in Eastern Europe, rising political conflict around the globe, and ongoing climate change catastrophe. On O‘ahu, the poisoning of our water supply from the U.S. Navy’s fuel tanks at Red Hill poses an immediate threat to life. Meanwhile, over a dozen U.S. states, emboldened by the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, have moved swiftly to strip away rights to abortion. How will we survive in this world?
The five films in this year’s Film for Thought series look, unflinchingly, at how social change happens, and not always for the better. Each film records and represents people who struggle, resist, and organize. They offer us a political education—showing us how power operates. The films challenge audiences not to imagine or dream up another world but to grapple with the world we live in now.
Mahalo nui to our five fierce wāhine of color scholars, Kim Compoc, Grace Caligtan, Monisha Das Gupta, ‘Ihilani Lasconia, and L. Ayu Saraswati. We invite you to read their reflections and attend the free Film for Thought discussion events. Finally, we hope you will use the films to talk story with friends and family and dare to ask difficult questions about how we have arrived at the state of the world today.
Mahalo to Danielle Seid for leading this year’s Film for Thought series. Click HERE to read her introduction and humanities scholars’ essays.
FILMS FEATURED IN 2022
WHINA
MY SMALL LAND
MIDWIVES
BATTLEGROUND
BAD AXE
Danielle Seid is assistant professor of English at UHM, where she teaches courses in film, television, and media. She writes about popular representations of race, gender, and sexuality for academic journals like Amerasia, Feminist Media Studies, and Flow, as well as media outlets like Public Radio International.