Hapa is a Hawaiian word for someone of multiracial ancestry. In Hawaii, the word refers to any person of mixed ethnic heritage, regardless of the specific mixture. The term is used for any multiracial person of partial East Asian, Southeast Asian, or Pacific Islander mixture in California. In what can be characterized as trans-cultural diffusion or the wave model, this latter usage has also spread to Massachusetts, Ohio, and Oregon.
Mark Achbar is a Canadian filmmaker, best known for The Corporation (2003), Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media (1994), and as an Executive Producer on over a dozen feature documentaries.
Mina Shum is an independent Canadian filmmaker. She is a writer and director of award-winning feature films, numerous shorts and has created site specific installations and theatre. Her features, Double Happiness and Long Life, Happiness & Prosperity both premiered in the US at the Sundance Film Festival and Double Happiness won the Wolfgang Staudte Prize for Best First Feature at the Berlin Film Festival and the Audience Award at Torino. She was director resident at the Canadian Film Centre in Toronto. She was also a member of an alternative rock band called Playdoh Republic.
The Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival is the largest documentary festival in North America. The event takes place annually in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The 27th edition of the festival took place online throughout May and June 2020. In addition to the annual festival, Hot Docs owns and operates the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema, administers multiple production funds, and runs year-round screening programs including Doc Soup and Hot Docs Showcase.
The Leo Awards are the awards program for the British Columbia film and television industry. Held each May or June in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, the Leo Awards were founded by the Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Foundation of British Columbia in 1999. Awards categories include but are not exclusive to live action, animated, adult dramatic, children's, documentary film, documentary television, feature films, short films.
Lucy Walker is an English film director. She has directed the feature documentaries Devil's Playground (2002), Blindsight (2006), Waste Land (2010), Countdown to Zero (2010), The Crash Reel (2013), Buena Vista Social Club: Adios (2017), Bring Your Own Brigade (2021), and Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa (2023). She has also directed the short films The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom (2011) and The Lion's Mouth Opens (2014). Waste Land was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary.
Jeff Chiba Stearns is a Canadian independent animation and documentary filmmaker who works in traditional and computer-based techniques.
Muse Entertainment is a Canadian producer of films and television programs founded by Michael Prupas in 1998. The company gained press attention in 2011 for their production of the multi-Emmy winning and nominated miniseries The Kennedys in association with Asylum Entertainment.
Oliver Schmitz is a South African film director and screenwriter.
Boston Asian American Film Festival (BAAFF), a production of the Asian American Resource Workshop (AARW), includes a program of independent cinema highlighting recent, significant works by and/or about Asian Americans and the Asian diaspora. BAAFF is New England's largest Asian American film festival. The festival takes place in the month of October in Boston at Emerson College's Bright Family Screening Room in the Paramount Center and opening night in Cambridge at the Brattle Theatre. The 4-day film festival features special premieres, exclusive Q&As with filmmakers and various co-sponsored events around Boston.
Beyond Gay: The Politics of Pride is a 2009 documentary directed by Bob Christie, where he examines relevance of LGBT pride celebrations internationally, against the backdrop of opposition to such events in a number of countries. The documentary tries to portray pride as more than just a parade, but rather an important step on the road to equality and fight against homophobia and discrimination. It was produced with Transmission in association with Border2Border Entertainment and Nomadic Pictures.
Yellow Sticky Notes is a 2007 animated short film by Canadian artist Jeff Chiba Stearns. The film uses a series of sticky note papers to tell the events that happened to the filmmaker and the rest of the world during nine years.
The DisOrient Film Festival or the DisOrient Asian and Pacific Islander American Film Festival of Oregon, is a film festival that was started in 2006 and is based in Eugene, Oregon. According to their website and mission statement, the organization is "a grassroots and volunteer-run film festival committed to presenting honest portrayals of the diversity of the Asian and Pacific Islander American experience" and when "selecting new and exciting films for our festival" the W.E.B. Du Bois standard of "for us, by us, or about us" is used to select recent and undistributed works. It was founded in 2006 by Jason Mak.
The Seattle Asian American Film Festival was founded in 1985 and has been revived over the years by different producers. The current iteration was founded in 2012 and made its debut in 2013 by co-founders Kevin Bang and Vanessa Au. It is a revival of of the previously running Northwest Asian American Film Festival, which was directed by Wes Kim from 2003 to 2007 and which had experienced a five-year hiatus. The inaugural film festival was also held at the Wing Luke Asian Museum from January 25 to 27, 2013. The festival is currently run and directed by Executive Director, Vanessa Au, and Festival Director, Victoria Ju.
The LuLu Sessions is a feature-length documentary film by S. Casper Wong about a prominent cancer researcher who is dying of breast cancer at the age of 43. Shot during the last 15 months of the life of Dr. Louise ("LuLu") Nutter, the film starts from the moment LuLu learns that her cancer is malignant and traces the emotional roller-coaster and the eye-opening process of dying. It explores human fears and presumptions, family ties and forgiveness, love and friendships, including that between Casper and LuLu, who was a professor of pharmacology at the University of Minnesota. The film has been shown in the U.S. and internationally at numerous film festivals and in conjunction with Breast Cancer Awareness Month (October).
Ann Shin is a filmmaker and writer based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Lisa Jackson is a Canadian Screen Award and Genie Award-winning Canadian and Anishinaabe filmmaker. Her films have been broadcast on APTN and Knowledge Network, as well as CBC's ZeD, Canadian Reflections and Newsworld and have screened at festivals including HotDocs, Edinburgh International Film Festival, Melbourne, Worldwide Short Film Festival and Berlin International Film Festival.
Mixed Match is a 2016 animated/live-action documentary film directed by Canadian director Jeff Chiba Stearns. The documentary explores the challenges multi-ethnic blood disease patients face when trying to find a bone marrow match for transplant.
Hapa-palooza is an annual cultural arts festival held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The name of the festival is a reference to the Hawaiian word 'hapa', meaning part or half, which is used as a broad term to describe people of mixed ancestry. It features art exhibitions, performances, panels, films, and a family picnic in the park. The purpose of the festival is to cultivate community and conversation among people identifying as having mixed heritage, to generate public awareness, and to provide positive role models for the next generation.
Kathleen Hepburn is a Canadian screenwriter and film director. She first attracted acclaim for her film Never Steady, Never Still, which premiered as a short film in 2015 before being expanded into her feature film debut in 2017. The film received eight Canadian Screen Award nominations at the 6th Canadian Screen Awards in 2018, including Best Picture and a Best Original Screenplay nomination for Hepburn.
