Bold red rectangle with the text "7 Films to Celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month" is surrounded by green tropical leaves.

Apr 28, 2025 7 Films to Celebrate AANHPI Heritage Month

Posted at 10:50h in Recommendations by
4 Likes

Curated by Joni Clayton, Acquisitions Assistant

We’ve curated a list of films that celebrate Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Month. Enjoy! 

Black and white poster of a man and woman wearing headbands, gazing upward with hopeful expressions. Text below reads: "Because of You, I Am."

Because of You, I Am | 2023
Duration: 30 minutes

PJ & Roy Hirabayashi spent over five decades using the drum as a platform to catalyze social change, build community from the ground up, and champion a new category of Asian American music despite facing the unrelenting challenges of anti-Asian hate.

Cover for "Between the Lines: Asian American Women’s Poetry." Features a woman passionately speaking, bathed in warm light, with a reflective background. Tone is engaging and inspiring.

Between the Lines | 2001
Duration: 60 minutes

This film offers rare interviews with over 15 major Asian-Pacific American women poets. Organized in interwoven sections such as Immigration, Language, Family, Memory, and Spirituality, it is a sophisticated merging of Asian-American history and identity with the questions of performance, voice, and image.

Scattered red cards featuring Asian American historical images lie on a dark wooden surface. The text reads "Breaking the Model: Stories of Asian American History and Presence." The tone is reflective and informative.

Breaking the Model: Stories of Asian American History and Presence | 2022
Duration: 47 minutes

This collection of films brings together four different short documentaries exploring immigration, genealogy, gentrification and resilience within America.

Historic illustration of a Hawaiian conflict scene with natives and Western explorers under palm trees. Caption reads: "Conquest of Hawaii," History Channel.

Conquest of Hawaii | 2003
Duration: 89 minutes

This program takes a broad view of the watershed moments in Hawaiian history, from discovery, to first contact with outsiders, to unification of the islands into a sovereign kingdom, to an act of war that led to Hawaii’s annexation by the United States.  Hawaii’s ancient culture reemerges as a powerful sociopolitical force in the 21st century.

Sepia-toned collage with a woman in a white blouse, set against newspaper clippings with Chinese and English text. Title: "Golden Gate Girls." Nostalgic tone.

Golden Gate Girls | 2014
Duration: 90 minutes

This documentary paints a fascinating picture of how Esther Eng’s career in filmmaking broke through gender and racial boundaries in Hollywood and Hong Kong, at a time when opportunities for Chinese women in the industry were few and far between.

Cover of "Jimmy Murakami: Non Alien" showing paintings of a boy at a fence, a snowy camp, barbed wire, and an elderly man smiling. Tone is reflective.

Jimmy Murakami: Non Alien | 2010
Duration: 74 minutes

Jimmy was only nine years old when his family had to quit their small farm to be imprisoned for four years for a crime of which they had no part in.  This film features six specially commissioned animation sequences based on Jimmy’s painting of life in the camp.  They create a powerful recreation of Jimmy and his family losing all their worldly goods as they were cast out of the American dream.

Two young individuals smile warmly at the camera. The title "Somewhere Between" is at the bottom, with reviews praising it as "poignant and intimate."

Somewhere Between | 2012
Duration: 88 minutes

This film explores the emotional and cultural impact of adoption from the point of view of four teenage girls, all adopted from China.

Tags:
, ,
No Comments

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.