Category: News

For Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, the Sundance Institute Indigenous Program would like to recognize the Indigenous Asian and Pacific Islander storytellers who have contributed to examining and extolling the richness of Indigenous Asian and Pacific Islander diasporas in their work. Essential to this is the critical examination of the AAPI label. While the term can be mobilized for coalition building, it can also conflate and erase the unique histories and experiences of Asian and Pacific Islander communities.

May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, an opportunity to recognize the long line of visionary storytellers who have contributed to the independent film canon over the years — and an opportunity to underline the richness and diversity of Asian diasporas in the United States. To celebrate the month, we introduced a new series called In Focus, in which we turn the spotlight on our friends at AAPI-led arts organizations around the country. In previous editions, we talked to Visual Communications’ Francis Cullado and Pacific Islanders in Communications’ Leanne Kaʻiulani Ferrer; this week, we close out the month with Stephen Gong from the Center for Asian American Media.

May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, an opportunity to recognize the long line of visionary storytellers who have contributed to the independent film canon over the years — and an opportunity to underline the richness and diversity of Asian and Pacific Islander diasporas in the United States. To celebrate the month, we’re introducing a new series called In Focus, in which we turn the spotlight on our friends at AAPI-led arts organizations around the country. Last week, we kicked things off chatting with Visual Communications’ Francis Cullado, and this week, we’re back with Leanne Kaʻiulani Ferrer, executive director of Pacific Islanders in Communications.

May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, an opportunity to recognize the long line of visionary storytellers who have contributed to the independent film canon over the years—and an opportunity to underline the richness and diversity of Asian diasporas in the United States. To celebrate the month, we’re introducing a new series called In Focus, in which we turn the spotlight on our friends at AAPI-led arts organizations around the country, and we’re kicking things off chatting with Francis Cullado, executive director of the Los Angeles–based nonprofit Visual Communications.
Founded in 1970 as a filmmaking collective, Visual Communications was the first U.

From 1980s rural Arkansas (Lee Isaac Chung’s Minari) to Los Angeles’s Koreatown neighborhood (Andrew Ahn’s Spa Night) to 1910s Hawaii (Kayo Hatta’s Picture Bride)
and beyond, Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander filmmakers have covered
a lot of ground over the years.
To celebrate these filmmakers and their
work during
Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in the United States (and Asian Heritage Month
in Canada!), we’ve dipped into our archives to put together a list of
coming-of-age stories and intergenerational family dramas that have
played the Sundance Film Festival or gone through Sundance Institute
programs over the years.
In this genre-spanning (but certainly not exhaustive) list, you’ll find LGBTQ+ romances, heartfelt dramas, immigrant stories, and so much more.

Fiction or nonfiction, beginner or auteur, U.S. or international — wherever you find yourself in your creative journey as an independent storyteller, the Sundance Institute has an artist support program for you.