Check out these amazing works highlighting Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AA.NH/PI) creators and their art.
Two decades after its original negatives were burned in a fire, Satyajit Ray's breathtaking milestone of world cinema rises from the ashes in a meticulously reconstructed new restoration. Masterworks Pather Panchali (Song of the Little Road), Aparajito (The Unvanquished), and Apur Sansar (The World of Apu), based on two books by Bibhutibhusan Banerjee, brought India into the golden age of international art-house film.
Pather Panchali and Aparajito also available streaming on Kanopy
This five-part series traces the story of Asian Americans, spanning 150 years of immigration, racial politics, international relations, and cultural innovation. It is a timely, clear-eyed look at the vital role that Asian Americans have played in defining who we are as a nation. Their stories are a celebration of the grit and resilience of a people that reflects the experience of all Americans.
Also available streaming on Kanopy
Meet the "Chinese Joan of Arc", Qiu Jin (秋瑾) (1875-1907), a radical women’s rights activist who defied tradition to become the leader of a revolutionary army. Qiu Jin boldly challenged traditional gender roles and demanded equal rights and opportunities for women. She was the first woman to lead an armed uprising against the corrupt Qing Dynasty, for which she was arrested and executed. She became the first female martyr for China’s 1911 Revolution and is celebrated as a national heroine today.
Only available streaming on Kanopy
The year is 1984, and on the rural east coast of New Zealand Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' is changing kids' lives. 'Boy' is a dreamer who lives with his brother Rocky and his Nan. When Boy's father, Alamein, returns home after seven years away, Boy is forced to confront the man he thought he remembered, find his own potential, and learn to get along without the hero he had been looking for.
Also available streaming on Kanopy
An Indian woman attempts to marry her four daughters off to prosperous bachelors. In the process, several of the daughters fall for men their families do not approve of.
Jenny, a combative and rebellious teen is headed down a troubled path when her father decides something drastic must be done to save her. Unwilling to speak and feeling isolated in the middle of chaotic Los Angeles, her father intervenes by sending her to Thailand to live with her grandmother. Jenny feels imprisoned in the tiny, remote village until she meets Boonrod, a shunned, peasant boy whose best friend is the family water buffalo.
Eighty-year-old Jimmy Mirikitani survived the trauma of WWII internment camps, Hiroshima, and homelessness by creating art. But when 9/11 threatens his life on the New York City streets and a local filmmaker brings him to her home, the two embark on a journey to confront Jimmy's painful past. An intimate exploration of the lingering wounds of war and the healing powers of community and art.
A native New Yorker Rachel Chu accompanies her longtime boyfriend, Nick Young, to his best friend's wedding in Singapore. Excited about visiting Asia for the first time but nervous about meeting Nick's family, Rachel is unprepared to learn that Nick has neglected to mention a few key details about his life. It turns out that he is not only the scion of one of the country's wealthiest families but also one of its most sought-after bachelors.
An aging Chinese immigrant is swept up in an insane adventure, where she alone can save the world by exploring other universes connecting with the lives she could have led.
Gaysians is an exploration of family, immigration and language through the voices of five queer and trans Asian-Americans from New York City. The subjects share stories about their families, and in doing so, shed light on the complicated histories that have shaped these intimate and personal relationships. This moving short is an illuminating patchwork documentary exploring family and culture through the personal stories of a diverse panoply of LGBTQ individuals.
Only available streaming on Kanopy
In the Iranian ghost-town Bad City, a place that reeks of death and loneliness, the townspeople are unaware they are being stalked by a lonesome vampire.
Also available streaming on Kanopy
At only five years old, Saroo Brierley got lost on a train in India. Unable to read or write or recall the name of his hometown or even his own last name, he survived alone for weeks on the rough streets of Calcutta before ultimately being transferred to an agency and adopted by a couple in Australia.
In the heart of Chinatown, New York, an ornery, chain-smoking, newly widowed 80-year-old grandma is eager to live life as an independent woman. When a local fortuneteller predicts a lucky day in her future, Grandma decides to head to the casino, only to land herself on the wrong side of luck, attracting the attention of some local gangsters. Desperate, Grandma employs the services of a bodyguard from a rival gang and soon finds herself right in the middle of a Chinatown gang war.
Also available streaming on Kanopy
A tender and sweeping story about what roots people that follows a Korean-American family that moves to a tiny Arkansas farm in search of their own American Dream. The family home changes completely with the arrival of their sly, foul-mouthed, but incredibly loving grandmother. Amidst the instability and challenges of this new life in the rugged Ozarks, this film shows the undeniable resilience of family and what really makes a home.
Years after her Indian family was forced to flee their home in Uganda by the dictatorship of Idi Amin, twentysomething Mina (Sarita Choudhury) spends her days cleaning rooms in an Indian-run motel in Mississippi. When she falls for the charming Black carpet cleaner (Denzel Washington), their passionate romance challenges the prejudices of both their families and exposes the rifts between the region's Indian and African American communities. Tackling thorny issues of racism, colorism, culture clash, and displacement with bighearted humor and keen insight, Nair serves up a sweet, sexy, and deeply satisfying celebration of love's power.
Kit returns to Ho Chi Minh City for the first time since he was six years old when his family fled the country in the aftermath of the Vietnam-American War. There he meets Lee, his estranged second cousin, Linh, a young Vietnamese student, and arranges an online date that turns into something more with Lewis, an American clothing designer. Struggling to make sense of himself in a city he's no longer familiar with, he embarkes on a personal journey across the country that opens up the possibility for friendship, love, and happiness.
Also available streaming on Kanopy
Love, lust and hope envelop an upper middle-class Indian family and their world-wide guests as they celebrate for four days the arranged marriage of their daughter to an East Indian man from Texas.
The Orator (O Le Tulafale) is a contemporary drama about courage, forgiveness and love. Small in stature and humble, Saili lives a simple life with his beloved wife and daughter in an isolated, traditional village in the islands of Samoa. Forced to protect his land and family, Saili must face his fears and seek the right to speak up for those he loves.
Only available streaming on Kanopy
Kim Ki-teak's family are all unemployed and living in a squalid basement. When his son gets a tutoring job at the lavish home of the Park family, the Kim family's luck changes. One by one they gradually infiltrate the wealthy Park's home, attempting to take over their affluent lifestyle.
Also available streaming on Kanopy
Following the aftermath of the March 2021 mass shootings at three spas in Atlanta, this film chronicles how the Asian American community came together to fight back against hate and explores the struggles and triumphs of AAPI communities.
Also available streaming on Kanopy
When a young girl gets trapped in a strange new world of spirits, she must call upon the courage she never knew she had to free herself and rescue her parents.
Set in a mining town in the 1880s, Thousand Pieces of Gold is based on the classic novel by Ruthanne Lum McCunn with a screenplay by award-winning filmmaker Anne Makepeace. Upon its release in 1990, the film won immediate acclaim for its portrayal of the real-life story of Lalu, a young Chinese woman whose desperately poor parents sell her into slavery. She is trafficked to a nefarious saloonkeeper in Idaho's gold country. Eventually Charlie, a man of different ilk, wins her in a poker game and slowly gains her trust. Way ahead of its time, the film resonates even more powerfully today in the era of #MeToo. Nancy Kelly became a victim of prejudice against women directors within the American film industry and was never offered another movie to direct in spite of extraordinary reviews from critics.
Only available streaming on Kanopy
The film about female empowerment telling the story of one woman's life in eight separate moments from the perspective of eight different Pacific Island cultures.
A Filipina teen from a small Texas town fights to pursue her dreams as a country music performer while having to decide between staying with her family and leaving the only home she has known.