Short Film Openers at HAAPIFEST 2025 – Powerful Stories Before Every Feature
Before the lights go down on our feature films, HAAPIFEST 2025 proudly presents a curated lineup of Short Film Openers—thought-provoking mini-masterpieces that set the stage for deeper conversations and emotional resonance. From intergenerational wisdom to cultural identity, these shorts showcase the bold, emerging voices of AAPI filmmakers and storytellers.
📍 Location: DoubleTree by Hilton – 10609 Westpark Dr, Houston, TX 77042
🎟️ Get tickets/passes: www.haapifest.org/tickets
🎥 FEATURE: SANSEDAI
📅 May 30 @ 6:00 PM
📽️ Director: Kayli Kimura
🕒 11 minutes
Through intimate conversations over old photobooks and home movies from the 1930s, SANSEDAI (三世代) explores themes of identity and belonging as it follows the filmmaker’s 92-year-old grandmother’s journey growing up during war, migrating to a country that was once deemed an enemy, and what it means to be Japanese-American.
🎥 FEATURE: METTLE
📅 May 31 @ 1:30 PM
📽️ Director: Chelsea Rose Casabona, Surabhi Sundaram
🕒 24 minutes
The film follows the journey of Liana Mutia - a blind Filipino-American judo athlete on her way to the Paris 2024 Paralympics. METTLE highlights Liana's struggles as she faces the reality that this could be the final Paralympic cycle of her career.
🎥 FEATURE: LULLABY
📅 June 1 @ 12:00 PM
📽️ Director: Chi Thai
🕒 15 minutes
A refugee is forced to confront her guilt.
🎥 FEATURE: WOKMAN
📅 June 1 @ 2:00 PM
📽️ Director: Jeremy Thao
🕒 16 minutes
Wokman shares an immigrant Chinese family’s pursuit of the American Dream from inside of their restaurant, China Wok. Based in 1998 in rural Georgia, Wokman is a slice-of-life story of the only Chinese family in town, the Lis, as they navigate through their own little corner of America.
🎥 FEATURE: HOUSTON RISING
📅 June 8 @ 11:30 AM
📽️ Director: Nik Dodani || 🕒 9 minutes
After a megachurch pastor’s racist sermon shocked Houston in February 2024, the city’s Asian American community rose up—uniting with immigrant allies from Asiatown to City Hall. This urgent, moving documentary captures Houston’s long-standing legacy of multicultural solidarity and grassroots resistance in the American South.
🎟️ Come early and don’t miss these exceptional short films before each feature screening!
They amplify the themes, voices, and creative spirit of HAAPIFEST 2025.
🎫 Get your tickets and festival passes: www.haapifest.org/tickets
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