Join the Ruby's Film/TV group to view STANDING ABOVE CLOUDS edited by our very own Diana Diroy! The film screening will be amongst the APATure 2024 Film showcase featuring works from Teao Sense, Sophia Perez, aka productions, Joyce Keokham, Elaine Nguyen, and featured artist Jalena Keane-Lee. These varied and poignant works explore cultural knowledge and belonging through a variety of different lenses: educational shows and music videos that foreground the lived experience of the AAPI diaspora, reflections on cultural belonging and embodiment, and a documentary that highlights Indigenous Hawaiians' righteous struggles for self-determination.

​The theme for this year is RETURN. From the Palestinian right to return, the call for Indigenous Land Back, and the various migrant histories and struggle for justice in our Pacific Islander and Asian communities, artists consider  what the idea of return means to them.

​​Get tickets here!

​​About the Film:

​Standing Above the Clouds highlights the movement to protect Mauna Kea through the intergenerational stories of women in three Native Hawaiian families as they stand for the sacred mountain. The film follows teacher and community organizer Pua Case and her two daughters — artist-activists Hāwane Rios and Kapulei Flores — who have been called to stop the telescope since 2010. Their lives quickly become consumed with frontline actions and court proceedings and immersed in ceremonies and cultural practices. As they face opposition and arrests, they are joined by a community who have dedicated their lives to protecting Mauna Kea.

​The film is an intimate journey through the women’s lives both on and off the mountain, and explores the physical and emotional toll of sustaining a grassroots movement. After nine months of living on the mountain, blocking construction, and establishing a frontline camp, Standing Above The Clouds shows their journey to heal once they return to their homes in March 2020. In the face of challenges and tragedy, the mountain gifts each woman with hope and strength and the understanding that victory is in standing in unity for sacred places and that healing occurs through the sisterhood they have created along the way.