Ua Ke: A Constellation of Intimate Truths

BACK TO THE FORUM

MAY 2 / 6:00PM - 9:00PM / WEEKEND 1

UA KE: A CONSTELLATION OF INTIMATE TRUTHS

PROGRAMMED BY JOUA LEE GRAND / SCREENING + Q&A WITH THE ARTISTS

LOCATION: PF MAIN GALLERY 144

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“Ua ke” means Together in Hmong. This screening shares a collection of powerful short films that explore themes of identity, community, and personal expression. Experience thought-provoking stories, from documentaries to arthouse films, that reflect unique realities of the human experience.

A Rare Fruit: Hasinat, Director, James Christensen, Cinematographer, Editor & Producer

A survivor of the 2021 Kabul Airport Attack recounts her own story striving for self-autonomy while simultaneously making sacrifices to become a caretaker for her mother and younger brother upon their resettlement in Minnesota.

Marion Dada: Serena Violet Hodges

Marion Dada is a day-in-the-life about the filmmaker’s nephew. Unknowing to him, his little brother is being born.

Silent Echoes: Bhavana Goparaju

When the voices of the past meet the silence of the present, what does a person hear?

bearing witness: Sara Osman, Co-Director & Co-Producer. W. Geedi, Co-Director & Co-Producer

'bearing witness' is a short community archival documentary film that constructs a timeline of police violence in Minneapolis through the stories of Black community members active in the struggle for justice. By juxtaposing historical footage from community uprisings in the 1960s with personal images from the most recent uprising in 2020, the film seeks to present an honest depiction of what it means to be Black in relation to the state of Minnesota.

The Price of Eggs: Maya Washington, Director, Khary Jackson, Composer

A poetry film meditating on the idea of sanctuary while making sense of the self and the natural world in modern times.

di gedenktentz: the remembering dances: Prakshi Malik, Director, Laura (Or) Levinson, Lead Artist/Performer

This project began as a seed, exploring Ashkenazi Jewish relationships to land and solidarity in diaspora. What has emerged over the past three years is an ever-deepening expression of personal, cultural, and ancestral research. At the center swirls Yiddishland - that ethereal/imagined/erased/bone-deep space we call home - made of words, poems, music, dance, folk practices barely but fiercely remembered.

Why My Dad Loves: Nkaujoua Xiong

A portrait of the life, love, and dreams of a Hmong refugee.

JUSTTV: Olu Famule, Director & Writer, Dru Solomon, Writer & Lead Actor

JUSTTV is an audio-visual album by singer-songwriter Dru Solomon. Blending surreal and comedic elements, the album offers a playful and surreal exploration of Dru’s mind, story and interests through the uniquely crafted world of JUSTTV. This is the film component of the larger project.

Featured

JOUA LEE GRANDE

Joua Lee Grande (she/they) is a filmmaker and community connector whose work explores complex societal issues through raw, personal stories. Her work has received recognition and support from institutions across the nation including Jerome Foundation, PBS, Center for Asian American Media, ITVS, the Daytime Emmys and more. Joua has spent over a decade as a nonprofit community worker, organizer and educator. Her work reflects her passion for community, storytelling and social change.

PRAKSHI MALIK

Prakshi Malik is an award-winning filmmaker working collaboratively to make films that sway our collective imaginations. Prakshi’s films like BAAHAR and EMBERS have screened at film festivals internationally. Her editing work includes an Emmy-nominated short documentary, an award-winning narrative feature, experimental and dance films, and a web series on biking for REI. Prakshi grew up in Delhi, India and is based in Minneapolis, Mni Sota Makoce, on Dakota and Anishinaabe land.

OLU FAMULE

Olu Famule is a Nigerian American visual artist and filmmaker dedicated to amplifying underrepresented voices. He is the Co-Founder and Festival Director of Cinefilmu, a QTBIPOC film festival focused on decolonizing the film industry, and co-founder of TDM5, a visual arts incubator supporting Black artists in the Twin Cities by bridging gaps in resources and opportunities. Influenced by his Yoruba upbringing, Olumide actively sees every project as an opportunity to carry the torch passed down from his ancestors.

MAYA WASHINGTON

Maya Washington is an award-winning narrative and documentary filmmaker, actress, author, poet, and visual artist. Through the Banks of the Red Cedar, about her father Vikings football Legend Gene Washington aired on Big Ten Network and is currently available on PBS platforms including PBS Documentaries Channel through Amazon Prime. Her companion memoir, Through the Banks of the Red Cedar: My Father and the Team that Changed the Game, is an Amazon Editor's Pick for Best History, and was a 2023 Finalist for the Minnesota Book Award. Maya directed episodes of the Fox series “The Killer Next Door” and History Channel’s “I Was There,” for Committee Films, and PBS Kids series Black SciGirls. Her MSPIFF and other festival award-winning narrative short, White Space, (starring ABC Family Switched at Birth’s Ryan Lane) about a deaf performance poet aired on network television and was nominated for a Black Reel Award.

SERENA VIOLET HODGES

Serena Violet Hodges is a documentary cinematographer and filmmaker. Serena has worked on series including High on the Hog (Netflix) and Asian Americans (PBS). And provided cinematography for feature documentaries Food & Country (Sundance 2023) and Following Harry (Tribeca 2024). Serena is a recipient of the Jerome Foundation Video and Digital production grant (2023) for their personal documentary, Muncie Didu. Serena was a Visual Communications Armed with a Camera fellow in 2020. Her first fiction short, Mango Baby, premiered at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Islander Film Festival and Seattle Asian American Film Festival and was distributed on Alaska Airlines.

NKAUJOUA XIONG

Nkaujoua Xiong is a Hmong cinematographer, director, and photographer based out of Milwaukee, WI, with a heart for human-focused documentaries. She specializes in cinematography and lighting and currently works on local productions as a director, cinematographer, grip, and production assistant. She strives to discover and share stories, especially those highlighting the Hmong, immigrant, and BIPOC experiences.

HASINAT

Hasinat is a storyteller focused on faith and family who is originally from Kabul, Afghanistan. She arrived in the United States as a refugee, separated from half of her family. While studying to become a nurse and learn the English language, she was recruited by her friend, entrepreneur and producer Zia Qazizada, to learn documentary directing in a months-long program, Rumee, led by local filmmakers and Muslim storytellers. Her autobiographical short, A RARE FRUIT, emerged from this initiative.

JAMES CHRISTENSEN

James Christenson is a third-generation Mexican-American whose documentaries explore how new beliefs and technology meet with traditional ways of dealing with crises. In 2014, The New York Times OpDocs commissioned his co-directed short RUNNING ON FUMES IN NORTH DAKOTA, leading to a feature documentary about his birth state’s oil boom and bust history, THE BAKKEN. As producer, he and director Brennan Vance participated in the 2016 IFP Narrative Edit Labs for their feature, THE MISSING SUN. As D.O.P, editor, and producer, his 2017 doc short about cell phone data tracking, HARVEST premiered at Aspen Shortsfest before its digital debut with The Atlantic in 2018. In 2020, he won the If/Then Shorts - American Midwest pitch competition for his solo-directed documentary about the immigration courts system, TO BE RECONCILED, which premiered at Full Frame in 2021 in association with Field of Vision. He continues to develop it into a feature length film in the U.S. and Mexico.

BHAVANA GOPARAJU

Bhavana Goparaju is an independent writer and producer who amplifies stories that often go unheard and uncelebrated. Her international co-productions have premiered at festivals like Berlinale, Busan, Cartagena, International Film Festival of India Goa, and more, earning six international awards and 15+ Official selections. Her films have been part of programs like Hong Kong Asia Film Financing Forum, Film Bazaar, National Film Development Corporation of India and Tallinn’s Work In Progress labs and have streamed on Netflix, Hotstar, Mubi, Neestream. Bhavana has produced narrative features based in India and is currently co-producing her first U.S.-based feature documentary which will premiere at CAAMFest 2025. Her work celebrates the stories of unsung heroes, the marginalized, and courageous souls who love and fight despite adversity.

SARA OSMAN

Sara A. Osman is a legal advocate, documentary filmmaker, and Somali cultural practitioner from Minneapolis, Minnesota. She is a co-founder and current Director of Creative Initiatives for The Qalanjo Project, a Somali cultural organization and creative arts studio in Minneapolis that promotes cultural production, community archival work, and grassroots social change through the arts. Themes of home, belonging, and cultural preservation are central to her work. Sara is a lifelong community organizer and anti-racist advocate who has worked extensively on migration and human rights issues across multiple regions, including the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. She is driven by a passion for reimagining narratives of displacement and belonging, especially for Black/Muslim communities worldwide. Her legal and creative interests lie in how cultural and legal frameworks interact, how policies shape identities and narratives, and how storytelling, in turn, can serve as a form of advocacy and resistance.

W. GEEDI

W. Geedi is a Somali writer, filmmaker, producer, and thinker from Minneapolis, MN. A former community organizer and teacher, her work revolves around Somali life and history, surveillance, and themes of dis/connection. Geedi’s passion for justice, Somalinimo, speculative fiction, and spirituality inform all aspects of her work.

ScreeningPublic FunctionaryMarch 28, 2025Weekend 1, May 2