Summary
12th Annual Guam-USA International Film Festival. Cinemaolek. Community. Education. Entertainment. October 7 - 9 at the Guam Museum.
October 7-9 at the Guam Museum
General Admission: $5.00 USD per screening block (cash only at the door)
Showtimes and Info
- Festival dates are October 7-9 and will be held at the Guam Museum Indoor Theatre
- General admission: $5.00 USD per screening block (cash only at the door)
- Seating is limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis.
- Showtimes may be subject to change. Please visit this site or our social media channels often for the latest information.
- Please note that food and beverages are not permitted inside the Guam Museum Indoor Theatre.
Opening Night - Friday, October 7
6:00PM | ANNOUNCEMENT OF GRAND JURY AWARD HONOREES, MADE IN THE MARIANAS PROGRAM and ISLAND SPOTLIGHT PROGRAM
First Date
NOMINEE – BEST MADE IN THE MARIANAS
6:00pm | Fri Oct 7 | 20min.
(w/ filmmaker Q&A)
First Date is a short film about a young college student struggling to find the courage to ask a girl out on a date.
The Run
NOMINEE – BEST MADE IN THE MARIANAS
6:00pm | Fri Oct 7 | 13min.
(w/ filmmaker Q&A)
A drama thriller set on Guam that follows a young man, Floyd, as he navigates the jungle and overcomes internal conflicts.
Steps on the Shore
NOMINEE – BEST MADE IN THE MARIANAS
6:00pm | Fri Oct 7 | 13min.
(w/ filmmaker Q&A)
While preparing to graduate and leave the island, a young man’s task of completing his valedictorian speech leads him to finally appreciate his home and his family.
Bittersweet
NOMINEE – BEST MADE IN THE MARIANAS
6:00pm | Fri Oct 7 | 17min.
(w/ filmmaker Q&A)
Kayla (Rose McAfee) gives Danny (Gavin Chargualaf) a chance to redeem himself one last time in hopes of saving their relationship from an unforgivable sin.
Beauty Queen
GRAND JURY AWARD NOMINEE – BEST NARRATIVE SHORT
6:00pm | Fri Oct 7 | 18min.
(w/ filmmaker Q&A)
Set in the Philippines during World War II, a young woman struggles to find purpose after losing her father.
Saturday, October 8
1:00 PM | ZERO GRAVITY
Zero Gravity
GRAND JURY AWARD NOMINEE – BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
1:00pm | Sat Oct 8 | 75min.
Immersed in their own space race, a diverse group of ambitious students enter the Zero Robotics ISS (International Space Station) Competition.
2:40 PM | INT'L. COMEDY SHORTS PROGRAM and INT'L. DRAMA SHORTS PROGRAM A
Fermata
2:40pm | Sat Oct 8 | 10min.
In a secluded cabin surrounded by untrodden snow, a man delves into his childhood memories with his father. Nothing can disrupt this moment of introspection, not even the most dangerous threat.
The Crave
GRAND JURY AWARD NOMINEE – BEST NARRATIVE SHORT
2:40pm | Sat Oct 8 | 16min.
Sunday at midday, Mohsen, Nima and Farid want to give bad news to Nastaran, who is about to give birth.
Babatoura
GRAND JURY AWARD NOMINEE – BEST NARRATIVE SHORT
2:40pm | Sat Oct 8 | 11min.
Benoit and Catherine, a couple in their late twenties, go to his parents’ house for dinner. It is with surprise and apprehension that they learn that the whole family is invited for supper and that the evening may not go as planned!
INT'L. DRAMA SHORTS PROGRAM A
Ala Moana Boys
GRAND JURY AWARD NOMINEE – BEST NARRATIVE SHORT
2:40pm | Sat Oct 8 | 21min.
Blamed for a crime they did not commit, five young men in 1930s Hawai’i must consider their futures and their families as they weigh the consequences of taking action.
Evanescent
GRAND JURY AWARD NOMINEE – BEST NARRATIVE SHORT
2:40pm | Sat Oct 8 | 30min.
Sue-kyung is a young adult who is struggling to fit in at work due to her introverted nature.
Therefore, Socrates is Mortal
GRAND JURY AWARD NOMINEE – BEST NARRATIVE SHORT
2:40pm | Sat Oct 8 | 13min.
Facing the climate crisis, Louise, a philosophy teacher, turns words into action.
Marianne
GRAND JURY AWARD NOMINEE – BEST NARRATIVE SHORT
2:40pm | Sat Oct 8 | 17min.
Marianne, a heroine for a day, is interviewed by a young journalist. Despite of all the misunderstandings, a meeting takes place, brief, tenuous, human.
Last Hawaiian Sugar
GRAND JURY AWARD NOMINEE – BEST NARRATIVE SHORT
2:40pm | Sat Oct 8 | 22min.
Set on the final remaining sugar cane plantation camp on Maui, the very day Nua learns the mill is closing, she struggles to tell her mother about the abuse she suffers.
5:30 PM | LOIMATA The Sweetest Tears
LOIMATA The Sweetest Tears – Opening Night Film
GRAND JURY AWARD NOMINEE – BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
5:30pm | Sat Oct 8 | 90min.
The last voyage of the great waka maker, sailor and mentor Ema Siope, whose journeys between Aotearoa and Sāmoa in search of healing, and her family’s reckoning with systemic abuse, are powerfully documented.
Sunday, October 9
1:00 PM | INT'L. DRAMA SHORTS PROGRAM B
Beauty Queen
GRAND JURY AWARD NOMINEE – BEST NARRATIVE SHORT
1:00pm | Sun Oct 9 | 18min.
(w/ filmmaker Q&A)
Set in the Philippines during World War II, a young woman struggles to find purpose after losing her father.
Hawaiian Soul
GRAND JURY AWARD NOMINEE – BEST NARRATIVE SHORT
1:00pm | Sun Oct 9 | 20min.
Amidst the 1970s native rights movement, George Helm, a Hawaiian activist and musician must gain the support of kūpuna (community elders) from Maui to aid in the fight of protecting the precious neighboring island of Kahoʻolawe from military bombing.
Ready Forward
GRAND JURY AWARD NOMINEE – BEST NARRATIVE SHORT
1:00pm | Sun Oct 9 | 25min.
A poignant love story about the transformative power of forgiveness in an aging couple’s relationship.
3:00 PM | INT'L. DOCUMENTARY SHORTS PROGRAM
My Chinatown, With Aloha
3:00pm | Sun Oct 9 | 10min.
Fourth-generation Chinese American Kimberlee Bassford explores her family’s relationship to Honolulu Chinatown and the parallels between the COVID-19 pandemic and the 1899-1900 bubonic plague that hit Hawai‘i, highlighting the ways the two public health crises transformed the iconic neighborhood then and now.
Kāhuli
GRAND JURY AWARD NOMINEE – BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT
3:00pm | Sun Oct 9 | 30min.
This urgent story bears unprecedented biological and cultural significance and reminds us that local nature is an embodiment of Hawaiian identity and a precursor to life on these islands.
I Won’t Remain Alone
GRAND JURY AWARD NOMINEE – BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT
3:00pm | Sun Oct 9 | 15min.
They got devastating news about their son’s brain death. The old fragile blind father, has to make a decision whether to donate his son’s healthy parts to help 16 other patients.
Empty Nest
GRAND JURY AWARD NOMINEE – BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT
3:00pm | Sun Oct 9 | 29min.
The psychological term is empty nest syndrome. The symptoms?
Sadness, loneliness, sudden aimlessness, a bitter feeling of forgetfulness and depression. We all grow up leaving the homes we grew up in. Parents get older.
4:50 PM | RAYDIO
Raydio
GRAND JURY AWARD NOMINEE – BEST NARRATIVE FEATURE
4:50pm | Sun Oct 9 | 94min.
Ray and Dio, father and son, work the day and night shifts respectively. Both reticent and emotionless, they keep some distance between them due to family issues and generation gaps. On Tomb Sweeping Day, Ray gets lost in the columbarium since no one told him where their ancestors’ urns are placed. When Dio sees his miserable father from behind, he realises how useless his father is…
Funding has been provided to Guam International Film Festival, Inc. from Humanities Guåhan and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) as part of the federal ARP Act of 2021.