HIFF Next Gen Filmmaking Fellows Work-In-Progress Presentation

Learn more about the Fellows and their presentations:

Brooke Beltran is a recent graduate from Moanalua High School, entering her first year at Kapiolani Community College. Beltran joined HIFF’s New Gen Fellowship to continue developing her passion for filmmaking while pursuing her AA in Liberal Arts. In hopes to spread awareness toward a new generation, her project, THE PREYS OF INNOCENCE explores how perspectives of femininity and adolescence are challenged through underlying truths present in their daily lives.

Janya Khurana is a 22-year-old writer/director from California, and currently in her fourth year at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa while studying anthropology and filmmaking. She is making her directorial debut this year with her short film CONNER which she wrote, and co-writing her first feature script, Indigo Rush, with writer and friend Ian Imes. Though her passion lies in female led films, she strives to tell narratives of all kinds.  Her co-presenter, Ian Imes, is a 22-year-old writer and nursing student from Colorado whose storytelling is shaped by compassion, creativity, and lived experience. A lifelong artist and self-taught digital media creator, he has been writing stories and music since childhood. His debut feature script, Indigo Rush, fuses psychological drama, alternative music culture, and queer romance to explore the fragile line between artistic brilliance and personal unraveling. 

Jenna Lee is a Japanese-Chinese artist, born and raised on Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi. She is currently a third-year animation student in the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa’s School of Cinematic Arts. While pursuing her creative endeavors, she hopes to uplift her wonderful community and illuminate stories that are waiting to be shared. Her project, HER HOME IN PALISADES, offers glimpses of memory, where the love of a little girl and her grandma persists through the passage of time.

Naia “Lee” Hoggan is a senior in the School of Cinematic Arts at UH Mānoa, with an animation focus and an interest in concept art, and environment art. Naia’s project is about a dying species of pollinator insect being stolen and junior entomologist, Sook Kang, teaming up with Hyde, a member of the Machina revolution, as they travel through the industrial heart of the underwater city Teivah to recover the insect.

Stacie Bae is a senior at the School of Cinematic Arts at UH Mānoa,. Stacie is a Korean American who grew up on Oahu, with an interest in screenwriting, animation, and anything that has to do with media. Her project, THE MOON IS A CIRCLE, was born from a random shower thought and has developed into a project with the goal of learning more of Korean folk culture and teaching it to other Korean heritage and non-Korean audiences to give an easier access to learning more about Korean culture.

Tiffany Liu is a filmmaker born and raised in Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi, with a deep love for stories that reflect her Chinese heritage and uplift AAPI (Asian American and Pacific Islander) representation. She’s a senior at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, double majoring in Cinematic Arts with a focus in Digital Cinema and Communication. As an Asian American and daughter of hardworking immigrants, Tiffany is passionate about telling stories stitched with Asian culture, woven through threads of family, growth, and individualism. She received the HIFF BMW Hawaiʻi Driven Student Filmmaker Award for her film, Winner, and is excited to showcase Stained, her newest film she wrote and directed that is currently in post-production.