Hiff Hiff Hooray!

Photo by Lawrence Tabudlo

W hen it comes to the films featured in this year’s Hawai‘i International Film Festival, HIFF’s new executive director, Jean H. Lee, says a unifying theme to describe the lineup is “Voyagers and Visionaries.”

It’s the theme for this year’s honoree gala, but Lee notes it’s also a thread seen throughout the festival’s films, starting with the opening night screening of The Navigator, a documentary that follows Native Hawaiian navigator Nainoa Thompson as he embarks on a 2,400-mile journey across the ocean.

That theme also happens to be an apt description of Lee.

Lee, who took the helm at HIFF on Sept. 1, is a voyager in her own right — her decades-long career as a journalist has taken her across the country and to Europe, Africa and Asia, including years spent working in North Korea. And as she leads HIFF into its next chapter, she has a vision to strengthen and grow the organization.

Lee has worked as a foreign correspondent for the Associated Press, was a contributor to CNN, co-hosted a BBC podcast, served as a policy analyst, and, most recently, was the presidential chair at the East-West Center.

Now in its 46th year, HIFF launched in 1981 with the goal to foster understanding and cultural exchange throughout Asia, the Pacific, and North America. Over the years, the event has evolved into a multi-faceted nonprofit with year-roind programming, as well as industry events and educational initiatives that support filmmaking.

Lee joins HIFF just in time for its annual festival, which runs Oct. 21-Nov. 5 on O‘ahu and Nov. 6-15 on the Neighbor Islands. This year’s lineup includes 84 feature films and 86 shorts from around the world, with a focus on films made in Hawai‘i and throughout the Asia-Pacific. In conjunction with the festival, HIFF also hosts the second annual HIFILM Industry Conference Oct. 24-25, featuring panels, workshops and networking opportunities.

On the surface, Lee’s new role with HIFF may seem like a career shift for her. But it’s really more of a “circuitous path,” as she describes it, the culmination of a lifelong interest in film and a lifetime of telling stories.

“In some ways, my journey and all the different skills I have learned along the way have led me to this role,” Lee says.

Work around the world

Lee grew up in Minneapolis, the daughter of Korean American immigrants.

She credits her maternal grandfather for sparking her interest in film and journalism.

“ (He) was a journalist, and he was really the first person to send me on assignment. When I was a kid, when I went to visit South Korea, every day, he would have me sit down and record what I saw. … He also was a huge fan of movies … and that fed my interest in film,” she recalls.

After graduating from Columbia University, she spent two years as a reporter in Seoul, before returning to Columbia for a graduate program in journalism. From there, she joined the Associated Press and worked in cities including Baltimore, San Francisco, New York and London.

“As a correspondent for AP, you ’re a jack-of-all-trades — you write about everything. I covered the Olympics, I covered the World Cup, I covered APEC summits, I covered presidents, protests and just about everything you could possibly do,” Lee says.

In 2008, she was promoted to bureau chief of AP’s Seoul office, leading coverage of the Korean Peninsula, and in 2012, she opened an AP bureau in Pyongyang. Lee spent years reporting on the ground in North Korea and had an extraordinary amount of access to the isolated nation for an American reporter.

In 2015, she transitioned into policy work, joining the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., providing research and analysis on North Korea to policymakers.

She came to Hawai‘i in 2023 as a fellow at the East-West Center and later became its presidential chair, where she helped foster new partnerships and hosted discussions with global thought leaders.

While her initial role at the East-West Center was supposed to last just a couple of months, Lee says she felt an instant connection to Hawai‘i.

“I just immediately felt at home,” she says. “I felt like this is where I was supposed to be, both personally and professionally.”

A passion for storytellinig

Throughout every stage of Lee’s career, film has played a part. While earning her master’s, she focused her studies on film and wrote her thesis on portrayals of Asian-American men in movies.

As a journalist, Lee has written extensively about film and covered international film festivals, including Sundance and Cannes. Later, in her policy work, Lee often showed films as a way to start conversations.

Another throughline in her career, Lee says, has been the overarching mission to “tell the stories of people who were not being heard.”

“I wanted to shine a light on their stories,” she says.

Lee sees filmmaking as an extension of that — “movies can introduce you to a whole new world,” she says — and she knows firsthand how powerful representation on screen can be.

“Growing up (in the Midwest), I never saw anyone Asian anywhere, and it really affected my identity,” Lee says. “… Film was a way for me to be like, oh actually, there are Asians out there living a parallel life to mine, and it opened my world up.”

That’s part of what makes her passionate about HIFF.

“I want to make sure that (diverse) communities see their stories on the screen and see their stories represented, because there is something really validating about seeing someone who’s telling your story on the big screen,” Lee says.

Lee says HIFF’s work to highlight films from a range of cultures — including those made in Hawai‘i that depict the islands authentically — is what made her want to join the organization.

“Everybody thinks they know Hawai‘i because they may have come here on vacation, but that is just one tiny piece of what this place is all about. … There’s a whole other ecosystem and culture. It’s our responsibility to tell those stories. HIFF can be the platform for that,” Lee says.

It was Lee’s passion for diverse storytelling that made her stand out in HIFF’s nationwide search for an executive director, says local filmmaker Jordan Kandell, HIFF’s board president.

“Her own personal mission … was to find and uplift stories and voices from people that are traditionally or historically underrepresented. And she has done that … throughout all these different aspects of what has become a very impressive career that reflects a commitment to other cultures and how we can bring them together,” Kandell says. “That very much spoke well to what HIFF’s mission is.

“I think she will steer HIFF in exciting new directions.”

Building the future of HIFF

Lee has some big goals for the future of HIFF: She wants to expand its year-round programming, and build upon efforts to strengthen the local film industry — work she feels could help to diversify the local economy while sharing authentic Hawai‘i stories on the global stage. She also has a vision for HIFF to become a destination festival, like Sundance or Telluride, that draws in visitors from around the world.

As Lee begins her work toward these goals, she knows there are challenges ahead. Like other arts organizations across the country, HIFF has experienced cuts in federal funding, and in recent years, the way people consume media has changed, with audiences often opting to stream a movie at home rather than go to a theater.

In addressing those challenges, Lee says her first step is building a community around HIFF.

“I’ll be looking to connect and partner with arts organizations both here in Hawai‘i and beyond these shores. And we will be asking our ‘ohana to come together to support HIFF, and other arts organizations, through this funding crisis,” she says. “After all, it’s vitally important, now more than ever, to support storytelling that gives voice to the vibrant diversity of Hawai’i. The original mission of HIFF was also to build bridges through film; bringing stories from the world to Hawai‘i is vitally important as well.”

She’s also looking at bolstering HIFF’s roster of events beyond just the films themselves.

“What people are looking for with festivals is community — talks with filmmakers and actors, parties and pop-ups, and the experience of watching movies with other cinephiles,” Lee says. “We’d love to create more of that experience, for locals as well as visitors, so that HIFF becomes an event people around the world put in their calendars every year.”

Lee says she wants to see HIFF become “the gathering place” for storytelling.

“Let’s be the place where people come when they want to hear stories about Hawai‘i and share stories from across the region. HIFF has done that so successfully over the years, but I think it can be an even bigger, even stronger, even more impactful film festival. I want more people to experience it.”

For more information and for tickets to HIFF46, visit hiff.org.

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