July 30 – August 15: Honolulu Rainbow Film Festival

The Honolulu Rainbow Film Festival is going virtual again this year, hosting an online festival from July 30 to August 15, 2021 on the Honolulu Gay and Lesbian Cultural Foundation’s website. The free event will use films and an interactive talk-story event to highlight the challenges and opportunities faced by Hawaii’s LGBTQ community during the coronavirus pandemic and recent anti-Asian sentiment.

New this year, HRFF becomes a hub of LGBTQ programming for the Asia Pacific region, as the host of the 2021 Asia Pacific Queer Film Festival Alliance (APQFFA) Short Film Festival. Viewers worldwide will be treated to a showcase of the best short films from the region.

“In a year of unprecedented discrimination and violence against Asians here in the United States and around the world, we take special pride in raising the visibility of our Asian and Pacific lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, mahu, and intersex community through the creative medium of film,” says board president and programming chair Dean Hamer.

The festival will award two prizes:

APQFFA GRAND PRIZE- $1000 (awarded by a jury of participating festival programmers)

AUDIENCE AWARD- $500 (highest view count)

“We are fortunate to be able to hold such events in Hawai`i without government interference or societal condemnation, but realize many of our fellow festivals and filmmakers are in a more precarious situation. We hope this event will provide an opportunity for creative, queer filmmakers from all locations to have their work widely seen and appreciated by the widest possible audience,” adds board member Brandin Shim.

HRFF32 community allies are Bank of Hawaii Foundation, Hula’s Bar & Lei Stand, Hawai`i Tourism Authority, Hawaiian Airlines, and Honolulu Magazine.

HRFF is one of the longest continually running LGBTQ film festivals in the world, and has long been noted as a bridge for queer cinema between Hawai`i, Asia and the Pacific, and the West. It is presented by the Honolulu Gay and Lesbian Cultural Foundation, founded in 1997 as a non- profit 501(c)3 organization whose mission is to educate and raise awareness of the community-at-large about gay and lesbian culture, arts, and lifestyle, in honor of Hawai`i LGBTQ pioneer Adam Baran. More at HGLCF.org.

Stream films for free at: www.hglcf.org #HRFF32 / Facebook: Honolulu Rainbow Film Festival / IG: @hrfilmfest / Twitter: @hrfilmfest