From Charlie Chaplin to Taika Waititi, immigrant artists have shaped film and cinema in the United States, bringing bold, original perspectives to the screen—both in front of and behind the camera. The Vilcek Foundation celebrates this legacy through its support of the New American Perspectives program at the Hawai’i International Film Festival (HIFF).

Made possible with a grant from the Vilcek Foundation, New American Perspectives highlights the voices and work of immigrant filmmakers, offering them a platform at HIFF to share their stories and creative visions. In 2024, the program featured five outstanding artists: cinematographer Roger Deakins, director Ramona Diaz, director Sasha Rainbow, multimedia artist Van Tran Nguyen, and cinematographer Kenji Tsukamoto.

Five films were screened as part of the program at the festival, including Diaz’s And So It Begins, Tsukamoto’s Ashima, Tran Nguyen’s The Motherload, and Rainbow’s Grafted, each followed by a Q&A session with the filmmakers. Following a packed screening of Blade Runner 2049, Roger Deakins and his artistic collaborator James Ellis Deakins engaged audiences with a discussion that had cinephiles standing in the aisles to hear their reflections.

As part of HIFF’s educational programming, Kenji Tsukamoto and his producer Minji Chang spoke with art students at the Mid-Pacific Institute about the practical aspects of filmmaking, from securing funding to managing production. Ramona Diaz also met with students at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa’s Center for Philippine Studies, discussing her portrayal of politics, power, and gender in her films—from Imelda and A Thousand Cuts to And So It Begins. 

Through the New American Perspectives program, the Vilcek Foundation and HIFF provide vital support to the next generation of immigrant filmmakers, centering their voices, stories, and artistry.

Roger Deakins

Born in the United Kingdom
Cinematographer, Blade Runner 2049

Roger Deakins first came to image-making through graphic design and photography, which he studied at the Bath Academy of Art. He subsequently attended the National Film School alongside Michael Radford, who would become a long-time collaborator. Deakins’ work on Radford’s films Another Time, Another Place and Nineteen Eighty-Four garnered critical acclaim at major festivals, including Cannes, and launched his career as a sought-after cinematographer for dramatic films. 

Deakins won his first and second Academy Awards in Cinematography in 2017 and 2019 for Blade Runner 2049 and for 1917 respectively, after having previously been nominated 14 times. Deakins is known for his long-standing relationships with the Coen brothers, Sam Mendes, and Denis Villeneuve. With his creative partner James Ellis Deakins, he hosts the Team Deakins podcast: The podcast is widely acclaimed for the care and detail with which the Deakinses delve into the craft of filmmaking with some of the industry’s most indelible artists, from Rodrigo Prieto to Hans Zimmer.

Kenji Tsukamoto

Born in Japan
Director and Cinematographer, Ashima

Kenji Tsukamoto spent his early childhood in Japan, moving to the United States with his family when he was about 7 years old. The family moved frequently throughout Kenji’s youth and adolescence: As a result, Kenji recalls learning to code-switch to quickly adapt and navigate the social challenges of new schools and communities, and the way he was perceived as an immigrant, a newcomer, and a member of the Mormon community.

After attending the film program at Brigham Young University, Tsukamoto produced a short documentary feature on Utah resident George Murakami titled Beehive Stories: Millard County, which earned Tsukamoto a Rocky Mountain Emmy Award. He directed, produced, and served as cinematographer on his first feature film, Ashima, which provides a glimpse into the experience of Japanese American rock climber Ashima Shiraishi as she attempts a record-setting climb at age 13.

Ramona Diaz

Born in the Philippines
Director, And So It Begins

Born in the Philippines, documentary filmmaker Ramona Diaz’s perspective was deeply shaped by the country’s colonial history and politics, Catholicism, and the Marcos dictatorship and the fallout of martial law. These themes feature prominently in the films she has directed and produced, from Imelda to Motherland to A Thousand Cuts. Deeply interested in journalism and the power of truth and storytelling, she earned her BA from Emerson College and an MA in communication from Stanford University. 

Diaz was awarded a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship and was inducted into the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences in 2016. In 2017, she received a Women at Sundance Fellowship. Her latest feature, And So It Begins, was chosen by the Film Academy of the Philippines as the Philippines’ entry to the 97^th Academy Awards.

Van Tran Nguyen

Born in Vietnam
Director, Screenwriter, Producer, Performer, The Motherload

Van Tran Nguyen is Vietnamese American artist-scholar, filmmaker, curator, and multimedia artist. An assistant professor in the Georgetown University Department of Performing Arts, she earned her MFA from the State University of New York at Buffalo, and her PhD at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. She completed her first short film, Erie County Smile, as part of her PhD thesis; the film premiered on PBS in 2021. 

Tran Nguyen is deeply interested in the way the experiences of immigrants are portrayed in film, literature, and the media. As writer, director, producer, and performer in The Motherload, she brings an academic and deeply satirical comic lens to the trope of American films about the Vietnam war. She and her artistic partner, Alex Derwick, are working on their subsequent feature narrative, Easy Going.

Sasha Rainbow

Born in New Zealand
Director, Grafted

Director and filmmaker Sasha Rainbow grew up as a first-generation New Zealander on her mother’s side, and second-generation New Zealander on her father’s. She credits the experience of navigating her own experiences of identity and belonging amid New Zealand’s legacies of colonization, immigration, and forced migration as having a profound impact on her approach to storytelling. She got her start in filmmaking as an art director and producer, making music videos for friends in London and working on campaigns for Puma, Apple, and Toyota. She participated in the BFI Flare x BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) development program from 2018 to 2021, during which she directed her first short, Kofi and Lartey, and feature documentary film, Kamali. In early 2020, Rainbow moved to Los Angeles. She directed her first feature narrative, the New Zealand body horror Grafted, in 2024, and the film is now being distributed internationally on Shudder.