STANDING ABOVE THE CLOUDS follows Native Hawaiian mother-daughter activists at the forefront of the movement to protect their sacred mountain, Mauna a Wakea, from an eighteen story, Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT). STANDING ABOVE THE CLOUDS won Best Documentary Short at LA Asian Pacific Film Festival, Best Short Film at Melbourne Women in Film Festival, and Special Mention from the Center for Asian American Media.
We had the pleasure to screen this very special film on May 13, 2022. Jalena Keane-Lee is not only the maker of this film, but also comes from a family of generations of Asian American community advocates in Marin County. As a professional filmmaker, she explores intergenerational trauma and healing through an intersectional lens. Named Paper Magazine’s Top 5 Asian creators to know, Jalena’s work subverts traditional narratives about the female, Asian American Pacific Islander experience. Jalena co-founded Breaktide Productions, an all women of color production company, produced commercial series for Nike and Facebook, hosted the national environmental television show Eco Company, and won Tribeca Through Her Lens 2020. She’s also been an AAJA, NeXt Doc and Jacob Burns Film Center Fellow.
Asian American Alliance of Marin 