Hawai‘i International Film Festival (HIFF) is screening Mallorie Ortega’s musical dramedy The Girl Who Left Home, an official selection of the festival, nationwide through Nov. 29. Tickets are $8 and can be purchased here.
The Girl Who Left Home (formerly Nanay Ko) is a musical dramedy film about a Filipino-American who must put her dreams aside to keep her family restaurant from eviction. The film is also an official selection of Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival (Emerging Filmmaker Award) & CAAMFest FORWARD (Audience Award).
The cast features Haven Everly, Emy Coligado, Paolo Montalban, Liz Casasola, Lora Nicolas Olaes, Russwin Francisco, DonMike H. Mendoza, Toni Katano and Mitch Poulos.
The production teams includes Mallorie Ortega (Director/ Writer/Producer/Lyricist), Angelo Santos, Russwin Francisco, Emy Coligado (Producers), Dylan Thai (Executive Producer), Cicero Oca (Co-producer), Matthew Halla (Director of Photography), Lindsay Armstrong, Katie Mcclellan (Editor), Alex Winkler (Composer), Steve Greist (Lyricist) and Diana Cha, Austin Sapp (Sound).

Lia Chang is an actor, a multi-media content producer and co-founder of Bev’s Girl Films, making films that foster inclusion and diversity on both sides of the camera. Bev’s Girl Films’ debut short film, Hide and Seek was a top ten film in the Asian American Film Lab’s 2015 72 Hour Shootout Filmmaking Competition, and she received a Best Actress nomination. BGF collaborates with and produces multi-media content for artists, actors, designers, theatrical productions, composers, musicians and corporations. Lia has appeared in the films Wolf, New Jack City, A Kiss Before Dying, King of New York, Big Trouble in Little China, The Last Dragon, Taxman. She stars in and served as Executive Producer for the short independent films Hide and Seek, Balancing Act, Rom-Com Gone Wrong, Belongingness and When the World was Young. She is also the Executive Producer for The Cactus, The Language Lesson, The Writer and Cream and 2 Shugahs.