ACL Spokane is proud to sponsor two programs featuring Asian and Asian American stories at this year’s Spokane International Film Festival, which kicks off this Friday, March 6th at the Myrtle Woldson Performing Arts Center in Gonzaga University. We currently have limited FREE tickets available for Chai Culture Club members for Honeyjoon and World Shorts screenings! Please contact Frances at fmortel@aclspokane.org to reserve your spot!
🎬Honeyjoon
Join us this weekend as we present a screening of the award-winning debut feature Honeyjoon at the Spokane International Film Festival on March 8th! There will be a virtual Q&A right after the screening with director Lilian T. Mehrel who will be joining us all the way from New York.
Honeyjoon is a light-and-dark comedy that follows June and her Persian mom Lela on a trip to the romantic Azores islands for a grief anniversary, with contrasting ways of coping. Between Iranian women rights, honeymooners, and a charming surfer—they ride the waves of life, loss, and flirting in an unforgettable journey.
The film premiered at Tribeca in 2025, won the Tribeca AT&T Untold Stories Award, multiple audience awards, Grand Jury Best Feature award, has a starry cast, great press, and #1 on Vogue’s standout films.
It is a rare Persian diaspora film that also carries on the spirit of Iran’s Woman Life Freedom movement, reminding us that reclaiming joy can also be another form of resistance.
About the Director – Lilian T. Mehrel is an award-winning writer & director with a visionary sense of feeling and humor. Lilian’s films have also screened at different film festivals around the world. She was selected for the SFFILM Rainin Grant, the TorinoFilmLabComedyLab, Film Independent Episodic Lab, Sloan Award, Nancy Malone Directing Award, Geri Ashur Screenwriting Award, NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship, CineQuaNonLab, Film Fatales Episodic Directing Shadow Workshop, TFI Labs with YouTube/Google and Warner Media, and the Sony Pictures Classics / Marcie Bloom Fellowship. Lilian takes audiences for a ride with her stunning swirl of comedic and emotional cinema. She earned her MFA from NYU Tisch Grad Film with a PDS Fellowship, and her BA from Dartmouth with a Senior Fellowship. She has been featured in Vogue, IndieWire, Variety, and The Hollywood Reporter. She also enjoys hip hop dance.