Ger Moua
Qhia Dab Neeg Spotlight Filmmaker
I want the younger generation to take the torch that we have lit and run with it. Make it better, make use of the modern technology, the modern equipment that we have nowadays, and tell the Hmong stories—or tell your own stories—the way you want to tell them, in a way that’s true to you.
Ger Moua is a Hmong filmmaker, cinematographer, and director based in the Twin Cities. A 2018 graduate of the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Moua began filmmaking in 2015 with a commitment to preserving Hmong culture and language through cinema. Having arrived in Minnesota as a refugee in 2004, he draws inspiration from the Hmong films he watched growing up as well as American animation, cinema, music, and popular culture. His work spans narrative film and music video, with a particular interest in bringing Hmong folktales and stories to the screen in visually ambitious ways. His 2021 short film Sun and Moon, supported by the Minnesota State Arts Board, incorporated professional visual effects artists to expand the visual possibilities of Hmong storytelling. Moua continues to create narrative and music-based work while encouraging younger Hmong filmmakers to build upon the work of previous generations, embrace new technologies, and tell stories in ways that remain authentic to their own voices.
Qhia Dab Neeg: 50 Years of Hmong Film in Minnesota has been financed in part with funds provided by the State of Minnesota through the Minnesota Historical Society from the Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund.