The 5' Giants are an unincorporated team of Filipino-American filmmakers who write and perform films that are as diverse and colorful as our own cultural identities. We make our movies with passion, not money (which means all of our talent is unpaid). This concept is foreign to most people, so think of us like a community baseball team that plays the game week after week because they love the game – not because they want to make money. We're just like that, except we don't have bats. Click here to meet our regular stable of actors.

Why the Name?
The team moniker was based after the fact that the average height of a Filipino person is 5’ something. We like the idea of someone who does feats greater than they were built to do, so we adopted it as our team name.

Who funds your movies?
We all have day jobs that contribute to our moviemaking addiction. Our movies gain life from the director's personal bank account or from fundraising efforts by selling our DVDs. All profits/donations/award money goes back to the actors and to the films themselves. It is because of this that we own very simple equipment -- but we have sophisticated ideas.

"Bayanihan" Work Ethics
Our work protocol is based on the the Philanthrophic Filipino tradition of working together as a community. "Bayanihan" refers to the act of a community collaborating and moving a neighbor's house (literally) on their backs. In that same respect all of our cast and crew work together to reach the common goal. Ideally, there is no one leader; Everyone picks up a box, everyone steps in front of the camera when necessary. With the exception of the Director, the lines between cast and crew are often blurred, which ensures that no one is bossed around and everyone is valued.

Color-Blind Cinema
Our responsibility as visionary storytellers is to entrust roles to capable individuals. This means that we will choose talent over the color of skin. This type of interacial casting is not unusual for a Hawaii production and we prefer to preserve this tradition, no matter how big (taller than 6 feet?) we get.

Transcending cinematic stereotypes, while staying true to our own cultural heritage is the delicate balance we strive for when creating our cinematic features.