Dane Lum Hohmeyer
2025 HEAR US Awardee
Undergraduate Film & TV Class of 2025
Dane Lum Hohmeyer is a filmmaker, animator, and sound designer from Berkeley, California. Their work explores the long history of Chinese Americans in the United States, changing relationships to home, and queerness.
Dane has been selected as the 2025 recipient of the Kyoko Arai Fund, a gift made possible by Kyoko and Yuki Arai (NYU Stern '10, MBA), who hope to encourage diverse voices and stories in the film industry.
Project
Grave Cleaning is a film about coming home. Our story follows Flora, Chinese American and in their mid 20s, as they return home to San Francisco to help their ailing grandmother in the wake of their Grandfather’s, their Gung Gung’s, death and funeral. Familial disputes have pitted Flora and their mom, Joyce, against each other for most of Flora’s life. As they take care of their grandmother together, we watch Flora and Joyce slowly reconcile their relationship with each other. The film gives us space to wonder and meditate along with Flora as they grow and change in the face of grief. Through its three characters and their interactions, the film explores intergenerational conflict–how we reconcile and cope with abuse as well as care and duty. We explore connection over generational divides. Grave Cleaning sheds light on the life of deep-generation Chinese Americans in the Bay Area through a meditative lens grounded in a personal history that spans centuries. This film challenges perceptions of Asian Americans by decentering themes of “otherness”, “lack of belonging”, and assimilation that permeate mainstream media. Grave Cleaning’s story and shooting locations come from the director's family, who have called the Bay Area home for the last 150 years.
