ABOUT SPIRITED

Joua (Joo-uh) is shocked when she learns that she has been chosen to one day become a shaman. A skeptical and agnostic filmmaker, she captures her journey to understand and reconnect with her community’s ancestral spiritual practice. Spirited is a poignant and introspective documentary following Joua over a decade of her life as she struggles to untangle her people’s belief system and grapples with the decision to accept or reject this calling. Her intercultural and interfaith family must sort through their differences as the symptoms of Joua’s “shaman sickness” worsen, signaling that it is time to make a choice. 

She meets other shamans, their loved ones and everyday Hmong Americans who share what it is like to be at the cross-sections of identities, cultures and communities. In her growing friendship with young master shaman Billy, they face hard truths about trauma, mental health, generational clashes, intercultural tensions, gender-based abuse, healing and how this ancient practice is changing in America in ways that scare elders.

Spirited is a feature-length documentary that is currently in post-production. We are fundraising to get us to the finish line. We invite you to join us in finishing our film and our impact work!