Right on the heels of the AFI Project: 20/20 mini film festival at the Honolulu Academy of Arts is another festival with a strong international flavor, albeit more Asian.

Jeannette Paulson Hereniko, founder of the Hawaii International Film Festival, is also the founding president of the U.S. section of NETPAC, the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema. Besides coordinating film festivals, NETPAC publishes books and presents academic conferences and awards to outstanding Asian filmmakers.

NETPAC, formed in 1991 as a collaborative effort between longtime Asian film journal Cinemaya and UNESCO, now has members in 21 countries. The international headquarters is located in Sri Lanka, while Hereniko heads up the U.S. section here in Honolulu.

“;Board members of NETPAC/USA wanted to bring to Honolulu audiences a selection of prize-winning films,”; said Hereniko, “;four of which screened at the 2007 NETPAC Film Festival in Jogja, Indonesia.”;

With the help of fellow curator Philip Cheah, founding director of the Singapore International Film Festival, Hereniko has chosen eight films—five of them Hawaii premieres—that will be screening at Doris Duke Theatre starting Wednesday.

Hereniko says proceeds from the festival will be used to forward two causes for HIFF: bringing in a member of the NETPAC jury and hosting a luncheon for Asian and Pacific islander filmmakers in attendance.

The schedule:

» ”;Those Three (An Seh),”; Iran, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday: Three lost and exhausted soldiers encounter a pregnant woman abandoned by a smuggler. The woman is then forced to accompany the soldiers as they all try to survive against hunger, biting cold and their own personal relationships. “;Those interested in cinematography should not miss this,”; Hereniko said. “;It won the Asia Pacific Screen Award in 2007 for best cinematography and is a visual treat.”;

» ”;Kaak,”; India, 1 and 7:30 p.m. Nov. 20: Described as an introspective film about four women roommates trapped in the world of human trafficking. The women become call girls, and as their dreams change, they hunger for more money. The intrigue heightens when a European girl, another victim of trafficking, comes into their living space.

» ”;The Little Moth (Xue Chan),”; China, 1 and 7:30 p.m. Nov. 21: This personal favorite of Hereniko's features the work of young director Peng Tao. His realistic, heartbreaking feature is about a sickly, orphaned little girl who is exploited when her new parents use her to beg on city streets. (The evening screening will be part of the regular Friends of Film Friday program, which will include an introduction and post-screening discussion led by Dr. Ming-Bao Yue, a member of NETPAC's board of directors and an associate professor in East Asian languages and literature at the University of Hawaii, Manoa.)

» ”;The Photograph,”; Indonesia, 1 and 7:30 p.m. Nov. 22: A fallen woman on the run develops a new life with the aid of an aging and lonely portrait photographer. Photography becomes their means to salvation as their lives weave together into a meaningful existence.

» ”;Good Cats (Hao Mao),”; China, 1 and 7:30 p.m. Nov. 23: In this story about a chauffeur, director Ying Liang shows through the use of black humor how young men in urban centers dream of returning home with quickly gained fame and fortune. NETPAC board member Yue will participate at the evening screening of this film that, like “;The Little Moth,”; is at the forefront of Chinese cinema's digital-video renaissance. (The film was also shown in competition at last month's Louis Vuitton Hawaii International Film Festival.)

» ”;Takva: A Man's Fear of God,”; Turkey, 1 and 7:30 p.m. Nov. 25: Another favorite of Hereniko's, this is a multiple international film festival award-winner about a simple Muslim, Muharrem, who is offered a job by a sheik to collect rent. The job forces Muharrem into moral conflicts that irreversibly disrupt the balances of his small world. (Dr. Wimal Dissanayake, director of UH's International Cultural Studies Program, will introduce and lead a discussion at the film's evening showing.)

» ”;Paper Cannot Wrap Up the Embers,”; Cambodia/France, 1 and 7:30 p.m. Nov. 26: Winner of the 2007 Prix Arte at the European Film Academy documentary competition, this film is an uncompromising look at a community of young women who live in a decaying apartment building in Phnom Penh, and how they are forced into prostitution to survive.

» ”;Last Queen of the Earth,”; Iran, 1 and 7:30 p.m. Nov. 28: Hereniko says this award-winning film, banned in its own country, is included in the lineup primarily because “;the filmmaker (Akharin Malakeye Zamin) handed me a DVD of it in Tehran last February when I was a guest of the Fajir Film Festival.”; The work is a simple, yet powerful film about a young Afghani immigrant who works in a henna grinding factory in Iran. As a U.S.-led invasion becomes more likely in the wake of 9/11, he tries to return to Afghanistan to find his wife and family before war breaks out.