“Don’t be afraid. Be brave. Stand up for yourself, and your dreams will come true.”

She may wear a hand-me-down gown, but Eva Baron, the transgender Tongan who stands up for herself in short film “Lady Eva,” finds fulfillment at her community’s “Miss Galaxy” pageant, and her audacity resonates.

The sentiment echoes through the entirety of the programming for the 28th annual Honolulu Rainbow Film Festival, with movies and a festive red-carpet gala at the Honolulu Museum, and a pool party in Waikiki.

The 17 films and three short-film showcases allow gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people of diverse ethnicities and cultural backgrounds to tell their own stories in fictional and documentary forms. Filmmakers included in the fest come from Hawaii and the Pacific, North and South America, Asia, the Middle East and Western Europe.

Organizers have intentionally emphasized films with an activist tone, along with films of various genres that advance the cause of understanding the lives and expressions of LGBT people.

Films screening this year also cross boundaries between activist groups, finding common ground with African-Americans, Muslims, feminists.

“We wanted to cover the people affected by (President Donald ) Trump’s new policies: undocumented people, trans people, civil rights activists, those affected by police brutality,” said programming director Richard Kuwada. “That was a theme the board set this year; they wanted the festival to deal with activism. Trans rights is probably the last frontier we have to work with in the LGBT community.”

A 10-person film committee screened and chose the movies, Kuwada said: “We worked to create a balance between informing and providing entertaining, amusing films.”

The mission to promote understanding of those at risk has taken on additional urgency in Hawaii since the presidential election. Pres. Trump has sought to ban transgender people from the military, speed up deportation of undocumented immigrants and restrict travel by people from certain countries with primarily Muslim populations.

Films such as “Forbidden: Undocumented and Queer in Rural America” (screening Aug. 12 at 4:15 p.m.) go to the heart of today’s political controversies. Its subject, Moises Serrano, whose parents brought him to the U.S. as a baby, is now an activist and a “dreamer” — a resident of the U.S. who grew up in this country, but crossed its borders without documentation. Serrano strives to forge a future from his home in North Carolina.

Kuwada points to the festival’s acquisition of the film “Apricot Groves” (screening Aug. 12 at 6:20 p.m.), set in Armenia and made by a young Iranian filmmaker, Pouria Heidary Oureh. In the wake of Trump’s travel ban, Oureh gave up his quest for a visa to attend the U.S. premiere of his film in Los Angeles.

In a March interview with the Los Angeles Times, Oureh addressed Trump directly, expressing gratitude for the support that emanated from filmmakers and film lovers throughout the country. “The kindness and love and altruism of the American people was proven to the world, and you created a support and bond between the people of the countries you banned from entering the U.S. and the American people,” Oureh said.

In contrast to Oureh, Kuwada says, “People are angry. This is the current atmosphere. … There was a strong feeling that activism needed to be a theme this year.”

“The film I’m silently rooting for ‘Whose Streets?’” Kuwada said. “It’s an African American film in an LGBT festival. I’m eager to see if we can include people who don’t always come to our festival.”

The local chapter of the NAACP is presenting “Whose Streets?” Missouri activist Brittany Ferrell, the co-founder of Millennnial Activists United, will appear at the screening for a Q&A. Ferrell is African-American, a feminist and lesbian. Kuwada describes her as a member of the “fifth-wave feminist-activist community.”

The festival’s trademark emphasis on celebration also continues with an opening-night reception, a Waikiki pool party and a gala Red Carpet Event on the last night, Aug. 19.

The Red Carpet Event closes the festival as a stand-alone party for those who bought a festival pass, with filmmakers, actors and sponsors in attendance.

“We wanted to end on a really high note,” said event coordinator Gerald Cruz.

On Aug. 18, Statehood Day, an extended schedule of programming will be offered. And on Aug. 14, a Monday when the Doris Duke Theatre is dark, the festival is offering a shopping night for festivalgoers at Burberry, newly opened in the International Market Place.

Singer, actor and filmmaker Todrick Hall, known for his appearances as a judge on “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and on stage for Broadway’s “Kinky Boots,” is the opening-night attraction. He is an openly gay singer, dancer, songwriter and actor, and his YouTube channel has 2.3 million subscribers. He’ll be at the festival to party with filmgoers at the reception for his film, “Behind the Curtain: Todrick Hall,” on opening night, when he’ll also be presented with the festival’s Rainbow Award.

To entice younger filmgoers who may also belong to Hall’s tribe of “Toddlerz,” the festival is offering $10 tickets to the opening night film and reception for those who are 20 and younger, available from the box office with ID.

“We want to make it accessible for all his YouTube fans,” said festival director Brent Anbe.

Tongan pageant contestant Eva Baron, quoted above, is a world away from Hall, both culturally and in terms of the sophisticated production methods Hall has access to. What they share is a determination to find joy in performance.

In the film, “Lady Eva” is shown leaving home, then blooming as she competes in the Miss Galaxy 2016 event, lip-syncing and dancing in the style of Tina Turner to the song “Proud Mary.”

The Pacific Islanders in Communications-backed short film screens Aug. 18 at 1 p.m. Filmmakers Dean Hamer, Joe Wilson and Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu, a Native Hawaiian cultural practitioner who was herself the subject of a film, “Kumu Hina” (and who won the Miss Galaxy competition 20 years earlier), will appear at the festival.

Oscar-winning screenwriter, director and LGBT-rights activist Dustin Lance Black (“Milk”) returns as a featured guest. Black was part of the festival’s 20th annual event in 2009, appearing just weeks after he’d been recognized for Best Original Screenplay.

Black’s latest project is the ABC miniseries “When We Rise,” which he created. The opening episode will show at the festival. It was directed by Gus Van Sant, with whom Black worked on “Milk.”

Anbe praises the series, which dramatizes the recent history of the gay rights movement. “It’s told with heart,” he said. “It moves you.”

For the past three years, Black has lived in England, where his husband, Tom Daley, is a British Olympic diver.

With a front-row seat to European tensions and arguments about nationalism and human rights, Black said this is a time when activism and coalition-building are ever more necessary. As portrayed in “When We Rise,” with the parallel actions of lesbian, gay, Caucasian, African-American and Asian people converging to bring change, Black’s view is that movements are stronger when groups join forces.

“One can argue that worldwide, we’re in the middle of a conversation about whether difference is a thing to be feared or to be valued,” Black said. “People of the world are making different decisions in different places.

“The value of a storyteller is to illuminate these differences — because they’re not going away.”

Daley is also a highly anticipated attendee. On July 22, the 23-year-old Daley won a gold medal for his 10-meter platform dive at the World Aquatic Championships in Hungary, making him the 2017 world champion in that category.

On the day of his championship, Daley Tweeted, “OMG I am world champion! Now time for that long overdue honeymoon.”

Next stop: Hawaii.

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2017 HRFF HIGHLIGHTS

THURSDAY, 6-7::30 P.M.:

>> Opening-night reception and screening, “Behind the Curtain: Todrick Hall.” The reception features pupu from Chiko’s Tavern, followed by 7:30 screening and a Q&A with filmmaker and YouTube star Todrick Hall. The colorful documentary follows Hall as he prepares a full-scale musical production, “Straight Outta Oz,” which tells his own story, from growing up black and gay in a small Texas town to launching a show-business career. Hawaii-born Pussycat Dolls singer Nicole Scherzinger, comedian Wayne Brady, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and “American Idol” winner Jordin Sparks are among the friends who appear in the film. Luce Pavilion and Doris Duke Theatre, Honolulu Museum of Art.

AUG. 17, 7 P.M.:

>> Centerpiece film, “Whose Streets?”: Hawaii premiere of the documentary, followed by a discussion with civil rights activist and LGBTQ leader Brittany Ferrell. An emotionally charged account of the unrest in Ferguson that followed the police shooting of Michael Brown Jr. in that Missouri city. Ferrell and Alexis Templeton, who are partners, demand justice for the unarmed 18-year-old’s killing — a flash point for the Black Lives Matter movement. Doris Duke Theatre, Honolulu Museum of Art.

AUG. 18, 7:45 P.M.:

>> Closing night screening, “When We Rise.”: The opening episode of the acclaimed ABC miniseries, set in the Vietnam era, followed by a discussion with the show’s creator, Academy Award-winner Dustin Lance Black. The series chronicles the real-life personal and political struggles and triumphs of LGBT men and women who helped pioneer the gay-rights movement, from the 1960s onward. Doris Duke Theatre, Honolulu Museum of Art.

AUG. 19, 6 P.M.:

>> Red Carpet Event: A celebration of the festival for pass-holders, filmmakers and celebrity guests, with pupu from Roy’s Waikiki, 12th Ave Grill, Bills Sydney, Chef Chai, Baker & Butcher, freshBOX, P.F. Chang’s Waikiki and RumFire Waikiki, and a hosted bar by Hula’s Bar & Lei Stand. Honolulu Museum of Art.

AUG. 20, 2-5 P.M.:

>> “Paradise” pool party: Hosted by U.K. world-champion diver Tom Daley and Oscar-winning filmmaker and screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, the event benefits the Honolulu Gay & Lesbian Cultural Foundation, with hosted food, gifts and a cocktail bar.

See a full schedule of nightly films, screening Aug. 11 through Aug. 18, and buy tickets online here.