Guest Filmmaker Program

Classroom Visits

(open to primary & secondary students on O’ahu)

Visiting filmmakers will help to enrich classes such as media production, journalism, language arts, foreign language and social studies. These visits will offer the logistical benefit of bringing speakers into classrooms rather than requiring field trips. Students will learn first-hand from successful professionals in the filmmaking/media industry. Teachers will be encouraged to plan activities that will involve students interacting with their guest speakers.

 

2012 Guest Filmmakers

 

Yamato Cibulka & Kenji Doughty

Kenji Doughty & Yamato Cibulka met in middle school and instantly became friends. They shared hobbies and interests, but most of all they shared a passion for movies. During their freshmen year of high school they took a video production class and were both instantly drawn to the process of making movies. That same year they gathered their friends and made their first short film. This continuted throughout their time in school and they went on to even create 2 seasons of a serialized comedy show that would air on the high school TV station.

They agreed that their lives would not be fulfilled unless they pursued their dreams of becoming successful filmmakers. Yamato quit his job and bought a one way ticket to Hawaii. The two long time friends immediately began making short films and continued to produce a film every month. They adopted the name Rising Sons and spent every day working towards their dreams. The Rising Sons have completed nearly 20 short films in the past 2 years, and their group has expanded significantly to include other very talented filmmakers to create a truly collaborative team. When not working on their projects, Kenji and Yamato both work on various different studio TV/Film Productions.

 

Gerard Elmore

Gerard is an award winning writer/editor/producer/director who has a range of experience varying from television production, film and TV commercials. As a commercial director he has directed a number of award-winning spots for clients such as Wet N Wild, Taco Bell, Central Pacific Bank, First Hawaiian Bank, Oceanic Time Warner, Erik’s Deli (Santa Cruz, CA) and McDonald’s. Music videos he has directed have gained national attention and have aired on CMT, FUSE TV, and other numerous outlets. In addition, he has directed a feature film titled ALL FOR MELISSA, which was distributed nationally. His most recent short film, ONE EVENING AT THE BLUE LIGHT BAR & GRILL premiered with TALKSTORY PRODUCTION’S SHORT LIST at last year’s HIFF and was broadcasted locally on KFVE. His feature length comedy concert film, the Na Ali’i of comedy starring Augie T, Andy Bumatai, Mel Cabang, Frank Delima and Ed Kaahea just finished it’s successful run on Oceanic Time Warner Cable pay-per-view.

 

Daniel Hsia

DANIEL HSIA is the writer and director of SHANGHAI CALLING, a romantic comedy set in the American “expat” world of contemporary Shanghai. SHANGHAI CALLING has won numerous international film festival awards, including prizes naming Hsia Best Screenwriter (Media Award – 2012 Shanghai International Film Festival) and Best New Director (Jury Prize – 2012 Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival).

A graduate of Stanford University, Hsia has written for such acclaimed television comedies as ANDY BARKER, P.I. and PSYCH, and has sold original pilot screenplays to Sony Pictures Television, ABC Television Network, and USA Network. Born in Chicago, Hsia now lives in Los Angeles and is currently working on his second feature film, which also takes place in China.

 

Ryan Kawamoto

Ryan is a television and film director represented by Kinetic Productions.

He directed THE SAND ISLAND DRIVE-IN ANTHEM, which won the Audience Award for Best Short Film at the 2005 Hawai’i International Film Festival. While his soon-to-be released feature film HANG LOOSE starring YouTube sensation KevJumba and Dante Basco was nominated for Best Feature at the 2012 Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival. His latest film is a documentary called THE UNTOLD STORY: INTERNMENT OF JAPANESE AMERICANS IN HAWAI’I. It chronicles the unjust incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II and the internment camps located in Hawai’i.

Kawamoto is also known for his advertising projects including two  “Best of Show” Winners in the Hawaii Advertising Federation Pele Awards and is the 2012 Hawaii Advertising Federation “Advertising Man of the Year.” He also serves as a producer for the PBS Hawai’i series “Hiki No” which is a student-created news program.

Kawamoto was born, raised, and continues to reside in Hawai’i.  He graduated from the University of Hawai’i at Manoa.

 

Anne Misawa

Anne Misawa grew up in Hawaii.  Having graduated from University of Southern California’s Graduate Film and Television Program, she has worked internationally in various aspects of film production.  Her primary work is as a Director and as a Cinematographer.

Directorial credits include–
WAKING MELE, (Sundance Film Festival, 2000), and EDEN’S CURVE, (Emerging Film Best Feature Award, NCGLFF, 2003).  Anne teaches cinematic production at the Academy for Creative Media, University of Hawai’i where she produced & directed the feature length documentary, STATE OF ALOHA, which has garnered various awards, (Halekulani Golden Orchid Award Nominee for Best Documentary at HIFF, 2009).

Her work as cinematographer include many award-winning films–
JACK & DIANE (2012), TREELESS MOUNTAIN (2008), TIME OUT (2004), SALT (2003), and LIV (1998).  Her work in TREELESS MOUNTAIN was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Cinematography in 2010.

 

Goh Nakamura

Goh Nakamura is a San Francisco Bay Area based musician who writes ditties about parking tickets, impossible crushes and faraway dreamlands. With one foot in the traditional troubadour world and another in the digital age, he performs at venues small, large, and virtual, to an enthusiastic and ever growing audience. A fortuitous 2007 feature on YouTube’s front page brought his music videos over a million views and earned him a huge new fanbase from all over the world.

Goh’s talents have also found a home in the film industry. Goh’s vocals and guitar work are featured prominently on the scores to Ridley Scott films A GOOD YEAR, AMERICAN GANGSTER, and BODY OF LIES. His song “Daylight Savings” is included on the soundtrack to the Robert Benton film FEAST OF LOVE, starring Morgan Freeman and Greg Kinnear. Recently, Goh was cast as the lead role of the independent film SURROGATE VALENTINE, directed by Dave Boyle (WHITE ON RICE). Boyle and Nakamura developed the story inspired by Nakamura’s eponymous song of his debut album DAYLIGHT SAVINGS.

 

Theresa Navarro

Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Theresa Navarro wears many hats as an arts professional, organizer, educator, actress, and producer. She has collaborated with multimedia arts organizations and educational institutions in California and Hawai’i, and presented lectures and workshops across the country on community engagement and empowerment in the digital age. Theresa holds undergraduate degrees in History and Ethnic Studies from the University of California at Riverside, and completed her graduate work in American Studies and Museum Studies at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa. She recently produced her first narrative feature, YES, WE’RE OPEN (HIFF, 2012); she also worked as associate producer on DAYLIGHT SAVINGS (HIFF, 2012). In 2011, Theresa was featured as one of 15 Asian Pacific American Women Leaders for her work in promoting the media arts. She is currently the Director of Community Outreach at Arts Engine in New York and the Curator of the Media That Matters Annual Showcase.

 

Musa Syeed

MUSA SYEED’s directorial debut feature film VALLEY OF SAINTS premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award for World Cinema: Dramatic and the Alfred P. Sloan Prize. The film is currently on the festival circuit, with screenings scheduled throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. He previously co-directed BRONX PRINCESS (Official Selection, Berlinale) and produced A SON’S SACRIFICE (Best Doc Short, Tribeca Film Festival), both of which aired nationally on PBS. Syeed is currently working on two interactive projects, Kashmir is Beautiful (a Facebook game) and 30 Mosques (a crowdsourced community storytelling platform) that were developed at the Bay Area Video Coalition’s Producers Institute for New Media Technologies and the ITVS/Mozilla Hackathon. Syeed has also taught film for Williams College and was a Fulbright fellow in Egypt.

 

Andrew Williamson

Andrew’s debut film, THE LAND OF EB, was produced entirely on the Big Island of Hawaii where he has resided for nearly a decade. Andrew received his bachelor’s degree in Film Studies from the University of California, Irvine where he studied film from around the world. He works with an international team of filmmakers in Kona, HI producing short and feature length projects, many of which have won awards at local and international festivals. Upon meeting a member of the local Marshallese community and hearing his story, he discovered they had a mutual passion for filmmaking and immediately set out writing a script that would eventually turn into THE LAND OF EB. Although it tells a story of one man and the struggles he and his family face, Andrew hopes the film will shed light on the much larger issue of the devastating long-term effects of the Nuclear Age. Andrew is currently developing a number of other projects including a Mythological thriller set in the 1800’s during the formation of Hawaii’s Paniolo (cowboy) tradition.