Academy for Creative Media features six student films at HIFF

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Contact:
Posted: Oct 6, 2010

The University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa’s Academy for Creative Media (ACM) will feature six of its student films at the 2010 Hawai‘i International Film Festival’s annual ACM Night @ HIFF on Friday, October 22, starting at 6:00 p.m. at the Regal Dole Cannery Theatres.
 
“These highly creative student films explore life, love, death, surf and hip-hop culture, comedy, drama and documentary from the North Shore to Nanakuli,” said Tom Brislin, ACM chair. “These films are true reflections of ACM’s mission to empower our students to tell original stories for the screen that reflect and transmit authentic cultures of Hawai‘i, Asia, and the Pacific.”
 
The program includes two films woven together as “Yuen’s Grocery Nanakuli.” It is co-produced with student filmmakers from Shanghai University as part of the unique SMART (Student Media Art) Exchange, the only university program of U.S.-China student film co-productions.
 
Five other films from SMART Exchange student filmmakers from Shanghai will be featured at an earlier 4:00 p.m. screening, including a trio of stories in “A Summer, A Boy, And A Cab,” co-produced with ACM students in Shanghai this summer.
 
In addition to Aina Paikai’s and Gloria Pan’s “Yuen’s Grocery,” which explores life as it passes through a mom-and-pop’s on Oahu’s west coast, the ACM program of short films will feature:
 
·        “Aikea” by James Joshua Goodson, about a young man trying to rise above his low-life friends, and take his little brother with him.
·        “From a Dead Stop” by Jason Kaneshiro, a local take on a crime-and-punishment theme.
·        “Illuminate” by Angie Lee, a documentary focusing on strength and faith in a family facing seemingly hopeless times.
·        “Stuck” by Jaime Peak, a romantic comedy about a relationship going nowhere--and everywhere.
·        “Town vs. Country” by Pablo Paz, a documentary about a Hawaiian reviving indigenous agriculture by day, and performing original hip-hop by night.
 
The student filmmakers will be present at the screening to be recognized for their outstanding accomplishments and to discuss their films.