Father Geek here in Central Texas... well, I'm wearing a Hawaiian shirt, annnnd I just ate some cool authentic island food (not from Hawaii) at a little local Austin cafe called "Havana", the night here is wonderful with a cool island-like breeze making our moderate temp seems evey nicer, but I've only got Moon Yun's typed words before me, not the pleasure of her company... hold on, I've got one of her great AICN business cards in the ol'desk drawer some place... ahhhhh, there it is with her wonderful picture on it, what a cute smile and sparkling, alive eyes (no wonder she gets all these interviews for us) I'm totally in the proper mood to post this report now. (Who could ever turn her down)
Aloha, Moon Yun here reporting from Hawaii on the 2nd Annual Cinema Paradise Independent Film Festival 2003.
Hawaii’s only indie fest began Sept. 19 but by the end of the week-long festival, one wonders how many Origami cranes Sergio Goes – photographer turned docu-filmmaker extraordinaire – will receive. Goes, who organized the festival with fellow filmmaker, Chris Kahunahana, wanted to make the Origami crane their symbol of peace in response to the turmoil that’s going on in the world.
So attendees are encouraged to fold paper cranes. Instructions are all over the program guides and posted on the wall at the Art House at Restaurant Row where most of the festival is being held. Screenings are also at the Movie Museum.
I had an excellent first day at the festival seeing awesome movies, meeting some really cool visiting filmmakers and chatting with a talented local director who made “Kamehameha.” Nope, it’s not the Rock version of the great Hawaiian King who united the islands but a short docu-feature made by local director Nathan Kurosawa. This recent Loyola Marymount film school grad, I think, has got a future.
The film, to my surprise, was really good. I thought I’d be bored by a film that’s entirely in Hawaiian with English subtitles. But the visuals were spectacular, the story was fascinating, the Hawaiian female casts were stunning and the Hawaiian male cast made a strong screen presence, in particular Bruce Eselu, who played Kamehameha’s uncle and protector.
“Kamehameha” was shot in 35mm in the Kohala (green and beautiful) district of the Big Island. The 18-minute short depicts the dark circumstances surrounding the birth of the warrior-king. We don’t get to see the boy becoming King at the end. This film covers the first part of the boy’s journey. Kurosawa has plans to make follow-up versions of this epic tale and hopes to get it out in DVD/VHS. So for those out there who’d like to see an authentic version, you may get a chance if he succeeds with his video plans.
This film is up for the first annual “Hale Ki’i’oni’oni” Award created in memory of beloved Hawaii “kupuna” (elder), Lilia Wahinemaika’i Hale, who recently passed away. (The truer meaning of “kupuna” refers to an individual who possesses knowledge by virtue of experience.) The award will consist of a $5,000 check presented by the Movie Museum.
After I saw “Kamehameha,” I got to talking with the director…
AICN: I didn’t know what to expect with “Kamehameha.” I was pleasantly surprised. I thought it was well done, especially for a low-budget independent film…
Kurosawa: …no budget (laughs).
AICN: Is this your first film?
Kurosawa: Actually, I shot a feature and it’s coming out in the Hawaii International Film Festival. (It’s called) “The Ride.” It’s about a surfer who goes back in time to 1911.
AICN: When did you start on the “Kamehameha” project and how long did it take you to make it?
Kurosawa: It took close to two years. It started as my thesis for my master’s degree in film at Loyola Marymount and I just expanded on the story.
AICN: What inspired you?
Kurosawa: I was born and raised here (Hawaii) and I’ve been interested in the Hawaiian culture since I was a kid. When we were growing up, we had a lot of 16 mm films that they showed at public schools. And a lot of them were on Hawaiian legends. They really don’t produce that kind of stuff nowadays. I figured we’ll raise the bar as far as production value. It’s very difficult to shoot in Hawaii because of the logistics and the location. And just to get the community and people involved is an undertaking. (You can’t shoot it) without the help of the community, the kupuna, and the Hawaiian people especially. So it has to be a grassroots type of project.
AICN: As a director, what were some of the challenges of filming on the Big Island?
Kurosawa: We had to ship over all the equipment. We had to get some of the cast and crew over there and just covering ourselves as far as technical support (was a challenge) because we were way out in the middle of nowhere and if anything broke down, we couldn’t get help right away.
AICN: You mentioned that the film we saw was actually “Kamehameha 1” – which covered the story of his birth and childhood – so what are your plans for “Kamehameha 2?”
Kurosawa: We’re looking at it as more of an episodic…maybe with 7 to ten parts because his life is an epic and there are so many stories that haven’t been told, even documented on text. A lot of the stories are memorized by these kupunas, these elder genealogists. A lot of their stories haven’t been documented. For our production, we utilized and had the guidance of a family genealogist who’s the direct descendent of the family that raised Kamehameha in Kohala.
AICN: “Kamehameha” is of course known in Hawaii but for people not from here what’s the significance of this story for them? Why would it be important?
Kurosawa: It’s important because most of the people involved are embracing the project because of its educational value. Despite the facts that he is a famous figure in Hawaiian history, a lot of the people don’t know about his upbringing, even where he’s from. Most people know in general about him becoming the first king of Hawaii, etc. but a lot of people don’t know the details. Our efforts will hopefully reach the school systems in Hawaii. We’re being pretty meticulous about the historical accuracy down to the foliage, wardrobe, locations, etc.
AICN: When the Rock comes out with “Kamehameha,” are you going to be choking in your seat?
Kurosawa: Not really. That’s a whole different animal. It’s a Hollywood feature. I’m sure they’ll have a Hollywood spin on everything. But our target audience is probably more localized and again our main concern is to educate. Hopefully we’re seeking out and getting the support of the right people, which is what the Rock and Sony should do. I’m not sure if they are doing that. It’s very difficult when you have the Hollywood machine running.
After the screening of “Kamehameha,” Cinema Paradise featured its opening night film, “What Alice Found,” which won a Special Jury Prize at Sundance 2003. That was an amazing, amazing movie. Who would’ve thought a nice middle-aged couple – dear hearts like good ole’ mom and pop – would be turning tricks in their RV. Alice (Emily Grace) soon finds that out when she takes them up on their offer to give her a ride to Florida after her crappy car breaks down on her on the highway. Judith Ivey who plays Sandra immediately takes over the role of maternal “surrogate mom” to a girl who’s obviously running away from some trouble. She takes Alice shopping, buys her pretty dresses, shows her how to do her make-up, and teaches her about men. At first you think this is leading up to setting her up to becoming a prosti! tute but I really felt her interest in treating Alice like a daughter was genuine. Some felt that the couple lured her in prostitution but I felt that Alice chose to do it on her own. She wanted the money.
It’s a road movie that ends well. Oddly you’re a little sad when the couple says goodbye to Alice at the bus station. Sandra gives her a yellow suitcase as a parting gift and it’s as if she’s sending her daughter off to college. I’m not really quite sure what Alice found but it seemed at the end she had at least found her way.
I was introducing myself to a filmmaker at the Cinema Paradise Film Festival 2003 and I was pleasantly surprised that he recognized my name. I had done a small write-up of the making of “The Blood of the Samurai” TV series for a local alternative weekly. The filmmaker, Darin Fujimori, was one of the stuntmen. He was pleased that I had mentioned the Hawaiian Stunt Connection, which was supplying the stunts to the follow-up of the “Blood of the Samurai” flick.
Pretty cool, easy going guy. Real interesting too. Fujimori had done stunt work for “Windtalker” and “The Last Samurai,” where he was in New Zealand for three months. Now Fujimori has gone from doing stunts to making his first film. “Road to the Title” is an 11-minute documentary about Hawaii’s premier professional boxer, Brian Villoria, and his road to his first world title fight. Not bad for his first stab at filmmaking, especially since he directed, edited and lensed it all himself. The documentary was pretty good and it had some punch to it, no pun intended.
“Road to the Title” will be screened again at the Hawaii International Film Festival. I got to talking with Fujimori about his short docu….
AICN: What got you interested in doing a film about Brian Villoria?
Fujimori: I started hanging out with Brian at his gym. At that time, I wasn’t getting any work on any films. So I asked him if I could make a documentary on him. And he said that it would be great. So it transpired from there.
AICN: Did you know a lot about boxing?
Fujimori: Yeah, I’m a pretty big boxing fan as well as a fight fan. I box myself. I haven’t fought in any professional matches but as far as martial arts go, I train in martial arts (and uses for stunt work). Boxing is one of my hobbies.
AICN: It came out pretty good for a first film. What kind of work went into it?
Fujimori: (What helped was ) watching a lot of movies and a lot of sports (shows) like “Beyond the Glory.” I got some ideas from there but I changed it up a little so that I wasn’t copying someone else’s ideas but making it my own. I spent about a couple of weeks of on-location filming, and as for the editing, I spent around two weeks. It was shot in Los Angeles and San Diego, where he fought his first title fight.
Then I just had to talk to the filmmaker of the animated short, “Tomato Love.” It sounded so cute. “Tomato Love” is story about a boy in search of his tomato. After talking to Joey Kan about his film, it left me wondering, “What is my tomato?”
I liked the animation because some of the drawings reminded me of the Japanese animated TV series I use to watch growing up. Not being that knowledgeable about animation, I decided to ask Kan about the process of making an animation piece.
AICN: Can you tell me about the animation filmmaking process?
Kan: The first thing I had to do was draw storyboards. I went through a hand drawn animation process. Then I would scan characters into the computer. Afterwards, I would (use) a computer pen tablet to fill my sketches on to the computer so it was all computer drawn and computer colored. Some of the background was modeled in 3D on the computer, like the car. In the beginning of the film, a car hits the boy.
The overall process is the same as making a film. You still have to have a script and storyboards. I had to cut it together, watch it over a couple of times and see if it works.
AICN: For a short animation, how long did it take you?
Kan: It took me 8 ½ months to make because – it’s kind of a long time – I was basically making it all by myself. I only had help on the music, sound effects…and that was only in the last two months of the filmmaking.
AICN: Does it usually take longer to make animation than live action film?
Kan: It’s kind of hard to say because you can put a lot of work into refining live action films but then you can also just get a DV camera and videotape ten minutes of stuff and there you have ten minutes of tape. So I think it’s a lot easier to make longer live action pieces. For animation, you have to draw every frame by yourself and it takes a while.
AICN: Your drawings reminded me of the Japanese cartoons I use to watch growing up. What were some of your influences?
Kan: I like Powerpuff Girls. My character doesn’t have hands or feet. He just has stubs for arms and stubs for legs. I kind of like that kind of style. It makes it more rounded and cute. I use to watch a lot of Japanese cartoons as a child. I still do all the time. I like that ultra flat drawing style.
AICN: (Reading from the promo postcard) So tell me about this: “Tomato love is a story about a boy in search of his tomato.” What is that all about?
Kan: Well, that’s just something so that people would get interested in (the film) by that one sentence. (Laughs) It’s like an advertisement. (In the movie), the tomato comes out of the blood (that’s flowing out from the boy’s head). He hits his head in the beginning (of the movie) and blood spills out of his head. The tomato comes out of his blood because it’s red and the tomato is red. Then he loses his tomato. He’s really attached to the tomato. It’s been a part of him so he has to spend the rest of his time looking for the tomato because he can’t be himself without his tomato. Everyone has their own “tomato.” (Whatever it is,) it doesn’t have to be a tomato.
“Tomato Love,” which made its Hawaii premiere at the Cinema Paradise, is one of the Best Animation Nominees.
