Environmental awareness is growing among the younger generation as kids are realizing they need to take an active role in protecting Earth’s natural resources.
At this year’s 10th annual University of Hawaii Kids First! Film Festival, the efforts of middle school and high school students from around the state will be showcased during a one-day festival-within-a-festival held in partnership with UH-Manoa Outreach College’s Sustainable Summer Day on June 26.
KIDS FIRST! FILM FESTIVAL
Presented by UH-Manoa Outreach College
>> Where: UH-Manoa Art Building Auditorium
>> When: 3 p.m. Sunday and July 10 and 17 (doors open at 2:30 p.m.); also 12:30 to 6:15 p.m. June 26
>> Cost: Free
>> Info: 956-9883, summer.hawaii.edu/kidsfirst
>> Note: The film festival will take place on June 26 is in conjunction with UH-Manoa Outreach College’s Sustainable Summer Day, which includes family activities, exhibitors, walking tours, plant giveaways, entertainment and more.
Festival schedule
>> Sunday “Guess How Much I Love You” and “Octonauts: Creature Encounters” (for ages 2 to 8 years)
>> July 10: “Lotte and the Moonstone Secret” (for ages 4 and up)
>> July 17: “Snowtime!” (for ages 9 and up)
Sustainable Summer ’16 Film Fest at the UH-Manoa Art Building Auditorium on June 26:
>> 12:30 p.m.: “Shimajiro and the Mother Tree” (for ages 4 to 18)
>> 2 p.m.: “Our Earth, Its Land and Oceans” shorts program (for ages 5 to 12)
>> 3:15 p.m.: Youth Empowered for Change featuring “Young Voices for the Planet” and “Hiki No: Focus on the Environment” (for all ages)
>> 5 p.m.: “The Global Community of Children” shorts program (for ages 8 and up)
The Kids First! Sustainable Summer ‘16 Film Fest will include a screening of “Hiki No: Focus on the Environment,” which includes features about local environmental issues and was produced by students from Kamakahelei Middle School and Island School on Kauai, Keeau High School and Kealakehe High School on Hawaii island, Roosevelt High School on Oahu and Seabury Hall and Baldwin High School on Maui. Among the issues tackled in the 30-minute documentary are Maui’s ban on plastic shopping bags, efforts to protect endangered birds on Kauai, the removal of hazardous materials on Kahoolawe and ways to reduce mankind’s carbon footprint.
The nearly six-hour Sustainable Summer ‘16 Film Fest includes offerings for even the youngest viewers: “Shimajiro and the Mother Tree,” during which live actors will read the subtitles on the Japanese cartoon, and “Cows,” which features Sandra Boynton’s whimsical characters. “Short: The Global Community of Children” is a 71-minute slate of six foreign-language short films (with subtitles for all but one).
“There’s a lot of concern about our environment, so we wanted to show how our young people are taking care of the environment here,” said film
festival spokeswoman Ann Brandman. “They’re pretty amazing about how they use technology for change. And not only are they aware of the urgency to start taking care of the planet as individuals, they’re learning how to work some of the systems as well. They’re really creative and inventive.”
Kids will also have the chance to watch episodes of “Guess How Much I Love You,” based on the book by Sam McBratney, and “Octonauts: Creature Encounters,” as well as the Sandra Oh- and Ross Lynch-voiced animated film “Snowtime!” which premiered earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival. Eleven-time international film festival award winner “Lotte and the Moonstone Secret” will make its Hawaii premiere as well.
“It’s certainly grown since we first started,” said Brandman. “We’ve made some great contacts for studio-made films. But we still have a real soft spot for the shorter films from around the world. They’re films you may not see in the multiplex, but they’re still really good quality. This is a chance to see them on a really big screen with a nice sound system.”
