With perfect weather and beautiful scenery, Hawaii is known as a great place to make a film. But is it a great place for local filmmakers?
‘Ohina, a grassroots organization that has evolved from a showcase for local films into an incubator of moviemaking talent, is working to make it so. With programs to help creatives develop their stories for the screen and make connections with producers, directors, crew members and talent, along with a growing track record of success in the filmmaking community, the organization is bringing Hawaii-related stories to screens around the world.
“The whole idea of ‘Ohina is bringing the community together, local filmmakers,” said ‘Ohina Executive Director Gerard Elmore, an award-winning filmmaker. He noted that “‘ohina” means “collecting,” or “gathering” in Hawaiian.
On Tuesday, ‘Ohina will hold its annual Short Film Showcase at Hawaii Theatre, celebrating the fifth anniversary of its Filmmakers Lab Program with the screening of four short films. They are the end products of ‘Ohina’s annual Greenlight Award, having originally come to the lab program as scripts needing development before getting the “green light” to proceed with filming. Tuesday’s event will include the announcement of the next Greenlight Award winner.
Hawaii has a host of resources devoted to filmmaking, from the state’s Creative Lab Hawaii program to the Academy of Creative Media at the University of Hawaii, and community programs like Pacific Islanders in Communications, the Hawaii Filmmakers Collective and Hawai‘i Women in Filmmaking. Movies and television shows filmed here also have created a large community of related technicians and specialists.
‘Ohina helps bring these people together, provides funding and then helps promote their films around the world.
“Creative Labs and Ohina have developed this symbiotic relationship,” said Georja Skinner, head of Creative Lab Hawaii, part of the state’s Creative Industries Division. “We’ve all kind of evolved together to become this great launchpad for talent.”
‘Ohina started 20 years ago by screening locally made films at small venues like the Honolulu Museum of Art’s Doris Duke Theatre. While presenting “the best” in local filmmaking, the films were sometimes disappointing. “Some would be really great, and some would be just all right, and some would be ‘oh well, ” said Elmore.
Instead of just showcasing existing films, Elmore envisioned an organization that could get quality short films made through professional development of local talent. ‘Ohina took a significant step forward in that mission in 2017, when it got filmmaker Joe Robert Cole, a co-writer of the blockbuster hit “Black Panther” and other major films, to come to Hawaii for a two-day lab working on scripts by local filmmakers.
One of those scripts was for Mitchel Merrick’s “Kalewa,” which will be screened Tuesday. Released in 2018, it is a short sci-fi film in which an astronaut, tasked with an important duty on an alien planet, reflects on his life in Hawaii.
Merrick, who has a “day job” producing videos for ‘Iolani School, got his start in filmmaking after receiving a video camera as a childhood gift. “Kalewa,” however, looks anything but homemade. It features fancy computer-generated imagery, which Merrick did himself, and high production values. ‘Ohina’s Greenlight Award provided Merrick with funding, and Elmore served as executive producer and provided much of the equipment needed to create it.
“Being on set for my film with ‘Ohina, and seeing all the moving parts come together, it was like, ‘Oh wow, I actually am a filmmaker,’” Merrick said.
Since its release in 2018, “Kalewa” has won awards and citations at film festivals throughout the world. Merrick is currently working on a film with singer Paula Fuga.
Bryson Chun already had a burgeoning career in short and documentary filmmaking when he took part in ‘Ohina’s 2018 Filmmaking Lab, but it’s taken significant strides since the 2019 debut of Greenlight Award-winning film “Other People.” Chun is now a screenwriter for the Hawaii-based Disney+ series “Doogie Kamealoha, M.D.” and is working on an animated feature for Disney.
“So many creatives and so many filmmakers in Hawaii, particularly writers, we want to get our work out there and seen,” he said. “But it’s so hard to connect the dots, between living and working in Hawaii, and trying to be a part of the industry. What ‘Ohina does so well is, it helps connect the dots a little bit.”
‘Ohina’s Filmmakers Lab brought Chun together with Eric Pearson, screenplay writer for several Marvel superhero films, on “Other People,” a slice-of-life set at Windward Mall in which a couple’s argument is interspersed with elegant ballroom dancing. It was inspired by real life. “I was at Windward Mall with a friend,” Chun said. “We were there having coffee and catching up, and all of sudden this music started playing, and a bunch of people went up and started dancing. … And so I was thinking, ‘How can I get this into a movie?’”
Déjà Cresencia Bernhardt, a filmmaker raised on Maui, took a semiautobiographical approach to her film “Last Hawaiian Sugar,” about a young girl’s troubled, turbulent life amidst the closure of last sugar plantation on Maui. Bernhardt currently divides her time between Texas, where she teaches filmmaking; Bali, where her family lives; and Hawaii.
She began making films of her mother on her job as a midwife and would regularly go to film labs and workshops for help with her projects.
Ohina’s Film Lab, she said, provided “amazing mentorship,” she said. “They first find what screenplays they want in the lab, and then put you with mentors that are really fit for you.”
The film, which was delayed for a year due to the pandemic, has been in festivals for about a year, selling out a screening at the Austin Film Festival. “We’ve been in about 15 festivals so far, and there will be a few more coming up,” Bernhardt said, adding that she is currently working toward a full-length feature version of the film.
The fourth film to be screened Tuesday is Zoe Eisenberg’s “Racket,” a film with a relatively simple plot: A clown has an argument with her performance partner minutes before they are to go on stage and has to improvise an act with a tennis racket.
Eisenberg, co-founder of the Made in Hawai‘i Film Festival on Hawaii island, was already close to beginning to film her story when she took the Filmmaker’s Lab Program and subsequently won the Greenlight Award. That resulted in additional money, better equipment and post-production assistance for her project, which was released earlier this year.
“It’s not ideal for creatives to have to be putting their own money into their work, but a lot of us do that, especially with our short films,” Eisenberg said. “All of this (assistance from ‘Ohina) just helps not only make the film the best version of itself, but also ensures that the filmmaker is being supported as well.”
‘Ohina has become an important part of “what a really mature film and entertainment industry can be,” Skinner said. “I’ve been here 42 years, and I’ve never seen the amount of energy of what’s happening now with all these filmmakers.”
—
‘Ohina Short Film Showcase
The screenings will be followed by a presentation and a meet-and-greet with filmmakers.
GREENLIGHT AWARD WINNERS
“Kalewa,” 2017, by Mitchel Merrick
“Other People,” 2018, by Bryson Chun
“Last Hawaiian Sugar,” 2019, by Déjà Crescencia Bernhardt
“Racket,” 2021, by Zoe Eisenberg
———
When: 7 p.m. Tuesday
Where: Hawaii Theatre
Cost: $15
Info: ohina.org
