Meet two HIFF filmmakers nominated for Made in Hawaiʻi awards

The Hawaiʻi International Film Festival announced the short and feature films in the running for its Made in Hawaiʻi awards on Thursday, Sept. 25, at a media event at HIFF headquarters in Kaimukī.

This year, HIFF runs from Oct. 15 through mid-November and includes events on Oʻahu, Maui, Lānaʻi, Kauaʻi, Hawaiʻi Island and Molokaʻi. The festival features 220 films and 42 world premieres, according to numbers shared at the press event.

Aloha State Daily spoke with several filmmakers to learn more about showcases that will be part of the festival. Ricky-Thomas Serikawa, the director of “Back to the Loko,” and Alex Bocchieri, the director of “Dasher,” spoke about their works nominated for the Made in Hawaiʻi short film award.

Tell us about your film. Serikawa: I collaborated with Hawaiʻi Sea Grant. I already knew some of the people that worked with them, so that's how I got brought on. Basically, it's a short documentary about the restoration of loko iʻa, the Hawaiian fish ponds. And specifically for this project, they're working with the Native Hawaiian mullet, which is called ʻama ʻama. It has a couple parts to it. There's Waiʻanae High School. The kids over there, they're the ones that receive the baby fish, and then once they get to a certain size, they ship them over to a fish farm on the Big Island in Hilo. The documentary just follows that process. The importance of restoring fish ponds and just highlighting our culture and our values in that, but also bringing a population of Native Hawaiian kids back into spaces of ʻāina and seeing how that parallel grows.

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Bocchieri: “Dasher” is a short narrative film. It's a comedy drama about a DoorDash driver in Honolulu on Christmas Eve. They get into some crazy adventures. Largely, it's more about just the struggle of being a local person. Trying to make it in Hawaiʻi, you kind of have to always be working full-time.

How can readers support local films. Serikawa: Just watch them. And share them.

Bocchieri: Yeah, I agree. Watch them and share them. If you have the opportunity to support a local filmmaker, you should take it because it is harder than ever.

What was your favorite part of filming? Serikawa: I think it was the kids. Because a lot of those kids were really camera shy. And they just didnʻt really know what was going on while they were filming and stuff. But once we got them talking and once we sat down for interviews, to hear the kind of insight they had — and how much they cared about the work they were doing — that was pretty cool.

Bocchieri: This was really a collaboration between some of my favorite people, some of my favorite local filmmakers. That's my favorite part of making films is getting everybody together, because it's so hard to connect with friends and just do fun things together. My screenwriter on this, Bryson Chun, is a very talented writer. He wrote “Moana 2” and “Doogie Kamealoha, M.D.” and many other things.

Nominated features for the “Made in Hawaiʻi Award - Feature Film” include:

“A Paradise Lost” by Director Laurie Sumiye
“Before the Moon Falls” by Director Kimberlee Bassford
“Indigenous Naʻau” by Director Ku'ulei Ka'ili
“Lahaina Rising” by Director: Matty Schweitzer
“Nā Wāhine Buda Kiakahi: The Legacy of Hawaiian Buddhist Women” by Director Eleni Avendaño
“The Price of Paradise” by Director Anabella Funk
“Remathau: People of the Ocean” by Director Daniel H. Lin
“Reeling” by Director Yana Alliata

Those nominated for the “Made in Hawaiʻi Award - Short Film” include: