“Brasslands” fine-cut version sneak preview!

Dir: The Meerkat Media Collective, New York, 2012, fine cut version sneak preview! 8/12 (sun), 16:00 ~ Sangyo-Shinko Bldg 3F, 8/14 (mon), 22:00 ~ Uno Port Pier#2 Trailer Theater Tagline: An eccentric NYC band, a tiny Balkan village, and half a million fans transcend borders at the world’s largest trumpet festival. Synopsis: Once a year, a tiny Serbian village explodes with [Read more...]

“The Colour of Paradise” – Live performance in Japanese voice-over

Dir. Majid Majidi, featuring: Hossein Mahjoub, Iran, 1999, 90min., Drama 8/11 (sat), 20:00, Uno Port Pier#2 Trailer Theater One time only! Mohammad, an 8-year-old blind boy with a gentle heart, communicates with nature through touch and hearing.  When his boarding school for blind children in Tehran closes for summer, he comes home happily to his loving grandmother and beautiful sisters who [Read more...]

2012 New American Filmmaker (NAF) Series from HIFF powered by Vilcek Foundation

This year, at the third year anniversary of UPAF, we are excited to show you four great films from "New American Filmmakers Series," one of Hawaii International Film Festival's original programs funded by Vilcek Foundation of New York. The program celebrates and encourages foreign-born filmmakers and their films. (for more info, go to:  http://newamericanfilmmakers.org/about/ ) The GateKeeper [Read more...]

“NURSE.FIGHTER.BOY” Dir. Charles Officer

Synopsis NURSE.FIGHTER.BOY is an urban love story about the soul of a mother, the heart of a fighter, and the faith of a child. JUDE is a single mother who descends from a long line of Jamaican caregivers. SILENCE is a ‘past his prime’ boxer who fights illegally to survive. CIEL is a boy who delves into music, conjuring dreams for his mother. During the last week of summer, a late-night [Read more...]

“Red Balloon” & “White Mane” Dir. Albert Lamorisse

Red Balloon & White Mane Albert Lamorisse’s films talk directly to our hearts with beautiful pictures and little words. Behind the simplest stories, these post-WWII films (featuring the director’s own son Pascal and stunning Alain Emery) contain the director’s complex feelings about the war, good vs evil, and the future that the post-war children had to rebuild. In 2011, the hardest [Read more...]

Excellent Fiction Films by Young Filmmakers 2011

Necropolis Dir. Craig Scheihing, Zack Auron, David Fieman, Jacob Shanks Kindlon Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, 9’43”, 2009 Action! Adventure! Romance! ZOMBIES! A sad love story featuring zombies. Zombies have their own world in which they have their favorite foods and fall in love.  But their world is shattered…         Dir. Bio: Craig [Read more...]

“Hibakusha & My Journey” Dir. Takashi Kunimoto

"Hibakusha & My Journey" Dir. Takashi Kunimoto, 64 min, color, 2008 Synopsis "In his documentary film 'Traveling with Hibakusha: Across Generations,' Takashi Kunimoto focuses on the 'younger A-bomb survivors' who experienced the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki when they were babies or small children and so don't hold clear memories of their ordeal. The film is a record of a [Read more...]

“My Anthem” Dir. MC NAM

UPAF 2011 Film #4 (Youth Program): "My Anthem" by MC NAM, 2010, Video. 4.5min. It is a music video for a song by a Vietnamese rapper MC NAM from Kobe, Japan. It is a cry of his soul about what it means to grow up as a Vietnamese in Japan, unknown facts of how his grandparents came to Japan... Shot on location in Nagata where he grew up. Camera by another Vietnamese high schooler in Japan. Edited [Read more...]

“Duckling” Dir. Sayaka Ono

Duckling What is “Family”? What is “me”? As Japan’s communal family system collapses and families become more nuclear, the relationship between “me” and “family” shifts. We hear about so many incidents around the world every day, but the relationship between “me” and “my family” seems the most common problem. The massacre in Akihabara, the fatal stabbing of a father in Kawaguchi City by his [Read more...]