During a panel on the future of Pasifika storytelling held in downtown Los Angeles Thursday evening by the Pasifika Entertainment Advancement Komiti, Peak co-founder and executive director Kristian Fanene Schmidt proposed a question to the participants: Should the AA be separated from the Pi in Aapi? The answer regarding Asian American and Pacific Islander representation in Hollywood is as complicated as the enduring fight for greater pan-Pacific presence onscreen, the panelists noted, though the undercurrent of the hesitant responses was indeed “yes.”
“Last night at the Writer’s Guild meeting there was an Asian writer who walked up on the question side and said, ‘I’m Asian, I’m an Asian American writer, and it’s Asian American month, and I screamed out, ‘What about the PIs?’” recalled Freddie Gutierrez, a writer for Nickelodeon’s That Girl Lay Lay, who hails from Guam. “She looked and she just kept on going.
“Last night at the Writer’s Guild meeting there was an Asian writer who walked up on the question side and said, ‘I’m Asian, I’m an Asian American writer, and it’s Asian American month, and I screamed out, ‘What about the PIs?’” recalled Freddie Gutierrez, a writer for Nickelodeon’s That Girl Lay Lay, who hails from Guam. “She looked and she just kept on going.
- 5/5/2023
- by Brande Victorian
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
What: The 42nd edition of the Hawai’i International Film Festival (Hiff) presented by Halekulani continues celebrating the best of indie cinema through: in-person screenings, online presentations, and panel events with industry luminaries. As part of the annual Hiff tradition, the festival will recognize Hiff Awards Gala Honorees as outstanding artists for their commitment to excellence in their field. The Gala also provides an opportunity to announce the Competition Winners, including recipients for this year’s Made in Hawai’i Award.
When: This year’s honorees – Hirokazu Kore-eda, Jung Woo-Sung, Simu Liu, Kerry Warkia, Auli’i Carvalho and Josie Ho – will be honored at the Awards Gala on Sunday November 13th, 2022 at 6pm Hst.
HIFF42 Halekulani Vision in Film Award – Hirokazu Kore-eda
HIFF42 Halekulani Career Achievement Award – Jung Woo-Sung
HIFF42 Halekulani Maverick Award – Simu Liu
HIFF42 Leanne K. Ferrer Trailblazer Award Presented by Pacific Islanders in Communications...
When: This year’s honorees – Hirokazu Kore-eda, Jung Woo-Sung, Simu Liu, Kerry Warkia, Auli’i Carvalho and Josie Ho – will be honored at the Awards Gala on Sunday November 13th, 2022 at 6pm Hst.
HIFF42 Halekulani Vision in Film Award – Hirokazu Kore-eda
HIFF42 Halekulani Career Achievement Award – Jung Woo-Sung
HIFF42 Halekulani Maverick Award – Simu Liu
HIFF42 Leanne K. Ferrer Trailblazer Award Presented by Pacific Islanders in Communications...
- 10/28/2022
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Exclusive: Good Grief will make its way to IFC and Sundance Now, which have acquired North America and U.K. rights to the New Zealand comedy, from sisters Eve and Grace Palmer. IFC and Sundance Now have also teamed with Kiel McNaughton and Kerry Warkia’s Brown Sugar Apple Grunt Productions Ltd.’s to co-commission a second season.
Co-created, co-written and starring the Palmer sisters along with with co-creator and co-writer Nick Schaedel, Good Grief is a comedy series is set in small New Zealand town and follows two millennial sisters with very different personalities who inherit a funeral home from their grandfather.
Unsure what to do with the funeral home – or the oddball staff that keep the place running – Ellie and Gwen Goode (Eve and Grace Palmer) are thrust into a world of embalming, emceeing, and embarrassment. Recently fired from her teaching career, Ellie starts to warm to the job,...
Co-created, co-written and starring the Palmer sisters along with with co-creator and co-writer Nick Schaedel, Good Grief is a comedy series is set in small New Zealand town and follows two millennial sisters with very different personalities who inherit a funeral home from their grandfather.
Unsure what to do with the funeral home – or the oddball staff that keep the place running – Ellie and Gwen Goode (Eve and Grace Palmer) are thrust into a world of embalming, emceeing, and embarrassment. Recently fired from her teaching career, Ellie starts to warm to the job,...
- 8/31/2021
- by Alexandra Del Rosario
- Deadline Film + TV
Top: Ngaire Pigram, Mitch Torres, Kodie Bedford, Kelli Cross. Bottom: Karla Hart, Jub Clerc, Debbie Carmody, Chantelle Murray.
Kodie Bedford, Debbie Carmody, Jub Clerc, Kelli Cross, Karla Hart, Chantelle Murray, Ngaire Pigram and Mitch Torres are the eight writer-directors who will helm Red, the feature anthology from Pink Pepper, Ramu Productions and Brown Sugar Apple Grunt, which will explore the theme of missing Indigenous women.
Supported by Screenwest, each practitioner will write and direct a ten minute short, to be then compiled into the anthology. Development workshops will take place online due to current Covid-19 travel restrictions, and it is anticipated that the project will go into production in 2021 once fully financed.
Screenwest will be making approaches to potential partners interested in supporting such a project.
Red follows the format developed by Brown Sugar Apple Grunt’s Kerry Warkia and Kiel McNaughton with films Waru and Vai, which successfully launched Maori and Pacific filmmakers internationally.
Kodie Bedford, Debbie Carmody, Jub Clerc, Kelli Cross, Karla Hart, Chantelle Murray, Ngaire Pigram and Mitch Torres are the eight writer-directors who will helm Red, the feature anthology from Pink Pepper, Ramu Productions and Brown Sugar Apple Grunt, which will explore the theme of missing Indigenous women.
Supported by Screenwest, each practitioner will write and direct a ten minute short, to be then compiled into the anthology. Development workshops will take place online due to current Covid-19 travel restrictions, and it is anticipated that the project will go into production in 2021 once fully financed.
Screenwest will be making approaches to potential partners interested in supporting such a project.
Red follows the format developed by Brown Sugar Apple Grunt’s Kerry Warkia and Kiel McNaughton with films Waru and Vai, which successfully launched Maori and Pacific filmmakers internationally.
- 9/30/2020
- by jkeast
- IF.com.au
The Sundance Institute has selected the five Indigenous filmmakers that will participate in the 2020 Sundance Institute Native Filmmakers Lab which will be reimagined digitally this year on Sundance Co//ab. The fellows chosen include Rob Fatal, Keanu Jones, Amanda Strong, Cole Forrest and Petyr Xyst.
The Native Filmmakers Lab, which has supported Indigenous storytellers since its inception, kicked off on June 29 and will continue through July 10. The fellows will workshop scripts of their short films with mentorship from Indigenous Program alumni and other established filmmaking professionals serving as Advisors along with the Sundance Indigenous Program staff, led by Indigenous Program Director N. Bird Runningwater (Cheyenne/Mescalero Apache). Following the Lab, Fellows will receive a year-long continuum of support.
“We are pleased to announce that we will be hosting our annual Native Filmmakers Lab in an exciting digital format on our Co//ab platform that allows for virtual participation by our...
The Native Filmmakers Lab, which has supported Indigenous storytellers since its inception, kicked off on June 29 and will continue through July 10. The fellows will workshop scripts of their short films with mentorship from Indigenous Program alumni and other established filmmaking professionals serving as Advisors along with the Sundance Indigenous Program staff, led by Indigenous Program Director N. Bird Runningwater (Cheyenne/Mescalero Apache). Following the Lab, Fellows will receive a year-long continuum of support.
“We are pleased to announce that we will be hosting our annual Native Filmmakers Lab in an exciting digital format on our Co//ab platform that allows for virtual participation by our...
- 6/30/2020
- by Dino-Ray Ramos
- Deadline Film + TV
Taryne Laffar.
Taryne ‘Pinky’ Laffar has officially launched her own production company, Pink Pepper, boasting a diverse slate that includes a full docuseries based on Our Law, a comedy web series created by Clarence Ryan, feature film Red, and a six-part TV drama.
A descendant of the Bardi and Jabbir Jabbir nations, Laffar – who has worked variously as a writer, director, producer and in casting – has started the new venture with the aims of working with Indigenous and diverse creatives across documentary and drama.
Pink Pepper will also specialise in casting Indigenous and diverse talent, with Laffar also available as a freelance producer, writer, director, mentor and workshop facilitator.
The company’s debut project is documentary Our Law, following Australia’s first and only Indigenous-run police station, which recently screened in Sydney Film Festival and airs tonight on Nitv as part of Karla Grant Presents.
‘Our Law’.
With Periscope Pictures,...
Taryne ‘Pinky’ Laffar has officially launched her own production company, Pink Pepper, boasting a diverse slate that includes a full docuseries based on Our Law, a comedy web series created by Clarence Ryan, feature film Red, and a six-part TV drama.
A descendant of the Bardi and Jabbir Jabbir nations, Laffar – who has worked variously as a writer, director, producer and in casting – has started the new venture with the aims of working with Indigenous and diverse creatives across documentary and drama.
Pink Pepper will also specialise in casting Indigenous and diverse talent, with Laffar also available as a freelance producer, writer, director, mentor and workshop facilitator.
The company’s debut project is documentary Our Law, following Australia’s first and only Indigenous-run police station, which recently screened in Sydney Film Festival and airs tonight on Nitv as part of Karla Grant Presents.
‘Our Law’.
With Periscope Pictures,...
- 6/22/2020
- by jkeast
- IF.com.au
Top: Taryne Laffar, Kiel McNaughton. Bottom: Kerry Warkia, Jodie Bell.
Together with Pink Pepper Productions, Ramu Productions and Kiwi company Brown Sugar Apple Grunt, Screenwest has launched an initiative that will see eight Western Australian Indigenous female writer-directors develop an anthology feature film that will explore the impact of missing Indigenous women from a female Aboriginal perspective.
The intention is that the film will go into production in late 2020, with all eight creatives writing and directing a 10-minute short that will intertwine with the theme.
The film, Red (working title), follows the format developed by Brown Sugar Apple Grunt’s Kerry Warkia and Kiel McNaughton with films Waru and Vai, which successfully launched Maori and Pacific filmmakers internationally.
Brown Sugar Apple Grant will executive produce the project with Indigenous Wa producers Taryne Laffar (Pink Pepper) and Jodie Bell (Ramu).
Laffar and Bell said: “The opportunity to work with Kerry Warkia and Kiel McNaughton,...
Together with Pink Pepper Productions, Ramu Productions and Kiwi company Brown Sugar Apple Grunt, Screenwest has launched an initiative that will see eight Western Australian Indigenous female writer-directors develop an anthology feature film that will explore the impact of missing Indigenous women from a female Aboriginal perspective.
The intention is that the film will go into production in late 2020, with all eight creatives writing and directing a 10-minute short that will intertwine with the theme.
The film, Red (working title), follows the format developed by Brown Sugar Apple Grunt’s Kerry Warkia and Kiel McNaughton with films Waru and Vai, which successfully launched Maori and Pacific filmmakers internationally.
Brown Sugar Apple Grant will executive produce the project with Indigenous Wa producers Taryne Laffar (Pink Pepper) and Jodie Bell (Ramu).
Laffar and Bell said: “The opportunity to work with Kerry Warkia and Kiel McNaughton,...
- 2/5/2020
- by jkeast
- IF.com.au
Glenn Gainor.
Glenn Gainor, the president of Sony Innovation Studios and head of physical production at Sony Pictures’ Screen Gems, will be the keynote speaker at this year’s CinefestOZ.
Screen Gems has been responsible for numerous high-grossing movies includings The Intruder, The Perfect Guy, No Good Deed, Think Like a Man, Friends with Benefits and Obsessed.
Housed on the Sony lot, Sony Innovation Studios provides the latest virtual production technology for film, television, gaming and other platforms across Sony companies and the broader industry.
Gainor’s keynote address, Embracing Technology as an Empowerment Tool, will explore how filmmakers can have their stories heard by millions through the use of emerging technologies.
He will present the world premiere of Taste, the film fronting the global launch of Sony’s new Xperia smartphone technology, Cinema Pro powered by CineAlta, which offers cinema-quality images from a pocket-sized camera.
The story of a...
Glenn Gainor, the president of Sony Innovation Studios and head of physical production at Sony Pictures’ Screen Gems, will be the keynote speaker at this year’s CinefestOZ.
Screen Gems has been responsible for numerous high-grossing movies includings The Intruder, The Perfect Guy, No Good Deed, Think Like a Man, Friends with Benefits and Obsessed.
Housed on the Sony lot, Sony Innovation Studios provides the latest virtual production technology for film, television, gaming and other platforms across Sony companies and the broader industry.
Gainor’s keynote address, Embracing Technology as an Empowerment Tool, will explore how filmmakers can have their stories heard by millions through the use of emerging technologies.
He will present the world premiere of Taste, the film fronting the global launch of Sony’s new Xperia smartphone technology, Cinema Pro powered by CineAlta, which offers cinema-quality images from a pocket-sized camera.
The story of a...
- 7/23/2019
- by The IF Team
- IF.com.au
Exclusive: Here’s a nice first trailer for female empowerment pic Vai, which opens the Berlin Film Festival’s NATIVe strand next week before playing at SXSW.
The portmanteau film, written and directed by nine Pacific female filmmakers and filmed on seven Pacific islands follows the journey of empowerment through culture over the lifetime of one woman, Vai. The film is produced by Kerry Warkia and Kiel McNaughton, whose well-received drama Waru played at Toronto and Palm Springs.
Vai, which means water in Maori, was shot in Fiji, Tonga, Solomon Islands, Kuki Airani (Cook Islands), Samoa, Niue and Aotearoa (New Zealand). The character is played by a different indigenous actress in each of the Pacific countries.
Filmmakers are Ofa-Ki-Levuka Guttenbeil-Likiliki, Matasila Freshwater, Amberley Jo Aumua, Mīria George, Marina Alofagia McCartney, Dianna Fuemana, Becs Arahanga and Sharon Whippy (writer) and Nicole Whippy (writer-director).
The film was made with investment from Brown Sugar Apple Grunt Productions,...
The portmanteau film, written and directed by nine Pacific female filmmakers and filmed on seven Pacific islands follows the journey of empowerment through culture over the lifetime of one woman, Vai. The film is produced by Kerry Warkia and Kiel McNaughton, whose well-received drama Waru played at Toronto and Palm Springs.
Vai, which means water in Maori, was shot in Fiji, Tonga, Solomon Islands, Kuki Airani (Cook Islands), Samoa, Niue and Aotearoa (New Zealand). The character is played by a different indigenous actress in each of the Pacific countries.
Filmmakers are Ofa-Ki-Levuka Guttenbeil-Likiliki, Matasila Freshwater, Amberley Jo Aumua, Mīria George, Marina Alofagia McCartney, Dianna Fuemana, Becs Arahanga and Sharon Whippy (writer) and Nicole Whippy (writer-director).
The film was made with investment from Brown Sugar Apple Grunt Productions,...
- 2/1/2019
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
‘Vai’ (Photo credit: Nzfc)
Ten New Zealand features and shorts including a record number by female directors will screen in official selection at the Berlin International Film Festival next month while two will feature at the SXSW Festival in Austin, Texas in March.
Written and directed by nine Pacific women and filmed in seven different Pacific countries, Vai will open the Berlinale’s NATIVe section and will then have its North American premiere at SXSW.
Produced by Waru’s Kerry Warkia and Kiel McNaughton, Vai chronicles the journey of empowerment through culture over the lifetime of one woman, Vai, played by a different Indigenous actress in each of the Pacific countries.
The writer/directors are ‘Ofa-Ki-Levuka Guttenbeil-Likiliki, Matasila Freshwater, Amberley Jo Aumua, Mīria George, Marina Alofagia McCartney, Dianna Fuemana, Becs Arahanga, Nicole Whippy and Sharon Whippy.
Mpi Media is handling international sales and Vendetta Films will distribute in Australia and New Zealand.
Ten New Zealand features and shorts including a record number by female directors will screen in official selection at the Berlin International Film Festival next month while two will feature at the SXSW Festival in Austin, Texas in March.
Written and directed by nine Pacific women and filmed in seven different Pacific countries, Vai will open the Berlinale’s NATIVe section and will then have its North American premiere at SXSW.
Produced by Waru’s Kerry Warkia and Kiel McNaughton, Vai chronicles the journey of empowerment through culture over the lifetime of one woman, Vai, played by a different Indigenous actress in each of the Pacific countries.
The writer/directors are ‘Ofa-Ki-Levuka Guttenbeil-Likiliki, Matasila Freshwater, Amberley Jo Aumua, Mīria George, Marina Alofagia McCartney, Dianna Fuemana, Becs Arahanga, Nicole Whippy and Sharon Whippy.
Mpi Media is handling international sales and Vendetta Films will distribute in Australia and New Zealand.
- 1/16/2019
- by The IF Team
- IF.com.au
Unmissable and compelling this brave Maori sisterhood movie is a precious occasion to feel the force coming from a community that is often neglected, and not just in terms of cinematic visibility.
The film was released last summer in New Zealand with the aid of the New Zealand Film Commission and was picked up straight away by the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival. It has consequently generated a buzz and is making its way within the festival circuit.
“Waru” is screening at Aperture: Asia & Pacific Film Festival
Some explanations are needed. “Waru” is the collective effort of 8 (actually 9 as one is a joined work) woman Maori filmmakers who were asked by producers Kerry Warkia and Kiel McNaughton to follow a set of strict rules; their 8 short films had to be shot in one single take of exactly 10 minutes, in real time, all set at 10am of the day of a...
The film was released last summer in New Zealand with the aid of the New Zealand Film Commission and was picked up straight away by the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival. It has consequently generated a buzz and is making its way within the festival circuit.
“Waru” is screening at Aperture: Asia & Pacific Film Festival
Some explanations are needed. “Waru” is the collective effort of 8 (actually 9 as one is a joined work) woman Maori filmmakers who were asked by producers Kerry Warkia and Kiel McNaughton to follow a set of strict rules; their 8 short films had to be shot in one single take of exactly 10 minutes, in real time, all set at 10am of the day of a...
- 6/26/2018
- by Adriana Rosati
- AsianMoviePulse
In 2013, a group of New Zealanders got together to make a series called Flat3, about a trio of Kiwi-Chinese women who live together. After receiving plenty of praise for their work as well as a number of accolades at web festivals, the girls of Flat3 have returned to show viewers what they get up to during the weekend. Jj Fong, Perlina Lau, and Ally Xue are the stars of Friday Night Bites, a series written and directed by Roseanne Liang and produced by Kerry Warkia.
Each episode of Friday Night Bites features a different Friday night activity undertaken by the Flat3 gang and their friends. The comedy here is distinctly Kiwi, and viewers who have enjoyed shows like Flight of the Concords will smile at the dry wit on display here. At the same time, Friday Night Bites goes far beyond its national borders. In comments posted on videos within the series,...
Each episode of Friday Night Bites features a different Friday night activity undertaken by the Flat3 gang and their friends. The comedy here is distinctly Kiwi, and viewers who have enjoyed shows like Flight of the Concords will smile at the dry wit on display here. At the same time, Friday Night Bites goes far beyond its national borders. In comments posted on videos within the series,...
- 10/14/2016
- by Sam Gutelle
- Tubefilter.com
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