HIFF invites filmmakers local and beyond to visit classrooms virtually or in-person to share the craft of filmmaking and storytelling with young students.
HIFF offers free youth education screenings of outstanding films that are rarely available in Hawai’i to schools providing a resource of filmmaking and storytelling to the local community. We encourage teachers to incorporate these films into their classes. Whenever possible, HIFF invites the film’s director to participate in a post-screening discussion with students.
HIFF’s annual K-12 Student Showcase features the best of student films in Hawai’i who are in high school or younger. The films we feature are micro-movies, narratives, documentaries, animations, PSAs, or broadcast journalism between 1 to 20 minutes in length.
As we partner with organizations like the Daniel K. Inouye Institute, we work to build a better future by working with students and young filmmakers who have a powerful voice to reimagine a new world. Each year this contest has a new theme. Student finalists selected to showcase at HIFF will also have the opportunity to meet a celebrity youth ambassador in a private Q&A discussion and Awards Ceremony. Past guests include actors Phillipa Soo, Jacob Batalon, and Harry Shum, Jr.
DISTANCE TURNING: FEATURED STUDENT SHORT
Students at H.P. Baldwin High School on Maui in Ms. Roy’s film class created this short film over Google Classroom during HIFF 40’s Guest Filmmaker Program in a session with Native Hawaiian filmmaker ‘Aina Paikai as the guest speaker. DISTANCE TURNING is this class’ comedic spin on the horrors of distance learning.
