MY PARTNER

Pili (Kaipo Dudoit), a Native Hawaiian student-athlete standout, and Edmar (Jayron Munoz), a high-achieving Filipino student, are a part of rival senior class friend groups at Lahainaluna High School, who clash when Edmar’s group is caught overfishing a native species in a restored freshwater stream by Pili’s group. It’s a great setup for rival friend groups from different ethnic backgrounds. But when Edmar and Pili are assigned by a teacher to work on a final semester project together promoting their own cultural backgrounds, they are forced to work together or face failing, which is ix-nay for two overachieving students. Through their interactions working on the project, Pili and Edmar learn more about each other and unexpectedly develop feelings for one another. In his directorial feature film debut, Keli‘i Grace (ALA MOANA BOYS, HIFF 2021) crafts a feel-good, sentimental BL (Boy Love) teen romance, from a script by Lance D. Collins. BL is a popular genre across Asia, from manga to TV shows. As the first Kānaka Maoli BL film, MY PARTNER will resonate with all audiences, from teens, who will hoot and holler with many male bare chests on screen, to kupuna, who will admire young people practicing and preserving culture (and also fawn at the hawt boys too).