Guest Filmmaker program
HIFF’s Guest Filmmaker Program connects local and visiting filmmakers with students across Hawai‘i, offering classes a unique opportunity to learn directly from industry professionals. Educators can request a free single-session visit—either in-person or online—where a professional filmmaker will share insights and experiences with the students. This program is available to all schools in Hawai‘i, subject to filmmaker availability.
Photo: GFP session from HIFF43 with filmmaker, Christopher Makoto Yogi, at James Campbell High School
filmmaker bios
ALEXANDER BOCCHIERI
Alexander Bocchieri is an award-winning Native Hawaiian filmmaker. After graduating from the University of Hawai‘i, he turned his passion for storytelling toward creating documentaries about pressing social issues. He directed the independent feature film, GO FOR BROKE, a groundbreaking Hawai‘i-produced war drama that would go on to play at festivals around the world. In 2022, he was selected to be a part of the Disney Launchpad Program, where he directed THE ROOF, which won the audience choice award at the ImagineNATIVE film festival, and is now available to stream on Disney+.
ALIKA TENGAN
Alika Tengan is a Hapa Hawaiian/ Asian filmmaker based out of Honolulu, Hawai‘i, whose short films MAUKA TO MAKAI and MOLOKA‘I BOUND have garnered multiple awards, including “Best Short Work” at ImagineNative, which granted them Oscar Consideration for the 2021 Academy Awards and landed the film a home on the Criterion Channel. The MOLOKA‘I BOUND short inspired a feature-length script which was selected for the inaugural Indigenous Black List. His first feature-length film, EVERYDAY IN KAIMUKĪ had its World Premiere in the NEXT category of Sundance 2022.
ANGELIQUE AXELRODE
Angelique Kalani Axelrode (they/ she/‘o ia) is an award-winning multimedia artist and filmmaker based in unceded Tongva/Gabrieleno land (Los Angeles) and founder of aka productions, a BIPOC and Gen Z-centered production company. They received their B.S. from Vanderbilt University and spent most of their time in undergrad community organizing with Tennessee Advocates for Planned Parenthood, fighting for reproductive rights in the Bible Belt. After graduating, they were awarded the Creative Wildfire grant in 2021 for artists resisting the dominant culture and working toward building a new, more just “normal.”
Anne Misawa
Anne Misawa, a graduate of the University of Southern California’s Graduate Cinema & TV Production Program, has worked internationally in various aspects of film production on numerous award-winning works. She primarily works as a Producer, Director, and Cinematographer. Recent work includes the feature documentary A PARADISE LOST, (as a Producer, Dir. of Photography) and several films screened more recently at the HIFF (2021)– I WAS A SIMPLE MAN, (Co-Producer), REEL WAHINE 3 JOY CHONG STANNARD, (Director, awarded BEA Media Arts Festival Best in Competition Award for Microdoc, Emmy Award for series), and LAST HAWAIIAN SUGAR, (Director of Photography). Anne also teaches cinematic production at the School of Cinematic Arts, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa where she served as department chair.
BRYSON CHUN
Bryson Chun is a Native Hawaiian screenwriter who wrote on the Disney+ series DOOGIE KAMEALOHA MD and the upcoming MOANA 2 for Disney animation. He has produced award-winning short and feature films in Hawai‘i that have gone on to screen for PBS, The Smithsonian Institution, The Criterion Collection, and at festivals all over the world. He was a writing fellow for Sundance, CAPE, imagineNATIVE, LA Skins, and ‘Ohina Labs where he developed his Greenlight award-winning short OTHER PEOPLE under the mentorship of THOR RAGNAROK writer Eric Pearson. He’s a two-time blacklist Indigenous fellow for his pilot script POI DOGS and the feature film DON’T FREAK. He’s a proud graduate from the IAIA MFA program and is represented by Verve Talent and Literary Agency.
Ciara LEINA'ala Lacy
Ciara Leina’ala Lacy is an Emmy-nominated filmmaker whose Native Hawaiian identity drives the intimacy and authenticity in her work. Notably, she is the inaugural Sundance Institute Merata Mita Fellow. She holds a BA in Psychology from Yale University, which deeply informs her process as someone looking to excavate truth and emotion to better understand what it means to be human. Whether the content she is working on is live action or animated, documentary or fiction, short or feature length, Ciara aims to craft stories that feel immediate, personal, and revelatory.
daniel croix
Daniel Croix is an actor in film and television. He’s best known for appearing in MANHUNT (Apple TV+), LOVE VICTOR (Hulu), The OVAL (BET Network), MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING (The Public Theater NYC), and more. He collaborates on a wide range of film, television, and contemporary art projects across the US and abroad. He’s also a film director. His short film as a writer/director HULI travels in festivals internationally through 2024/25. It’s the debut project of his production company, Ringshout Productions, where he collaborates on original scripted film and television projects. He grew up in New York and now lives in Honolulu and LA — traveling frequently for collaborations around the world. He has a BFA from SUNY Purchase.
Elijah Kala Mcshane
Elijah Kala McShane is a Kānaka ʻŌiwi o Hawai‘i (native descendant of the Hawaiian islands) and a direct descendant of both Hawai‘i/Maui & O‘ahu chiefly lineages. Elijah, also known as Kahu Kala, is the founder of Awakened Aloha. Elijah has co-starred in notable short films such as HULI and KŪKINI, a historical fiction film written by Paula Fuga about a messenger from Maui in the time of Kamehameha’s conquest at the battle of Kepaniwai. He looks to continue his acting & writing journey by applying his spiritual, cultural, and artistic background to his own films that share the struggles and triumphs of Hawaiians of past and present.
EMILY MAY JAMPEL
Erin Lau
Erin Lau is a Native Hawaiian filmmaker who has dedicated her life to creating stories that explore empathy, family, and identity. She completed her Bachelors at UH Mānoa’s Academy for Creative Media and received her MFA from Chapman University. Her short films have screened in over 50 festivals worldwide. Her Chapman thesis THE MOON AND THE NIGHT received support from the 2017 Sundance Native Lab, was shortlisted for the Student BAFTA awards, and featured on the Criterion Channel. Her latest film INHERITANCE premiered at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival and won the Oscar-Qualifying Best Hawai‘i Short Award at HIFF42. In addition to her scripted work, Erin worked for three years as a Senior Producer-Director for Jubilee Media, where she developed community-focused content for global brands including Google, SK-II, and Always. Most recently, Erin directed her first episode of network television for the FOX series RESCUE: HI-SURF.
Learn more about Erin here
GERARD ELMORE
Gerard Elmore is an indigenous Maya American producer/DP/ Director/writer/editor, is the Executive Director of ‘Ohina, and has helped and fostered emerging talent in the state. He is a 2022 Sundance Institute Producer Intensive Fellow for the feature film, LAST HAWAIIAN SUGAR He is the vice president of film at NMG Network, responsible for developing branded content, editorial videos, commercials and films. Gerard also serves as the executive director for ‘Ohina. In partnership with Pacific Islanders in Communications, he and the ‘Ohina team have produced and worked on over 20 films (showcasing Hawai‘i, Kānaka Maoli and Pacific Islander filmmakers, actors, crew) that have been to festivals around the world and distributed nationwide, including KĀLEWA & OTHER PEOPLE, which are now a part of the Criterion Collection.
Ioane goodhue
Ioane Goodhue is an actor based in Honolulu, Hawai‘i. He has worked on a variety of productions such as feature film (NEXT GOAL WINS), limited series (CHIEF OF WAR), short films (ALA MOANA BOYS, E MĀLAMA PONO WILLY BOY, KŪKINI), network television (HAWAII FIVE-0, MAGNUM P.I., NCIS: HAWAII), video game (LIKE A DRAGON: INFINITE WEALTH), theater (Kamapua‘a, Lā‘ieikawai, Nā Kau a Hi‘iaka), commercials (McDonald’s, Subaru) and educational (PBS, OiwiTV). Ioane is a Hawai‘i language specialist featuring performances in ‘ōlelo Hawai‘i and Pidgin English. As a native speaker of the Hawaiian language, Ioane truly believes that reshaping Hawai‘i’s entertainment landscape to include more Hawaiian voices will be a great benefit to all people of Hawai‘i.
JANA PARK
Jana Kealohaokeakua Park is a Film Producer, Film Production Teacher, Non-Profit Executive Director, and māmā to three keiki. She was born in Honolulu and raised on the island of Moloka‘i. Jana’s passion is producing diverse narrative and documentary films that amplify female, queer, disabled, and Asian/ Indigenous voices. Jana served as Executive Director of Hawai‘i Filmmakers Collective and teaches International Baccalaureate Film and Film Production courses at Mid-Pacific School of the Arts. She holds a B.A. in Political Science (Minor/Women’s Studies) from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa and an A.A. in American Sign Language Interpreting from Los Angeles Pierce College.
Justin GERALD ocampo
Justin Gerald Pensader Ocampo is a second generation Filipino American filmmaker based in Makiki, Oʻahu, with roots in the Northern Mariana Islands. A graduate of the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, Justin’s filmography is primarily comprised of short films he has written and directed that reflect on themes of love, family, and culture. His award winning films have screened at numerous regional and international film festivals in various locales such as Los Angeles, San Diego, Cebu, and Guam. Most recently, he was the recipient of the inaugural HIFF x BMW HAWAI’I Driven Student Filmmaker Award for his Filipino American romantic comedy short film, KUNYARI. Professionally, Justin works as a Digital Communications Specialist for the Honolulu City Council.
koa bayani
Koa Bayani was raised on Oʻahu and has spent the past few years writing and directing short films about his home. This has allowed him to develop an understanding of the stories that he yearns to see, among those that turned him into a filmmaker when he was 12. He tries to always remind himself of all of this whenever production assistants have to arm themselves against the onslaught of chickens waging war on their snack cart.
Kurt Hoffmann
Kurt Hoffmann is a filmmaker from Mililani. He attended the Television Production program at Leeward Community College, and has since made several short films with festival accolades, including screening a film he produced at the Cannes International Film Festival’s Emerging Filmmakers Showcase in France. He works at Thrill Creative House shooting, directing and editing documentaries and commercials, and makes short films and documentaries in his free time, working towards developing and fine tuning his style and voice.
LAURA MARGULIES
Laura Margulies (Ukulele Pictures, LLC) has been creating hand painted animated films and commissioned work for more than 30 years. Laura’s award winning work has screened worldwide. Her most recent short film, BLUE COOLER, won the Audience award at the Hawai‘i International Film Festival (2022) and aired on Hawaiian Airlines In-flight programming. Laura is currently directing an animated short, KAPO MA‘I LELE (Kapo’s Flying Ladyparts). She is an Assistant Professor of Animation at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa in The School of Cinematic Arts.
MELINA COUMAS
MITCHEL MERRICK
Todd Robertson
Todd Robertson has worked in the field of art and media since 1990. He believes that at the core of any movement for positive change is a powerful story. In 1996, he founded Hyperspective with a mission to inspire positive change on a large scale through film and media. Since then, he has worked with several national and international organizations including NASA, IMAX, Kaiser Permanente, and many others to apply storytelling to educate, inspire, and move people towards making things better for themselves, those around them, and in effect, the world. His films and work have received multiple national and international awards.
ʻĀina Paikai
ʻĀina Paikai is a native Hawaiian filmmaker that aims to amplify Pacific and indigenous voices in media. Paikai earned his B.A. from the University of Hawaiʻi’s Academy for Creative Media, where he studied indigenous aesthetics under the pioneer filmmaker from Aotearoa (New Zealand), Merata Mita. He started his career at ʻŌiwiTV, Hawaiʻi’s only indigenous television broadcast company, where he was a producer on MELE MURALS (2016), a documentary on the transformative power of modern graffiti art and ancient Hawaiian culture. A Sundance Native Lab Fellow and crew member of the voyaging canoe, Hōkūleʻa, Paikai is the founder of his independent film production company, Kamaʻāina Creations. He wrote and acted in the award-winning short-film, DOWN ON THE SIDEWALK IN WAIKĪKĪ (2019), inspired by the life and words of poet Wayne Kaumualii Westlake. His latest short-film, HAWAIIAN SOUL (2020), is a drama that celebrates the music and message of George Helm Jr., the famed musician and activist that helped to stop the target bombing’s on the island of Kahoʻolawe. From 2020-2022, HAWAIIAN SOUL won Best Short Film awards at 6 international film festivals and qualified to be nominated for Best Live Action Short Film at the 2023 Oscars®.
Kenji Tsukamoto
Kenji Tsukamoto was born in Fukushima, Japan and moved to America as a child where his family relocated frequently across the country. Having been immersed in various cultures both in the United States and Japan during his formative years, Kenji offers a distinct point of view in his storytelling. As a third culture kid, Kenji found a kindred spirit in the world renown climber Ashima Shiraishi, who became the subject of his first feature film, ASHIMA.
Ramona s. Diaz
