Wednesday, January 31, 2007

UH Academy for Creative Media Sponsors Women's Filmmaker Initiative

http://acm.hawaii.edu/news/wfi.shtml

Two ACM students win awards to produce short narrative and animation films

HONOLULU - The Academy for Creative Media (ACM) has created a Women's Filmmaker Initiative and selected two ACM students to receive the 2007 awards.

Joelle-Lyn Sarte and Randee Chang will each receive $1,250 to produce their short films, "Home Again," a live-action short, and "One Time Dis Magic Guy...," an animated short film.

"I feel that this grant is a great opportunity for women filmmakers to share with the world their experiences living in such a culturally rich environment. Personally, this grant is a source of motivation--to be able to tell the stories that I would like to share and give people a little insight to what kind of person I am," said Chang upon receiving her award.

Sarte added, "I am both grateful and amazed to see the ACM and the university's Diversity and Equity Initiative place significance on the efforts to get women filmmakers' voices heard."

ACM Assistant Professor Joel Moffett, who heads the screenwriting program, noted, "The Women's Filmmaker Initiative is a perfect example of what separates the ACM from other film schools on the mainland--we go out of our way to nourish unique voices from underrepresented groups."

The Academy's Filmmaker Initiative is a screenwriting competition to provide essential funding for the production of two narrative or documentary media projects created by women from traditionally underrepresented ethnic groups, including Native Hawaiian, Filipino, Melanesian, Pacific Islander, Puerto Rican, Samoan, Fijian, Micronesian, Asian, Asian American, African, African American, and Hispanic. The competition is supported by a grant from the university's Diversity and Equity Initiative (www.hawaii.edu/diversity).