Ethan lives separate lives as a socially awkward college student by day and a fearlessly glamorous drag queen by night. | dG1fcE9fQUVWUUVYaUU
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Short filmTranscript
00:00How's it on this subtle hot Friday? The remnants of the Gilbert hurricane now on the move into the state.
00:07You can see there's a scattered showers, some of them heavy, affecting the north side of Huey Island as well as the windward side of Maui.
00:13But the system is on the move, so we're going to see more clouds and more showers through the day, mostly for the central water stations going into the site for the winter.
00:31About 20 seconds, guys.
00:36You're watching Hawaii News Now, Sunrise.
00:40A-14 right now, a whole rainbow film festival is happening. That's going to be later in September.
00:45Organizers want you to make sure that you've got it on your calendar early.
00:49Joining us this morning, film festival director Brett Anbe, who's also much involved in our film and production community.
00:57And also Vaughn Ka'ana'ana, who is also co-producer, film writer for I Am.
01:16How's it looking and welcome back to Hai Nau Diawi.
01:18The 35th annual Honolulu Rainbow Film Festival is set to take place.
01:23I'm here with Brett Anbe, the festival director, as well as Tony Dia, co-writer and director of the film, I Am, joining us in studio. Welcome into the show.
01:30Brandon, I'm going to start with you. Tell us about Honolulu Rainbow Film Festival for this year.
01:34Thank you. It's our 35th anniversary, and we are going to be screening on September 20-22 at Poma.
01:42And we're going to have a great red carpet event gala at the Capital Modern, Sunday, September 22.
01:49How many local Hawaii films are there?
01:52We have three, and this is unprecedented. We've never had the beauty and opportunity to screen three local short films.
01:59We're really excited for that.
02:01I love that. Tony, I want to transition to you with that because you directed and co-wrote a film called I Am.
02:07What's the inspiration for the film? Where does that come from?
02:11It was co-written by my partner Vaughn Ka'ana'ana and I.
02:15We wanted it to be lighthearted, but we didn't want it to center around queer trauma.
02:20A lot of queer cinema is based on that, which is needed, but we wanted to bridge the gap.
02:25Vaughn Ka'ana'ana, you are a writer, production designer, co-producer for the film I Am.
02:33You're also a O'ahu-born, O'ahu drag artist. I Am, what is the film about?
02:37This film is a lighthearted romantic comedy.
02:42It's about a boy and his crush on another boy who happens to be a drag queen.
02:50It's just lighthearted fun that ensues from there.
02:53Absolutely, and a local cast and crew?
02:56All local cast.
02:58We wanted to make sure that we casted all local people.
03:01We wanted it to be genuine and authentic to the island, the spirit.
03:05The cast that we have, Spencer Laugan, Cleo Pinto.
03:09We have iconic members from the queer community, Marina Del Rey, Coco Chandelier, Jericho Benton.
03:14And we have an original song, J-Rock and Sierra Lucia.
03:17And we just set out to make a love letter to the queer community and the Hmong community, and I think we achieved that.
03:23You must be excited to be able to have it featured at the Rainbow Film Festival.
03:28That was our intention when we first started writing the project, was to premiere at the Rainbow Film Festival.
03:35Okay, are you ready?
03:37Ready as I'll ever be, yeah.
03:39Very cool. Tony, congratulations on the film. Very excited to see it.
03:43Much continued success to you. Go get them.
03:46And Brent, congratulations, 35 years on this festival.
03:49Thank you, Kanoa.
03:50You want more information, you've got the details on the bottom.
03:53Wow, look at that. Do you guys sell these?
03:56Yes, they'll be available at the festival.
03:58I thought this was your own special. Okay, you can go ahead and get those too.
04:01We'll put all the information online at hawaiianewsnow.com.
04:04We'll take a break. We'll be right back.
04:10We did it!
04:16We did it!