{"id":134074,"date":"2021-01-19T13:56:10","date_gmt":"2021-01-19T23:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=134074"},"modified":"2021-01-20T10:32:19","modified_gmt":"2021-01-20T20:32:19","slug":"film-featured-at-sundance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2021\/01\/19\/film-featured-at-sundance\/","title":{"rendered":"UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa graduate\u2019s film to compete, premiere at Sundance"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 3<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

\"man<\/p>\n

One of the most prestigious and highly competitive international film festivals will premiere a feature film by a University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at M\u0101noa<\/a> alumnus. Christopher Makoto Yogi<\/strong>\u2019s I Was a Simple Man<\/em> will premiere at the Sundance Film Festival<\/a> on January 29. The film is among 10 dramatic narrative feature films in the U.S. Dramatic Competition.<\/p>\n

The film, set on Oʻahu<\/span>\u2019s North Shore, follows the life of Masao from pre-World War II<\/abbr>, to Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>\u2019s statehood, then the urbanization of Honolulu. When Masao gets older, he develops a terminal illness. As his condition deteriorates, he is visited by memories and ghosts of his past, including his wife (Grace) played by actress Constance Wu. The film illustrates the past and present of one family\u2019s connection to their patriarch.<\/p>\n

\"people
Behind the scenes of I Was a Simple Man<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“I Was a Simple Man<\/em> is a film that\u2019s really inspired by my personal experience of death in the family, and the emotions and the feelings that I had of being in the room with family members who were passing away,” said Yogi, the film\u2019s director and screenwriter. “It\u2019s a film that\u2019s really inspired by family stories that I\u2019ve heard over the years, fictionalized things that I\u2019ve come up with on my own, and the spirit that I feel of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> when I\u2019m there.”<\/p>\n

Yogi added, “The hope is that it\u2019s received well, that audiences like it, that critics like it, that people who are attending the festival like it and that people in Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> like it.”<\/p>\n

Yogi first came up with the idea for the film more than a decade ago. Since then, he\u2019s been writing and developing the script, raising money and developing himself as a filmmaker.<\/p>\n

“To know that it has a birthdate, now know that it\u2019s about to be released out into the world is kind of unreal,” Yogi said. “I have both a real excitement that people will finally be able to see the film and at the same time, there\u2019s this unknown now and I\u2019m just taking it like ‘whatever happens, happens.’”<\/p>\n

How to watch<\/h2>\n

Normally held in Salt Lake City, Utah, the 2021 Sundance Film Festival will be held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. I Was a Simple Man<\/em> will premiere online on January 29, 10 a.m. HST<\/abbr> and will be available on-demand for 24 hours beginning on January 31, 5 a.m. HST<\/abbr>. To purchase tickets, visit the Sundance Film Festival website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

UH<\/abbr> connection<\/h2>\n

Yogi said there were several UH<\/abbr> alumni and Academy for Creative Media (ACM<\/abbr>) M\u0101noa<\/a> majors who worked on the film\u2019s production.<\/p>\n

“Filmed on Oʻahu<\/span>, with a mix of filmmakers and community members including ones from multiple generations of our growing ACM<\/abbr> M\u0101noa ʻohana<\/span>, we think that this project was able to provide opportunities for connection and a welcoming platform to step up,” said Anne Misawa<\/strong>, co-producer on the film and associate professor at ACM<\/abbr> M\u0101noa.<\/p>\n

I feel like more of my filmmaking DNA<\/abbr> was formed in the time at the University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>
—Christopher Makoto Yogi<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yogi graduated from UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa in 2005 with a degree in English and went on to earn a graduate film degree from the University of Southern California in 2009. He was in the first ACM<\/abbr> production class in 2004. Yogi said his time in the UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa ACM<\/abbr> program was an important part of his development as a filmmaker.<\/p>\n

“I feel like more of my filmmaking DNA<\/abbr> was formed in the time at the University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>,” Yogi said. “It really instilled in me this mission to really explore and have a curiosity for stories, set in my home, and go back to that as a creative seed. I\u2019m just very grateful for the ACM<\/abbr>, not only for my experiences, but because so much of it was also intertwined with the making of this film, with the other crew members.”<\/p>\n

Yogi\u2019s previous feature film, August at Akiko\u2019s<\/em>, was named one of the best films of 2019 by The New Yorker<\/em> film critic Richard Brody. The film, which was shot on Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Island, premiered at the 2018 International Film Festival Rotterdam and was shown at several other festivals around the world. Yogi hopes to embark on a similar tour with I Was a Simple Man<\/em>.<\/p>\n

This work is an example of UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa\u2019s goal of Excellence in Research: Advancing the Research and Creative Work Enterprise<\/a> (PDF<\/abbr><\/span>), one of four goals identified in the 2015–25 Â鶹´«Ã½<\/a> (PDF<\/abbr><\/span>), updated in December 2020.<\/p>\n

—By Marc Arakaki<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The film will premiere on January 29.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[112,1467,1363,9],"class_list":["post-134074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-academy-for-creative-media","tag-manoa-excellence-in-research","tag-manoa-research","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134074"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134074\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":134143,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134074\/revisions\/134143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}