{"id":170055,"date":"2022-12-06T15:16:18","date_gmt":"2022-12-07T01:16:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=170055"},"modified":"2022-12-06T15:16:18","modified_gmt":"2022-12-07T01:16:18","slug":"west-oahu-documentary-wins-international-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2022\/12\/06\/west-oahu-documentary-wins-international-awards\/","title":{"rendered":"Documentary on growing coconuts at <abbr>UH<\/abbr> West O\u02bbahu wins international awards"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><div class=\"responsive-video-wrap-post\"><figure class=\"wp-block-embed wp-block-embed-youtube is-type-video is-provider-youtube epyt-figure\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><div class=\"epyt-video-wrapper\"><iframe  id=\"_ytid_80765\"  width=\"676\" height=\"380\"  data-origwidth=\"676\" data-origheight=\"380\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/c_uT9l5Jbac?enablejsapi=1&origin=https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu&rel=0&autoplay=0&cc_load_policy=0&cc_lang_pref=&iv_load_policy=1&loop=0&fs=1&playsinline=0&autohide=2&theme=dark&color=red&controls=1&disablekb=0&\" class=\"__youtube_prefs__  no-lazyload\" title=\"Kumu Niu\"  allow=\"fullscreen; accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen data-no-lazy=\"1\" data-skipgform_ajax_framebjll=\"\"><\/iframe><\/div><\/div><\/figure><\/div>\n<p>A documentary featuring two <a href=\"https:\/\/westoahu.hawaii.edu\/\">University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>&#8211;West <span aria-label=\"Oahu\">O&#699;ahu<\/span><\/a> food sustainability champions and their work with the NiU NOW! movement has won awards at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jacksonwild.org\/\">Jackson Wild Summit<\/a> in Austria and the <a href=\"https:\/\/hiff.org\/\"><span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> International Film Festival<\/a> (<abbr>HIFF<\/abbr>).<\/p>\n<p>The 15-minute short film <em>Kumu Niu<\/em> follows <strong>Manulani Aluli Meyer<\/strong>, Konohiki (head) of K\u016blana o Kapole\u200bi, and <strong>Indrajit Gunasekara<\/strong>, a financial aid officer, as they work with their community to plant a new grove of niu (coconut) and <span aria-label=\"ulu\">&#699;ulu<\/span> (breadfruit) on the <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> West <span aria-label=\"Oahu\">O&#699;ahu<\/span> campus.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_170054\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-170054\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/uhwo-niu-hiff-awardees-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"Three people smiling\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-170054\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/uhwo-niu-hiff-awardees-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/uhwo-niu-hiff-awardees-130x73.jpg 130w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/uhwo-niu-hiff-awardees.jpg 676w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-170054\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Alex Cantatore, Indrajit Gunasekara, and <abbr title=\"Hawaii International Film Festival\">HIFF<\/abbr> exec director Beckie Stocchetti (Photo credit: Lila Lee\/<abbr>HIFF<\/abbr>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><em>Kumu Niu<\/em> earned a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jacksonwild.org\/2022-media-awards.html\">Jackson Wild Media Award<\/a> in the Human Planet&#8212;Short Form category, in  September. The film received <a href=\"https:\/\/hiff.org\/hiff42-announces-jury-award-winners-honorees\/\"><abbr>HIFF<\/abbr>\u2019s Deep Blue Environmental Shorts Award<\/a> in November. In addition, the film was selected to be featured on <a href=\"https:\/\/hiff.org\/hawaiian-airlines-in-flight-programming\/\">Hawaiian Airlines\u2019 in-flight programming<\/a> from December 2022 through March 2023 as part of a partnership between <abbr>HIFF<\/abbr> and the airlines.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;This lovingly created documentary is connected to our friendship with Dr. Heather McMillen of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>\u2019s Urban Forestry Program,&rdquo; said Meyer. &ldquo;Director Alex Cantatore was inspired to bring forth this controversial subject because it is part of a larger world story of cultural resilience and Indigenous acumen dedicated to loving land and serving people. It\u2019s time to pay attention.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<h2>&lsquo;Tree Stories&rsquo; part of bigger story<\/h2>\n<p>Gunasekara and Meyer established the Uluniu Project&#8212;an effort\u200b to\u200b engage in the practices of\u200b food security, cultural dissemination of knowledge, and the growing of student leadership through aloha <span aria-label=\"aina\">&#699;&#257;ina<\/span> (love of the land)&#8212;at the campus and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2021\/02\/04\/niu-initiative-food-sustainability-hawaiian-practices\/\">expanded it in 2021<\/a> with 264 seedlings in its Niu Nursery\u200b.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_170056\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-170056\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/uhwo-niu-hiff-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"a coconut tree\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-170056\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/uhwo-niu-hiff-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/uhwo-niu-hiff-130x73.jpg 130w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/uhwo-niu-hiff.jpg 676w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-170056\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Screenshot from the documentary<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&ldquo;We had an opportunity to tell a small portion of a story of our tree of life, the coconut tree, that continues to inspire us in this ancient Indigenous relationship that stretches back beyond millennials, as well as guides us into the future during a time when we are greatly challenged with the issues of food security and the change of climate,&rdquo; Gunasekara said.<\/p>\n<p>The documentary was directed by Cantatore of QuickActCasual Productions for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stateforesters.org\/newsroom\/state-foresters-kumu-niu-wins-jackson-wild-award-appears-in-numerous-film-festivals\/\">National Association of State Foresters<\/a> (<abbr>NASF<\/abbr>) as part of its &ldquo;Tree Stories&rdquo; series, a collection of short films that illustrates the importance of the different bonds that people enjoy with trees.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I am overjoyed at the reception of <em>Kumu Niu<\/em>, especially at <abbr>HIFF<\/abbr> on <span aria-label=\"Oahu\">O&#699;ahu<\/span>, the home of the NiU NOW! movement,&rdquo; said Cantatore. &ldquo;The film is a celebration of their crucial work for food sovereignty and it means the world to me to see those efforts elevated in such a powerful way.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Since its release in April 2022, <em>Kumu Niu<\/em> has been screened at various other film festivals, including San Diego ShortsFest, Awareness Film Festival, BendFilm Festival and Red Nation International Film Festival.<\/p>\n<p>For more, go to <a href=\"https:\/\/westoahu.hawaii.edu\/kaloinews\/?p=18216\">Ka Puna O <span aria-label=\"Kaloi\">Kalo&#699;i<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8212;By <em>Zenaida Serrano Arvman<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><em>Kumu Niu<\/em> follows Manulani Aluli Meyer and Indrajit Gunasekara as they work to plant a new grove of niu (coconut) and <span aria-label=\"ulu\">&#699;ulu<\/span> (breadfruit) on campus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[646,698,73,59,56],"class_list":["post-170055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-film","tag-staff-recognition","tag-sustainability","tag-uh-west-oahu","tag-video-2","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170055","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=170055"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170055\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":170088,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170055\/revisions\/170088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}