Cinema Club

NATAS SF NorCal Cinema Club verité is a monthly benefit to Chapter members with illuminating and educational interviews with filmmakers.

 

video
play-sharp-fill

Cinema Club vérité presents a screening of the film “Kālewa” (film trailer), a conversation with the filmmaker Mitchel Merrick, and dozens of behind the scenes pictures of the production..

Born and raised in Hawai’i, Merrick is a filmmaker who first developed his passion making home movies with the Sony camcorder he received as a birthday present when he was 10. After receiving his Bachelor’s of Media and Creative Technology from the University of Waikato in Aotearoa, he returned home to continue developing his craft.

He had the honor of participating in ‘Ohina’s inaugural filmmaker’s lab and received mentorship for his script “Kālewa” under Joe Robert Cole (Black Panther). “Kālewa” received the Greenlight Award from ‘Ohina along with full funding to be produced, then went on to screen at dozens of festivals around the world.

Since “Kālewa” (2018), he has produced a handful of other shorts, a feature film “Water Like Fire” (2020), and continues to work on elevating Hawai’i-centered stories through film.

We will be screening the 15-minute film, however you can screen it before the event: “Kālewa”

 

video
play-sharp-fill
 

Join us this Saturday via YouTube Live for a conversation with writer and director Christopher Makoto Yogi about his feature film, “I Was A Simple Man” (shot in Hawai’i) . Chris will be joined by actors Kyle Kosaki and Boonyanudh Jiyarom from the film.

We’ll talk about the Sundance experience: Workshopping the film at Sundance labs; premiering the film at the 2021 Sundance film festival; and what it took to produce the film.

YouTube Live: Emmy SF TV – Saturday January 29 10am (PST). Add your comments and questions in the comments section of YouTube Live. LINK

The film was named the fourth Best Film of 2021 in the New Yorker Magazine, where film critic Richard Brody called it “one of the great films about death.” Roxana Hadadi wrote in rogerebert.com that the film is a “100-minute spell of beauty and melancholy, intimate and grand in equal measure” while David Ehrlich in IndieWire called it “masterful” and named it a Critics Pick.

“I Was a Simple Man” is now streaming: – Apple TV LINK or Amazon Prime LINK

if you want to screen the feature, then join us Saturday January 29 at 10am (PST) on YouTube Live – EMMY SF TV for a lively discussion with the filmmakers LINK

Film Trailer LINK

Movie Review LINK

A NATAS SF NorCal first, Cinema Club verité will continue to benefit Chapter members with illuminating and educational interviews with filmmakers.