Humans of Impact Hub HNL: Hawaiʻi Women in Filmmaking

You can support creative endeavors for young women and girls by supporting Hawaiʻi Women in Filmmaking’s Summer Programs crowdfunding campaign!

Hawaiʻi Women in Filmmaking (HWF) is a dynamic team of women that creates opportunities for creative expression and skill-building in film for young women and girls. Their work is focused on amplifying the voices of women, sharing their stories, and providing an opportunity to express their own unique identities through the powerful medium of film. We are so happy to have this passionate team based at Impact Hub HNL!

HWF is made up of Executive Director Vera Zambonelli, Daní Ortiz Padilla as Development & Community Relations, and Valerie Narte, their Filmmaker in Residence.

As a non-profit, ensuring funding for their projects is one of Vera’s primary – and most challenging – tasks. Their current crowdfunding campaign is called Amplify Their Voices.

This crowdfunding campaign is a way to raise funds to support HWF 2018 Summer Programs for Young Women – Making Media that Matters and Reel Camps for Girls. About 90% of the campaign funds will go to scholarships for deserving young women; “Registration fees should never be a barrier for entry for any girls for either of our summer programs,” Vera says.

Making Media that Matters is a filmmaking program where young women develop the technical and critical-thinking skills needed to create both narrative and documentary films. Each session explores and examines social justice issues that impact the lives and communities of these young women.

Reel Camps for Girls is an intensive basic filmmaking and animation programming intended to introduce technical filmmaking skills to produce a short film. The participants are organized in production crews and work together to create films that interrupt gender stereotypes and change the way women view themselves, each other and our future.

HWF is also really clear about their goal: they want to create a safe and creative space for girls and young women to learn valuable technical skills and the tools needed to tell their stories. Film industry statistics regarding women’s involvement in the filmmaking and creative process are pretty dire, and HWF works to redress that inequity. HWF believes that more female involvement in the creative process behind-the-scene affects what we see in front of the screen. Moreover, HWF offers production services for other nonprofits and local businesses and hires HWF graduates. The young women are always paid for their work, and HWF has a policy of never asking the girls to volunteer their time – this allows them to gain marketable skills and earn income, ensuring that even at a young age, they understand the value of their work, time, and brilliance!

These filmmaking programs for young women have been underway for seven years and many former attendees have gone on to become mentors, and mentors to become teachers leading to a virtuous cycle of creative peer-to-peer mentoring.

The crowdfunding campaign culminates on Saturday, May 26 with a Movie Trivia Benefit Night. Register for the event here, learn more about Hawaiʻi Women in Filmmaking here, and if you feel inspired, you can donate to their campaign here.