Director/Screenwriter/Producer: KAYO HATTA

Born in Honolulu on March 18, 1958, project director/writer Kayo Hatta died near San Diego on July 20, 2005.

Hatta was the director/co-writer of Picture Bride, one of the first independent films to be made in Hawaii.  The film won the Audience Award for Best Dramatic Film at the 1995 Sundance Film Festival and was an Official Selection at the 1994 Cannes International Film Festival.
Distributed domestically and internationally by Miramax Films, the film went on to to become a best-selling video in Hawaii, and is now a regular part of the educational curriculum in many local schools and universities teaching ethnic studies, women's studies, labor history, and the history and culture of Hawaii.

Hatta was the recipient of a Hawaii Council of the City and County of Honolulu Certificate Honoring Women Filmmakers of Picture Bride for Outstanding Achievement in Film; a Hawaii State Senate Testimonial of Commendation;  a Hawaii State House of Representatives Testimonial of Commendation;  Asian CineVision's Asian American Media Award For Outstanding Achievement and Contribution to Asian American Media; the Asian American Arts Foundation Golden Ring Award for Artistic Achievement; and
the MANAA (Media Action Network for Asian Americans) Media Achievement Award.  She was also the recipient of many media grants, including: Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts; National Endowment for the Humanities, Media Arts Program; American Film Institute, Independent Film Program; National Endowment for the Arts, Media Arts Program; Women's Project/Funding Exchange (Paul Robeson Fund 1990); Hawai`i State Commission on the Status of Women; and the Zellerbach Family Fund.
 
Hatta earned a B.A. in English from Stanford University and an M.F.A. in Film from University of California, Los Angeles where she wrote and directed “Otemba” ("Tomboy"), her first short narrative work which won a CINE Eagle award and was broadcast on RTE Irish Television, Canal Plus France, and Danish Television.  At UCLA, she won the Kuwahara Creative Arts Award, the UCLA Women's Affiliates Award, and the Dorothy Arzner Award, given to an outstanding woman director.  
 
Hatta taught workshops on independent filmmaking for film organizations such as Pacific New Media in Honolulu, IFP/West, and the Film Arts Foundation.  She also lectured at colleges and universities including Mills College, University of California, Irvine, University of California, Santa Cruz, Scripps College and the University of Southern California.  In recent years, she served as a juror for the Sundance Film Festival and the Hawaii International Film Festival.  She served on the Board of
Directors for Independent Feature Projects/West "Project Involve" Mentorship Program
and was Assistant Professor at UCLA's School of Theater, Film and Television and the Art Institute of Los Angeles, where she taught film directing and video production respectively.  Before beginning production of FISHBOWL, Hatta completed a TV-directing fellowship with John Wells Productions (“West Wing” and “ER”).     

Writer: LOIS-ANN YAMANAKA

Lois-Ann Yamanaka was born on the island of Moloka'I and raised in Hilo, Hawaii. She is the author of Snow Angel, Sand Angel; Saturday Night at the Pahala Theatre; Wild   Meat and the Bully Burgers; Blu's Hanging; Heads by Harry;   Name Me Nobody; and Father of the Four Passages .   Forthcoming books include the novel Behold the Many and The Blue Bird (a children's picture book).   She was named one of the "25 Most Influential Asians in   America" by A. Magazine, and was listed among   "Those Who Shaped the Isles in this Century: 100 Who   Made a Difference," by the Honolulu Star Bulletin.   She is the recipient of the Hawai'i Award for Literature, the American Book Award, the Children's Choice for   Literature, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, two Pushcart Prizes for her poetry, a Lannan Literary Award, a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer's Award, and the 1993 Elliott Cades Award for Literature.   She has taught English, Drama, and Speech for twelve years with the Department of Education (DOE).   With her co-director Melvin Spencer, she established and currently operates   Na'au: A Place for Learning and Healing, a creative writing school in Honolulu.

 

Director of photography: CAMERON PEARCE

Cameron was born and raised in North Carolina and moved to California in 1999.   He has since shot over 30 short films, 20 commercials,   &   a partridge in a pear tree. He's shot for clients such as Verizon and Honda but spends most of his time working with a company he started with four other partners. They are currently in post-production for a feature film, “Threshold of Hell” which he shot (and is currently editing) in Pensacola, Florida in 2004.   

Cameron takes ownership of each project by encompassing cinematography   & editing as one craft.   His editing has taken him on set with Michael   Mann on Tom Cruise's "Collateral."   He also composited for "Be Cool" with F. Gary Gray & spent three weeks with Gore Verbinski in Chicago for Nic Cage's Spring release, "The Weather Man."

Costume designer: ADA AKAJI

Music Composer: CHRISTOPHER TIN

Producer: LINDA BARRY
Producer Linda Barry is an independent producer and writer whose mother is a native of Kauai. Her entertainment career commenced in the early ‘80s on the East Coast working in public relations for the Broadway touring companies of “Annie,” “A Chorus Line,” and “Dancin'.”   Barry spent fifteen years working in the media in various positions, from continuity and advertising sales to promotions, research, community affairs, network affiliations and administration in radio, newspaper, cable and broadcast television in Hampton Roads, Virginia and in San Francisco, California. Since 1999, she has produced three dramatic short films, “Captured,” written and directed by Vivian Umino, and “Stuck” and “Countdown” written and directed by Xochitl Gonzalez. In addition, she served as co-producer on the cult-hit film, "Mango Kiss", written and directed by Sascha Rice.   She spent five years as a Story Analyst for the Sundance Institute's Screenwriters Labs and has worked for the Sundance Film Festival for the past nine years.   In addition she participated in the 2003 IFP Producers Lab.   She holds a B.A. in English from Old Dominion University in Virginia and graduated from UCLA Film School's Producers Program.   She is currently developing "Heavy Work" written and to be directed by Xochitl Gonzalez, "Firehouse" by Greg Blatman, and is writing a political satire screenplay with her father Jack Barry.  She is married to Frank Esposito and the mother of Aja Alexandra,   born May 2004.

Eleanor at the project wrap party with husband Brian and daughter Lexi

Producer: ELEANOR NAKAMA-MITSUNAGA  
Producer Eleanor Nakama-Mitsunaga was born and raised in Hawaii, with close ties to the islands. She was associate producer of Kayo Hatta's much acclaimed film “Picture Bride” and has been a freelance producer for public television for many years on a variety of    programs ranging from cooking, culture and public affairs. She has also worked with a handful of independent filmmakers in San Francisco, Seattle and Hawaii in the production of both dramatic and documentary projects. Nakama-Mitsunaga is also a freelance food writer and has written for the Seattle Times, Pacific Northwest Magazine, Honolulu Star-Bulletin and the Hawaii Herald. Her weekly food column “Key Ingredient” appears every Wednesday in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin.   Nakama-Mitsunaga holds a B.A. in communications from the University of Hawaii at Manoa and an M.A. in broadcast communication arts from San Francisco State University. She also attended graduate studies in film and television at the University of Southern California.