Synopsis

Two friends spend a summer day together in Mānoa Valley before one of them moves to New York City.

Curators’ note

Director’s bio

Emily May Jampel is a director from Honolulu based in New York City. Her films have played at festivals around the world including Palm Springs, Aspen ShortsFest, Champs-Élysées, and Outfest. She previously worked as a Development Executive at the Academy Award-Nominated and Peabody Award-Winning production company The Department of Motion Pictures (Beasts of the Southern Wild, Patti Cake$, Monsters & Men, 32 Sounds), was an Associate Producer on the podcast series Operator and a Creative Consultant on Constance Tsang’s debut feature Blue Sun Palace (Cannes Critics' Week). Emily was one of the 2023 Recipients of NewFest’s New Voices Filmmaker Grant.

Director‘s statement

This is a film about leaving home. I was born and raised in Honolulu and moved to New York City eleven years ago. Over the years, I often found myself thinking back to this final summer of my childhood again and again. Rather than trying to make some kind of overarching or universal statement about the experience of growing up in Hawaiʻi, I simply aimed to capture this very specific place and moment in time and tell a story about two young characters exploring questions about where they belong and where they want to live, the same questions I’m still asking myself today.

Making this film was partly my own desire to revisit and reconnect with Hawaiʻi on my own terms, and start building my own relationships, experiences and community within Hawaiʻi that I never had growing up there. Through the creation of this story I’m also exploring my own memories and relationship with home as I attempt to reconcile my past and present selves – the impatient teenager on Oʻahu who can’t wait to leave and the nostalgic adult in New York City who keeps thinking about coming back.

Festival & Awards

Aspen ShortsFest (World Premiere)

Hawaiʻi International Film Festival (Hawaiʻi Premiere)

Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival (International Premiere)

Casts

Lukita Maxwell,

Derec Patrick Juan, Alec Singer, Winona Momi Silva

Credits