HIFFPROFILES 28TH LOUIS VUITTON HAWAII INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
OMID ABTAHI was
born in Iran and lived
there and later in AMERICAN
Europe before moving
to the United States.
Prior to acting on tele- IMMIGRANT
vision, Abtahi per-
formed on stage in
OMID
many theatrical pro- FILMMAKERS
ABTAHI
ductions including
Fraulein Else at the
Ocean of Pearls
Berkeley Repertory, ON PROFILE
McCarter Theatre and Longwarf Theatre. He
has also guest starred on the television series The Vilcek Foundation proudly honors these American immigrants for sharing their creative
JAG, Judging Amy and 24. Abtahi was recently
visions with the world through film. The Foundation will present their films at its New York City
in the film RUNNING WITH SCISSORS and just
headquarters this November.
finished shooting Jim Sheridan’s BROTHERS in
which he stars alongside Tobey Maguire,
Natalie Portman, and Jake Gyllenhaal.
CHIEF SIELU AVEA was Born in Saigon and Born in March 1975
born in the jungles of raised in Orange in Phnom-Penh,
Savai’i in Independent County, CA, GAUGER Cambodia, LUONG,
Samoa, where he and received a Bachelor of his mom and two
his family lived off the Arts degree in Theatre brothers arrived in
land for years in com- and French Literature. Paris in June 1976
plete isolation. As a His love of cinema shortly after his
young man, he moved him onto film father’s death. As a
SIELU
received a scholarship
STEPHANE
sets, where he trained
KAI-DUC
teenager, Luong lived
AVEA
to visit New Zealand
and later came to
GAUGER
in film lighting under
Matthew Libatique,
LUONG
a studious life in
France until coming
Chief
study at BYU Hawaii.
Vietnam Overtures
ASC. Gauger subse-
Someplace Else
to America in 1997
When he was 25, the elders called him back to quently worked in the camera and lighting as an exchange engineering grad student. He
Samoa to endure an excruciating seven-day tat- departments on independent films in the U.S. has been perfecting his artistic and filmmak-
too ceremony, after which he earned the title of and Southeast Asia, including Sundance winner ing skills for the past 10 years, making festi-
"Chief." Chief Sielu has spent his life introduc- THREE SEASONS, while honing his writing and val-winning shorts, gallery-specific video
ing the world to the fa’asamoa, the Samoan directing craft on short narrative and documen- installations, and modern music videos such
way, through comedy, music, and dance. CHIEF tary films. OWL AND THE SPARROW, his first as THE FROGS (2007) for French electro-pop
is Sielu’s first starring role in a dramatic film. feature, received the NetPac Award at HIFF ‘07. label Recordmakers.
CHRISTINE CHOY SHERWOOD HU was SARAB NEELAM lived
was born in Shanghai, born and raised in in India before moving
China. She has Shanghai and later to Canada at age 10.
received over 60 inter- relocated to the U.S. He enjoyed the many
national awards to earn his Master of choices that Canada
including an Oscar Arts degree from offered but also felt
nomination for Best New York State the challenges of
Documentary and a University, followed being different.
CHRISTINE
Best Cinematography
SHERWOOD
by a Ph.D. in Directing
SARAB
Pursuing his passion,
CHOY
Award at Sundance.
Choy has produced/-
HU
from the University of
Hawaii at Manoa. He
NEELAM
he started taking film
classes. He desperate-
Long Story Short
directed/photographed
Prince of the
began his profession-
Ocean of Pearls
ly wanted to see Sikhs
more than 70 works that have been broadcast
Himalayas
al career directing on screen. Unfortunately political turmoil in India
on HBO, PBS, Life Time, and others. Her works theatre productions such as THE LEGEND OF and the Middle East and 9/11 in America made
have also been featured in multiple internation- PRINCE LANLING, which became his first fea- many Sikhs feel like outcasts whom others might
al film festivals, including Berlin, Cannes, and ture film. His second feature, LANI LOA, THE view as potential terrorists. So what started as
Toronto, as well as Asian American festivals. PASSAGE, was executive produced by Francis Neelams's dream to make movies has become a
She is the founding director of the School of Ford Coppola and Wayne Wang, and was one burning desire to use film as a means for Sikhs to
Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong. of the first U.S./China co-productions. be recognized as human beings with dignity.
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