FEATURE FILM GRANT FOR UNDERREPRESENTED CREATIVES
HAWAIIAN FILMMAKER ALIKA MAIKAU NAMED RECIPIENT OF FIRST FEATURE FILM GRANT FROM GOOGLE, IN PARTNERSHIP WITH ARRAY, ESTABLISHED TO SUPPORT UNDERREPRESENTED CREATIVES
Maikau’s Production to Be Powered by ARRAY Crew, the Inclusive Hiring Database for Below-the-Line Crew Members
LOS ANGELES, CA (October 11, 2021) — Today, Hawaiian filmmaker Alika Maikau has been announced as the recipient of the first ever Feature Film Grant from Google in partnership with ARRAY, a program established to support emerging creatives from historically underrepresented communities. The career-changing $500,000 grant provided by Google will fund Maikau’s full-length feature. The film will be distributed by ARRAY, the distribution, arts and advocacy collective founded by filmmaker Ava DuVernay.
Maikau grew up in Kaneohe and has always been inspired to tell stories that showcase Hawaii’s unique language and culture. His short film, “Moloka’i Bound” won the award for best live-action short film at the well-respected imagiNATIVE film festival and will now be made into his feature film. The story follows Kainoa, a rootless Native Hawaiian recently released from prison who is looking forward to reconnecting with his son and heritage. He struggles to reconcile with his ex and must resist the lure of his old ways. In order to save his relationship with his son, he takes drastic measures that will force him to face himself and his family’s history of loss and trauma.
Additional finalists who submitted scripts for consideration include Suzannah Mirghani (Qatar), Ryan RedCorn (Oklahoma), Philiane Phang (New York City), Mary Evangelista (New York City by way of Bay Area), David Liu (Los Angeles), Cristina Ibarra (New York City). These emerging filmmakers will each receive $5,000 to continue the development of their projects.
“Google has always valued a diversity of communities and culture and view this as a unique opportunity to partner to drive broader change needed within the entertainment industry, in front and or behind the camera,” said Jeffrey Whipps, VP of Marketing at Google. “This film grant in partnership with ARRAY, allows us to jointly celebrate and showcase the talent of creators like Alika’s, whose work addresses issues that need to be brought to the forefront urgently. We’re excited to continue to help amplify more voices from underrepresented communities to tell their authentic, timely and important stories.”
“ARRAY was founded with the mission of amplifying storytelling by filmmakers of color more than a decade ago. We are so proud to be announcing Indigenous/Native Hawaiian filmmaker Alika Maikau as the recipient of the first-ever Feature Film Grant from Google in partnership with ARRAY,”said ARRAY President Tilane Jones. “The entire ARRAY team, along with our colleagues at Google, instantly connected to Alika’s beautifully written narrative that is set in Hawaii and tells the story of indigenous family traditions, struggles and triumphs. We look forward to working with Alika to bring his vision from script to screen, and to audiences all over the world through our distribution arm ARRAY Releasing.”
Maikau will also have the opportunity to be mentored by the esteemed advisory committee who deliberated and selected him as the grant recipient. These established members of the independent film community include Gabrielle Glore (Urbanworld, Festival Director & Head of Programming), Francis Cullado (Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, Executive Director for Visual Communications Media), Crystal Echo Hawk (IllumiNative, Founder and Executive Director), María Raquel Bozzi (Senior Director of Education & International Initiatives at Film Independent), and Smriti Kiran (Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival).
Maikau’s production will be powered by ARRAY Crew, the database created by DuVernay as a way for hiring managers in search of below-the-line hires to easily access underrepresented film and television professionals, including but not limited to women and BIPOC individuals of African American, Hispanic, Native American, Asian American, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Island decent. The platform currently boasts thousands of qualified members and more than 600 productions across 450 departments.
“Our intention in creating the Feature Film Grant, in partnership with ARRAY, is for it to be part of the broader change needed within the entertainment industry, both on and behind the scenes, “ said Elle Roth-Brunet, Google’s lead and producer on the project. “Alika’s work is rooted in the local, lived experience that deserves to be seen by a wide audience, and we are excited to help bring it to life. Congrats to all of the finalists who shared such beautiful stories that represent their communities.”
The grant was developed in partnership with Google because of their ongoing commitment to amplifying marginalized voices and highlighting diverse perspectives. Earlier this year Google partnered with The Black List to launch a storytelling fellowship that provides financial and creative support to writers from underrepresented communities, as a means to develop their feature film script or TV pilot.
GRANT RECIPIENT
GRANT RECIPIENT
Alika Maikau
TITLE: Filmmaker
Alika Maikau is a Hapa Hawaiian/Asian filmmaker based out of Honolulu, Hawai’i. In 2017 he earned a mentorship under Joe Robert Cole (Black Panther), who oversaw the development of what would become his short, Mauka To Makai, which premiered at the end of 2018 and was awarded Best Made In Hawai’i Short at the Hawai’i International Film Festival. Filmmaker Magazine published an article in 2019 entitled Made Visible, where they went on to say about Mauka “Bringing to the screen a world little seen even in Hawaiian films, it wove a universal tale of economic struggle and longtime friendship into a proudly local, indigenous setting.” Alika followed up Mauka with Moloka’i Bound, which premiered at ImagineNative 2019 and won the award for “Best Short Work,” granting them Oscar Consideration for the 2021 Academy Awards. In December 2021 the feature-length script for Moloka’i Bound was selected for the inaugural Indigenous Black List.
Alika Maikau
TITLE: Filmmaker
Alika Maikau is a Hapa Hawaiian/Asian filmmaker based out of Honolulu, Hawai’i. In 2017 he earned a mentorship under Joe Robert Cole (Black Panther), who oversaw the development of what would become his short, Mauka To Makai, which premiered at the end of 2018 and was awarded Best Made In Hawai’i Short at the Hawai’i International Film Festival. Filmmaker Magazine published an article in 2019 entitled Made Visible, where they went on to say about Mauka “Bringing to the screen a world little seen even in Hawaiian films, it wove a universal tale of economic struggle and longtime friendship into a proudly local, indigenous setting.” Alika followed up Mauka with Moloka’i Bound, which premiered at ImagineNative 2019 and won the award for “Best Short Work,” granting them Oscar Consideration for the 2021 Academy Awards. In December 2021 the feature-length script for Moloka’i Bound was selected for the inaugural Indigenous Black List.
GRANT FINALISTS
Click image for bio
Mary Evangelista
Writer, Director & Producer
Cristina Ibarra
Independent Filmmaker
David Liu
Writer & Director
Ryan RedCorn
Writer
Suzannah Mirghani
Writer, Researcher & Independent Filmmaker
Philiane Phang
Writer & Director
Mary Evangelista
TITLE: Writer, Director & Producer
Mary Evangelista is a writer, director, and producer from the Philippines and the Bay Area. Mary received an MFA from NYU Tisch for Writing and Directing. Their short film, Fran This Summer, is an LGBTQ summer love story that premiered at Sundance Film Festival, and won the Grand Jury Prize at Outfest before playing in thirty film festivals internationally. Mary co-created Water Melts, a Tribeca Film Institute, and Google supported VR rom-com which premiered at Tribeca and played at the Rotterdam Film Festival. A Project Involve Fellow with Film Independent where they directed the short La Gloria, an HBO Ibero-American Award Shorts Finalist at the Miami Film Festival. Mary’s last short film as producer, Bittu, premiered at Telluride Film Festival before being shortlisted for the 93rd Academy Awards. Mary’s debut feature film, Burning Well, is currently in development, a recipient of the 2020 Tribeca All Access grant and a 2021 WIF x Sundance Finance Intensive fellowship.
Cristina Ibarra
Cristina is a Chicana border crosser and an award-winning independent filmmaker with a 20-year film practice rooted in her Texas-Mexico homeland. Her new film, The Infiltrators, a hybrid documentary and scripted narrative about young undocumented activists who infiltrate a detention center, received the NEXT Audience and Innovator Awards at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. The New York Times calls her previous documentary about elite Mexican American debutantes, Las Marthas, “a striking alternative portrait of border life”. It premiered on Independent Lens in 2014 and was awarded the Best US Latino Film by Cinema Tropical. Her directorial debut, Dirty Laundry: A Homemade Telenovela, an award-winning comedy about adolescent sexuality inside a culture clashing Chicano family was broadcast on PBS. She is a currently a Chicken & Egg Award fellow.
David Liu
A child of immigrants, David Liu grew up in the San Gabriel Valley east of Los Angeles, raised on a third-culture diet of ‘90s hip hop, martial arts serials, and Hardy Boys mysteries. He studied political economy at UC Berkeley and worked as a journalist in the San Francisco Bay Area before earning his MFA from the USC School of Cinematic Arts. While at USC, his feature screenplay about jazz legend Charles Mingus was shortlisted for Francis Ford Coppola’s American Zoetrope Screenplay Competition. David’s work as a writer-director has been recognized at festivals and competitions such as Palm Springs, Cinequest, Heartland, TIDE, CAAMFest, and the LA Asian Pacific Film Festival. He is a recipient of the CAPE New Writers Fellowship, Visual Communications’ Armed with a Camera Fellowship, and the Frieze x Deutsche Bank Film Fellowship supported by GFS and Endeavor Content.
Ryan RedCorn
TITLE:Writer
Ryan RedCorn (Osage) was born in Tahlequah, Oklahoma into a family of preachers, politicians and salesmen, which are all the same occupation. He is the ilonpa of Raymond and Elizabeth RedCorn, and the object of jealousy from his three younger brothers Jon, Alex and Studebaker, who between them have three masters degrees and two Phd’s. Ryan, however, took six and half years to get an art degree in visual communications from the University of Kansas. To the surprise of many, Ryan has been able to translate his education, his ilonpa entitlement, and his family lineage into something some people think is valuable. He co-founded the Indigenous comedy troupe, the 1491s, and started a full services ad agency in the middle of nowhere Pawhuska, Oklahoma called Buffalo Nickel Creative. Sometimes people laugh at him. But he’s ok with all of that. He recently woke one morning and realized he was married and had three daughters. He remarked, “I live a crazy life” and promptly enrolled in an MFA in screenwriting program to test his capacity for stress. He graduated in the Spring of 2020 and is presently alive and vaccinated.
Suzanna Mirghani
TITLE: Writer, Researcher & Independent Filmmaker
Suzannah Mirghani is writer, researcher, and independent filmmaker from Sudan. She is a media studies and museum studies graduate, and the writer, director, and producer of Al-Sit (2020), winner of several international awards, including three Academy Award qualifying prizes: Best of Fest at LA Shorts; Grand Prix at Tampere Film Festival, and Best Short Film at Bronzelens. Her most recent short is the experimental documentary Virtual Voice (2021), which premiered at Tribeca Film Festival. Suzannah is working on her first feature Cotton Queen, a magical realist tale set in the cotton fields of Sudan.
Philiane Phang
TITLE: Writer & Director
Philiane Phang is a writer and director based in New York. She was recognized as the recipient of the Film Independent Ammon Foundation Fellowship at the Spirit Awards and awarded IFP’s Inaugural Phosphate Prize for a screenplay with a strong and complex female lead. Her short film, Gubagude Ko, starring Academy Award winner, Mahershala Ali, and developed with the support of American Film Institute’s Directing Workshop for Women is currently airing on HBO. In 2017, Conde Nast and Indigenous Media commissioned her to write and direct a proof of concept for a TV series, The Row. Her feature project, The Space Between, was chosen to participate in Sundance Screenwriters Intensive, Sundance Producing Lab, Film Independent Screenwriting Lab, Film Independent Directing Lab, Berlinale Talents and Co-Production Market, and IFP’s – No Borders Co-Production Market. Philiane graduated from Rutgers University with a Juris Doctorate.
GRANT ADVISORY COMMITTEE
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Crystal Echo Hawk
ILLUMINATIVE
Gabrielle Glore
URBANWORLD
FRANCIS CULLADO
LOS ANGELES ASIAN PACIFIC FILM FESTIVAL
MARÍA RAQUEL BOZZI
FILM INDEPENDENT
Smriti Kiran
Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival
CRYSTAL ECHO HAWK
GABRIELLE GLORE
Gabrielle Glore is the Festival Director and Head of Programming for Urbanworld, a 25-year-old NYC based festival providing a platform for inclusive storytellers from around the globe. In addition, she navigates the independent film space as a producer (Sylvie’s Love), executive producer (Dirty Laundry) and film financier (Through the Fire). She produced two seasons of The Round for BET’s female-focused network CENTRIC, a TV show providing a platform for women of color giving inspiring TED-style talks across various topics. Gabrielle serves as the Executive Director of the Leading Women Defined Foundation, established and Chaired by Debra L. Lee, former Chairman and CEO, BET Networks. She sits on the Board of MoCADA (Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts) and The Moth, a nonprofit dedicated to the art and craft of storytelling.
FRANCIS CULLADO
MARÍA RAQUEL BOZZI
María Raquel Bozzi is the Senior Director of Education & International Initiatives at Film Independent, where she has built a wide array of education and professional development programs, serving thousands of emerging and working filmmakers across the United States and abroad. She leads Global Media Makers, an innovative mentoring initiative that connects storytellers from around the world with U.S. professionals. As an independent filmmaker, her filmography includes the documentaries Palenque: Un Canto, and The Colombia We Never Left for HBO Latino. With an extensive education experience, she has taught at several film schools throughout Los Angeles and holds an MFA in Film and Television Production from UCLA.
Suzannah Mirghani
Journalist, creative director, producer and author, Smriti Kiran has been part of the entertainment industry for over two decades. Her extensive experience in television programming took shape at multiple networks like NDTV, Star and Zee TV. An avid believer in the power of narratives, she wrote the screenplay book of the record-breaking film 3 Idiots and produced the screenplay books of auteur extraordinaire Guru Dutt. Smriti is the Artistic Director of the Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival, where she is committed to help build the festival into a cutting-edge entity. At present, she curates and hosts Dial M For Films, a first of its kind online knowledge series that she started a year ago.
IN THE NEWS
Ava DuVernay’s Array Teams With Google To Create Feature Film Grant For Underrepresented Creatives
Ava Duvernay’s Array has partnered with Google to create a new $500,000 feature film grant available to up-and-coming creatives from historically underrepresented communities.
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