Lights, camera, action — then on to the prize
By Scott Ishikawa
Advertiser Central O'ahu Writer
'AIEA — Step aside, Spielberg: The way Pearl Ridge Elementary School keeps winning awards for video-making, students there should have a bright future as filmmakers and broadcasters.
Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser
Five students took first place in a national video contest for documenting a friendship forged by an American sailor and Japanese pilot 50 years after they fought on opposing sides in World War II, beginning with the attack on Pearl Harbor.
A project retracing a friendship forged by an American sailor and Japanese aviator decades after the Pearl Harbor attack won top honors for Pearl Ridge Elementary videomakers: from left, Adrianna DeMello, Jordie Ocenar, Lauren Ige, Kelli Miyahira and Devin Schafer.
The 10-minute documentary — "Voices From the Past, Hope for the Future," which tells the story of Marine bugler Richard Fiske and Japanese pilot Zenji Abe — won for best overall video, as well as the sound and documentary categories in the 12th annual "Kid Witness News" competition. The students returned home last week from the awards ceremony in New York City.
As winners, fifth- and sixth-graders Adrianna DeMello, Lauren Ige, Kelli Miyahira, Jordie Ocenar and Devin Schafer get to travel to Japan this summer.
So far, the school has won 10 awards since teacher Kathy Nagaji helped start the video program there a decade ago.
Panasonic sponsors the "Kid Witness News" program by supplying 225 U.S. schools with video-making and editing equipment. Students are encouraged to explore social topics by producing their own videos.
"The students were the ones that brainstormed the subject," said Nagaji, who noted that the 60th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack took on more significance after Sept. 11.
The video is only 10 minutes long, but it took five months to make — including time for research, filming and lots of rewrites.
"We had to change the script often because we were repeating words and there were little gaps in the narration," said Ige, a co-narrator in the video.
The story focused on Fiske, who was a 19-year-old Marine bugler aboard the USS West Virginia, one of the battleships at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. His ship was hit by nine Japanese torpedoes and two aerial bombs.
Fiske was with the 5th Marine Division when it invaded Iwo Jima in February 1945. An estimated 6,800 Americans died in the battle, with more than 19,000 wounded. Of the 20,000 Japanese defenders, only 1,083 survived.
In 1991, Fiske met Japanese bomber pilot Abe, who had dropped a 550-pound, delayed-fuse bomb that didn't go off when it hit the West Virginia. The two have met regularly since, and Fiske plays taps once a month at the Arizona Memorial at Abe's request.
DeMello said the most rewarding part of producing the video was filming aboard the Arizona Memorial and USS Missouri.
Fiske, who got to see the video at the student version of the Hawaii International Film Festival in April, said he was proud of the students' feat.
"When I saw it, I said to myself: 'Did those elementary school kids do that? It was incredible," said Fiske, 80, who lives in Honolulu. "That little girl who was the director, she was tough. She knew what she wanted."
All five Pearl Ridge Elementary students said the experience has inspired them to consider careers in journalism or filmmaking. Miyahira, who helped narrate the video, wants to be a TV weather forecaster.
"Partly cloudy skies with occasional showers; trades, 15-20 mph," said the 11-year-old, who already has the hand motions down.
Reach Scott Ishikawa at sishikawa@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2429.
