Posted at 10:02 a.m., Tuesday, October 23, 2007
O'ahu filmmaker Connie Florez wins grant
Advertiser Staff
LOS ANGELES - O'ahu filmmaker Connie M. Florez, who is a producer of "All for Melissa, which screened at the Hawaii International Film Festival on Sunday, is one of five winners of the second annual Acceleration Grant for Emerging Filmmakers competition. The grant is a program of Women In Film and the General Motors Corporation, which have teamed up to support filmmakers from under-represented communities.The WIF/GM Acceleration Grant for Emerging Filmmakers goes to five up-and-coming female filmmakers, chosen through an application process overseen by a WIF selection committee comprised of professional filmmakers and entertainment industry executives. The grant provides recipients with a broad-based understanding of the business of filmmaking through a six-day, full-immersion mentoring program.
Florez has been working in the Hawai'i film and television industry for 10 years. She is now working on three feature documentaries, the Hawaii Statehood Project, The Glades Project and TATAU-Tongan Evolution, which is funded by Pacific Islanders In Communications. Her documentary "The Glades Project," about the shift in attitude and behavior toward the native Hawaiian trans-gendered community during the '60s, '70s and '80s, garnered her awards from the Astraea Lesbian Action Fund for Justice, the Paul Robeson Fund for Independent Media and the Pacific Islanders in Communications Open Call Development Fund.
Florez also received an award from the National Endowment for the Arts for the documentary she produced, "Ke Kulana He Mahu: Remembering a Sense of Place," which premiered at the Smithsonian Institute in 2001 and the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival in 2002. The NEA is currently using the film as part of its Civil Rights Program curriculum training. Florez is a lecturer and instructor at the University of Hawai'i- Manoa's Academy for Creative Media, where she teaches cinematic and digital narrative production, and also serves as director of Film Programming for the Honolulu Gay and Lesbian Cultural Foundation/Honolulu Rainbow Film Festival.
