Honolulu is a dark comedy about Yuki, a 12-year-old with a vivid fantasy life, who complicates her already morose beach vacation with her father and grandmother.
Yuki is a girl on the edge of puberty with an overactive imagination. She’s awkward, chubby, and tongue-tied – and she’s been dragged on a family vacation with her aloof father and her Japanese grandmother. As her imagination takes over, distracting her from remembering to put on sunscreen or pack tampons for her impending period, tension with her family finally boils over.
Maya Tanaka – Writer, Director
Maya is a queer, Japanese-American filmmaker based in Brooklyn. She received her undergraduate degree from Boston University’s film program, where she was awarded the Fleder-Rosenberg Filmmaking grant. She enjoys work that focuses on femmes and alternative narratives. Her most recent short, The Price of Cheap Rent, premiered at TIFF 2020, won the NYWIFT Woman Director award at TIDE Film Festival and was eventually distributed as part of The New Yorker’s screening room series. Maya’s work has screened at Urbanworld, New Orleans Film Festival, Atlanta International Film Festival, Cincinnati International Film Festival, Chicago International Film Festival, Cucalorus, Aspen Shortsfest, Hollyshorts, Blackstar and more. Her short film, Honolulu is the 2021 received full production funding as the recipient of the Tribeca x Chanel Through Her Lens female filmmakers grant.
Shuchi Talati – Producer
Shuchi is a filmmaker from India whose work challenges dominant narratives around gender, sexuality, race and Asian identity. Her recent short film, A Period Piece, about an afternoon of period (i.e. menstruation) sex, played at SXSW and Palm Springs. Shuchi’s projects in development include Girls Will Be Girls, a sexual awakening film set in a conservative boarding school in India. Girls has been selected for Berlinale Script Station, Jerusalem Film Lab, Gotham Week and Cine Qua Non Lab and has been awarded the prestigious Aide aux Cinémas du Monde grant from the CNC. Her work has been recognized by Berlinale Talents, the New York State Council for the Arts, Women in Film, and Région Île-de-France. Shuchi is also a producer for documentaries and her credits include We Are: Brooklyn Saints for Netflix and Wyatt Cenac’s Problem Areas for HBO. She has a MFA from the American Film Institute and is a member of the Brooklyn Filmmakers Collective, Bitchitra Collective and the Freelance Solidarity Project.
