Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 10, Number 5, 1 May 1993 — Pacific Islanders support indigenous media presence [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Pacific Islanders support indigenous media presence

by Deborah Ward Pacific Islanders in Communications, a non-profit organization, was created a year ago to assist and teach indigenous Pacific peoples from Hawai'i, Guam, the Northern Marianas islands, and American Samoa to control their own image in the broadcast media by pro-

ducing their own programs for loeal broadcast and national and international distribution. PIC is the newest member of the National Public Broadcasting Minority Programming Consortia, a network of minority programming organizations, established by CPB 13 years ago to serve the media needs of

Asian-Americans, Black Americans, Latino-Americans, Native Americans and Pacific Islanders. PIC's first year project funding totaled $450,000 from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Of that amount, PIC awarded $167,000 in film and television production grants for development, continuation or completion of new or existing programs. Eight projects were recent PIC grant awardees, with three alternates. Completed projects must be submitted to PBS, where they may be seen iyPIC sponsors production intemships, training workshops and public forums designed to increase and expand the pool of native talent in all areas of broadcast media: producing, directing, writing, management, acting and editing. PIC also assists in the marketing and distribution of Pacific Islander projects to broadcast and non-broadcast entities. PIC is headed by an intemational board of directors consisting of Martha Carrell, president (Los Angeles); Kilali Alailima, treasurer (American Samoa),

Carol Ann Ibanez, secretary (Guama), David H. Kalama, Jr. (Hawai'i), Solomona Aoelua (Virginia), Lurline McGregor (Hawai'i), Therese A. Matanane (Guam), and William H. LeGalley (American Samoa). Its Honolulu head office is located at 1221 Kapi'olani Blvd. Suite #6A-4, Honolulu, Hawai'i 96814. Tel: (808) 591-0059. Staff are: Marsha Joyner, managing consultant; Sharon Custer,

associate director; Alani Apio, operations manager; Upuia Karite Ahkiong, administrative consultant; and Melanie Kala-Trono, project manager. PIC's 1993 budget is $450,000. In the second year of their CPB grant, PIC staff will: • hire a new executive director; • offer training workshops and seminars (slated: Hector Galan, a Mexican-American producer who continued on page 23

PIC director David Kalama (left), Marsha Joyner, managing consultant and Alani Apio, operations manager.

2 I o -Q q> Q £ o o £

Pacific lslanders in Communications

eominueā from page 11 will do a workshop in Hawai'i and Guam on how to produce documentaries; and Phil Lucas, a Native Amenean producer); • award grants through a eompetitive application process for ftlm and television productions; • present a two-day film school in Hawai'i this year, • participate in the 1993 Hawai'i International Film Festival in

December; • plan a one-week production seminar with the Native American Broadcast Consortia at the UCLA film school this fall; • continue updating its PIC Directory. It now includes over 300 names of Pacific Islander professionals trained in radio, television, actors, camera technicians, producers, etc. in Hawai'i,

the U.S. mainland, and throughout the Pacific. • write a grant to CPB to train individuals in rural communities in Hawai'i, Guam and Samoa to own, operate and program a community radio station. • begin planning a Pacific Islander series for national television through the Television Program Fund of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB).