Imani, Senior, and her Pace Docs Class
For the entirety of the Spring semester, our sister Imani has worked with her Pace Docs class to put together a documentary called Hawaii: Living on the Edge, in Paradise? The film told the story of the May 2018 Kilauea eruption from the perspective of the people that lived through it. "The process was difficult but so worth it", Imani says.
Led by her professor Dr. Luskay, center, she and her class broke the project up into three sections, Pre Production for 6 weeks, Production for 1 week and Post Production for 6 weeks. In total, they had 13 weeks to make the 35 minute film. The process started with lots of research and planning. "Our class was split into smaller groups and were given different topics to learn about such as wildlife, geography, local foods and restaurants, weather patterns and more. After that, we presented the different research", says Imani. While they were doing that, they contacted a myriad of people to interview from local officials, shop owners and residents. They were able to score a total of 50 interviews and many of them made it to the final cut.
The film was produced entirely on location on the Big Island of Hawaii. Their trek began in the wee hours of the morning on March 17th. They flew from Newark to San Francisco then from San Fran to Kona in Hawaii. From Kona, they drove in two vans to Hilo where they stayed for the week. During that time, they interviewed people, climbed volcanoes, visited Fissure 8, where the eruption took place as well as enjoyed some downtime at local beaches and restaurants. "It was truly a life changing experience to meet so many people and hear their perspectives on what we believed was a tragic occurrence. The spirit of Aloha is real", Imani says.
When they got back, they had to take the 90+ hours of footage and condense it into the 35 minute film they eventually premiered. Countless hours of storyboarding editing, blog writing, emailing and more research went into this final stage of production leading up to the premiere.
Finally, on May 7, she and her class premiered the film at Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville, NY and it was a huge success. Many people raved about how the film was thought provoking and eye opening. After the film premiered, the crew held a Q and A session for the audience. It was especially nice for the crew because their families and friends came. The Event Planning class, which included Magen and Alex, also threw the reception.
Of course, in Phi Sig, it's not four years, it's for life and our support runs deep. Sisters came out to support Imani at her premiere including Allison Rogers '18, her Big and Samantha Finch-Schmitt '13, her GGGBig. "It was incredibly special to have this much support and it meant a lot to not only me but my family as well. I tell them often what Phi Sig means to me but now they got to see it."
Producing the Documentary, MCA 254, is a class in the Media Communications and Visual Arts department that is held every Spring. The location and topic of the documentary vary per year. For more information, email mluskay@pace.edu. To get in contact with Imani, email her at iw12104p@pace.edu
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