After the Endling
Snuggled deep within Hawai'i's forests, the tiniest of creatures faces a vital battle against extinction.
- Filmmaker(s)
- Ciara Leinaʻala Lacy
- Gerard Elmore
- Daniel A. Kelin II
- Subject Matter
- Culture, Arts & Music, Environment & Sustainability
- Featured In
- Pacific Pulse
Deep within the forests of Hawai‘i, pūpū kani oe, "shell that sounds long", maintain a harmonious relationship with their environment, caring for the flora as the flora feeds them. But then invasive creatures sail in, disrupting the tiny island creaturesʻ trusting and social lifestyle, none more ominously than Euglandina Rosea, commonly called Rosy Wolfsnail, which stalks its own distant cousins. George is born into this threatened reality as an "Endling" the very last of his species, the pūpū kani oe. For fourteen lonely years, George and his handlers search, hoping to find his mate. When George dies on New Yearʻs Day 2019, that search ends, but not the hope as, shortly after the end, previously "extinct" pūpū kani oe suddenly reappear, leading to the question, how many more Georges might there yet be?
AFTER THE ENDLING is a recipient of Production funding from PIC's Shorts Fund.
Daniel A. Kelin II - Director/Producer
Daniel has been affiliated with theatres and youth organizations in the U.S., American Samoa, the Marshall Islands, Pohnpei, Guam, and India. During the pandemic, Daniel began experimenting with creating object theatre films about the Pacific, several of which have been featured in Puppet Film Slams from Atlanta to Toronto to New York City. Daniel has produced/directed several documentaries about the education work of Honolulu Theatre for Youth. As a playwright, his work has been honored with an Aurand Harris Playwriting award of the New England Theatre Conference, received staged readings with NYU New Plays for Young Audiences, won the Old Miner’s Children’s Playwriting Contest and was a semi-finalist with the Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights Conference. As a director, he has worked with Honolulu Theatre for Youth, Kumu Kahua Theatre and collaboratively devised performance events around social and environmental issues with several multi-national casts across the Pacific and in Asia.
Gerard Elmore - Cinematographer
Gerard Elmore is an Emmy® Award winning writer/editor/producer/DP/director who has a range of experience varying from television production, film and TV commercials. As a commercial director, he has directed a number of award-winning spots and has won multiple local Peles (ADDYs) & a national Gold ADDY award. Elmore is also the Lead Producer at NMG Network(nmgnetwork.com), a former lecturer at the Academy for Creative Media, Manoa and West Oahu. He also serves as the Executive Director for the `Ohina Short Film Showcase, ohina.org, that is designed to help local filmmakers promote and screen their films in Hawaii.
Ciara Lacy - Co-Producer
Ciara Lacy is a kanaka maoli (native Hawaiian) filmmaker, whose interest lies in crafting films that use strong characters and investigative journalism to challenge the creative and political status quo. Her work has shown at festivals around the world including Sundance and Berlinale as well as on Netflix, PBS, ABC, Al Jazeera, and the Criterion Collection. In the digital space, she has created content for the Guardian and the Atlantic Online. She was the inaugural Sundance Institute Merata Mita Fellow as well as part of the inaugural class of NATIVe Fellows at the European Film Market. Ciara holds a BA in Psychology from Yale University and has given talks at academic institutions across the U.S. She continues to work on documentary content for broadcast and digital while also expanding her intimate style of filmmaking into the branded content, commercial, and animation spaces