I Am Because You Are
When Kaiea, a twelve-year-old on Maui, learns his grandfather is suffering from Alzheimer’s, he’s desperate to build a machine capable of recording and storing memories before it’s too late.
- Filmmaker(s)
- Stefan Schaefer
- Thomas Paʻa Sibbett
- Category
- Short Film
- Digital Short
- Subject Matter
- Identity, Health, Families
- Featured In
- Pacific Pulse
Kaiea, a twelve-year-old on Maui, learns his grandfather is suffering from Alzheimer’s, he’s desperate to build a machine capable of recording and storing memories before it’s too late. A tinkerer, Kaiea assembles a contraption and sneaks into the assisted-living facility where his grandfather has recently been moved. Despite doubts from his mother, the contraption seems to work for Kaiea... or is it only his rich imagination that allows him to access the stories his grandfather has told him for so many years?
Stefan Schaefer, Writer/Director/Producer
Stefan's films have premiered and won awards at festivals such as the Berlin, Hawai’i and SxSW, among many others, and have been successfully released theatrically and on TV channels such as PBS, HBO and the Sundance Channel.
He has over ten feature film credits to his name as a writer, director and/or producer, among them MY LAST DAY WITHOUT YOU, Olaf de Fleur Johannesson's THE AMAZING TRUTH ABOUT QUEEN RAQUELA and ARRANGED. Most recently, he produced the feature KULEANA, starring Moronai Kanekoa, Sonya Balmores, Kristina Anapau, Marlene Sai, Branscombe Richmond, and Mel Cabang. In addition to these indie features, Stefan and writing partner Chris Silber have written four TV movies for leading European networks ARD and ZDF, two of which filmed in Hawai’i.
On the documentary front, Stefan directed the one-hour film CONTESTED STREETS, which screened widely at environmental film festivals and aired as part of "The Green" series on the Sundance Channel. In 2015, he released a feature documentary on Poet Laureate and environmental activist W.S. Merwin, entitled EVEN THOUGH THE WHOLE WORLD IS BURNING. A one-hour version of the film was broadcast nationally on PBS in 2016.
In the past three years, Stefan has developed and sold TV shows to companies such as Sony Pictures TV, the Weinstein Company and Mandeville. He and author Kristiana Kahakauwila currently have a Hawaii-set TV series in development with Big Beach and AMC. Additionally, he co-created the series SURF BREAK HOTEL with Jonathan Stern of Abominable Pictures. The pilot shot on Maui in 2016 and is currently being shopped.
An active member of the Writers Guild of America (WGA), Stefan is managed by LA-based Industry Entertainment. He and his family live on the North Shore of Maui, Hawai'i.
Thomas Paʻa Sibbett, Producer
Pa’a was raised by parents who taught him that being Hawaiian isn’t a disadvantage but an opportunity to share Aloha. He’s spent much of his life engaged in various forms of sharing his culture, but it’s through professional storytelling and filmmaking that he’s found the best way to share the spirit of Hawai’i. He wrote the feature film BRAVEN (2017) for Jason Momoa, as well as ENEMY IN THE VALUE, currently in development with Momoa’s Pride Of Gypsies Productions. He and Stefan have a period TV show in development with the Weinstein Company, also set in Hawai’i.
