Reel Wāhine of Hawai'i - Joan Lander
The Reel Wāhine of Hawai'i short film series chronicles talented and pioneering women filmmakers who tell Hawaii stories uniquely through a camera lens.
- Filmmaker(s)
- Vera Zambonelli
- Category
- Short Film
- Subject Matter
- Women, Biography
- Featured In
- Pacific Pulse
Documentarian Joan Lander (Act of War: The Overthrow of the Hawaiian Nation), along with her longtime partner Puhipau Ahmad, was on the ground, camera in hand, documenting Hawai‘i history as it happened in the 1970’s, 80’s and on to the present. They produced seminal films documenting important political and cultural happenings of the Hawaiian Renaissance as well as a wealth of vital indigenous knowledge.
Directed by Vera Zambonelli.
Vera Zambonelli is a Hawaiʻi-based independent filmmaker and researcher.Vera is the founder and executive director of Hawaiʻi Women in Filmmaking. For over 10 years, Vera has been advocating for gender justice in filmmaking through an intersectional lens. In 2017, Vera launched the production of REEL WĀHINE OF HAWAIʻI, a short doc film series that redresses gender inequity in the film industry by documenting the real-life stories of Hawai‘i women filmmakers. She directed four of the 18 films, featuring producer and HIFF founder Jeannette Paulson Hereniko, animator Laura Margulies, independent filmmaker Kimberlee Bassford, and legendary Joan Lander of Nā Maka o ka ‘Āina. Her latest initiative is the Wāhine in Film Lab. Vera has been teaching at the Academy for Creative Media West Oʻahu and the Women's Studies Department at UH Mānoa since 2016. Vera serves on the Indie Media Arts West's leadership committee to connect representatives from media arts organizations in the Western region of the United States, and she is part of the Creative Resurgence Collective of Hawai’i-based creatives, artists, advocates, and arts administrators dedicated to imagining and cultivating abundant Hawai’i futures. Vera holds a M.A. in Japanese Studies from Ca’ Foscari, University of Venice, a M.A. in Political Science from Johns Hopkins University, and a Ph.D. in Urban Planning from the University of Hawaiʻi Mānoa.
