River of Small Gods
On the brink of eviction, a Hawaiian woman named Anela is hired by a mysterious sculptor to retrieve stones from a riverbed deep in the forests of northern O‘ahu.
- Filmmaker(s)
- Rea Chpek
- Joshua Lee
- Briana Smith
- Bradley Tangonan
- Michael Tanji
- Featured In
- Pacific Pulse
On the brink of eviction, a Native Hawaiian woman named Anela devises a way to keep a roof over her head: She will sneak into a riverbed deep in a sacred Hawaiian forest to take lava stones to sell to an artist who makes high-end sculptures out of stone. A tense, character-driven short narrative film, River of Small Gods is a modern myth that depicts the struggle of a displaced Native Hawaiian working class woman caught between responsibility to the land and the threat of homelessness.
Bradley Tangonan - Director/Writer
Bradley Tangonan is a half-Filipino independent film director born in Hawaiʻi and based in New York City. He creates powerful visual narratives that explore the intersection between the everyday and the surreal. His previous short film, Wilder Palms, won the Audience Award for Best Short and Best Made in Hawaiʻi at the Hawaiʻi International Film Festival. His work has been featured by The Smithsonian, Nowness, The Atlantic, National Geographic and he was recently named Best Emerging Director by the One Club for Creativity.
Michael Tanji - Director of Photography
Michael Tanji is a cinematographer & film photographer born & raised on the island of Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi. He has garnered a reputation & unique visual aesthetic through the way he captures shadows, light, and the modern subject. Originally with a background in fashion filmmaking, Michael has recently expanded his capturing of images into the music video & narrative filmmaking genres. He currently resides in Los Angeles, CA and hopes to continue collaborating with fellow talented filmmakers & photographers.
Rea Chupek - Producer
Rea is an independent filmmaker and producer. She began her career as a filmmaker at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa. Soon after graduation, she immediately began working in the industry at 'Hawaii 5-0' (2010 TV series).
In addition to her experience in television, she earned a variety of on-set experiences on feature films. Her passion for storytelling has led her to produce several award winning independent short films. She currently works as the Art Department Coordinator for the new TV series "I Know What You Did Last Summer" and hopes to continue her work within the filmmaking community.
Joshua Lee - Producer
Joshua Lee began a career in film-making in Honolulu, Hawai'i, after obtaining a bachelor's in Creative Media and Digital Production. His niche for independent features, TV episodic, and short productions quickly developed after working and attending critically acclaimed film festivals, such as Cannes in the following years. He now resides in Los Angeles, California, and continues to focus on the art that is 'storytelling' and production.
Briana Smith - Producer
