Upcoming film event at UH Manoa, "Ha Kam Wi Tawk Pidgin Yet?"

A video collaboration by the Charlene Sato Center and Searider Productions explores the value of Pidgin

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Contact:
Christina Higgins, (808) 956-2785
Second Language Studies
Posted: Apr 6, 2009

A film presentation, "Ha Kam Wi Tawk Pidgin Yet?," will be shown in the UH Manoa Architecture Auditorium on Monday, April 13, from 4-6:30 p.m. Admission is free to the event, sponsored by The Charlene J. Sato Center for Pidgin, Creole and Dialect Studies.

This presentation brings together high school students, community members and university scholars who share an interest in exploring Pidgin as a means of expressing identity in Hawaii. The focus of this event is a 30-minute film produced by students enrolled in the 2008-09 Advanced Media Productions class of Searider Productions at Waianae High school.

Beginning in Fall 2008, researchers at the Charlene J. Sato Center for Pidgin, Creole and Dialect Studies at UH Manoa asked the Waianae High students to use their talents to investigate whether, and to what degree, people still value Pidgin, a language that is often described as "broken English."

In the era of globalization and under pressures to conform to uniformity, the students explored the answer to the question, "Ha kam wi tawk Pidgin yet?" The result is this film, which we see as an act of local literature-making in the form of talk story.

After the showing, local writers and scholars will offer their perspectives on the importance of maintaining a local voice in today's world. The audience will also be invited to talk story about Pidgin, both in the auditorium and with others after the show.