Academy for Creative Media to host ethics of documentary film symposium

The ethics of documentary film will be explored in a special symposium on Saturday, October 16, from 9-11:30 a.m. at the William S. Richardson School of Law on the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa campus.

 

Academy Award winning documentary filmmaker Freida Lee Mock will be the keynote panelist, joined by the UH Mānoa Academy for Creative Media’s (ACM) Marlene Booth and Tom Brislin. The symposium is a joint effort of the Hawai‘i International Film Festival (HIFF), the Carol Burnett Fund for Responsible Journalism, the law school and ACM.

 

Mocks’ films, “Lt. Watada” and “Sing China,” will be screened as the centerpiece of HIFF’s “Real Life” series on Friday, October 15, at 5 p.m. at the Regal Dole Cannery Theatres. “Lt. Watada” documents the struggles of Hawai‘i-born Ehren Watada, as he risked a successful career as a military officer when he refused orders to deploy, and spoke out against the presidential war policy in Iraq.

 

Mock is considered one of the country’s leading documentary filmmakers. She is a governor of the Documentary Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and chairs the Documentary Executive Committee.

 

The program will begin with welcoming refreshments at 9 a.m. in the Law School Courtyard, followed by the symposium in the Moot Courtroom.

 

Booth’s most recent film, “Pidgin: The Voice of Hawai‘i,” won the Audience Award at last year’s HIFF. Her many documentaries have been shown on PBS and festivals nationwide.

 

Brislin is chair of ACM and administrator of the Burnett Fund, an endowment from the actress to promote more ethics and responsibility in journalism and the mass media.