NEW GOAL: $8,350!!!

UPDATE: AS OF AUGUST 18, 2021 WE HAVE REACHED 100% OF OUR GOAL TO RAISE $7350 FOR PRODUCTION!

Thank you so much for the overwhelming support! With 10 days left to go, we are setting a new goal of $8,350. With the new funds from this goal, we will be able to rent more equipment, cover unexpected insurance and legal costs, and give our entire team more flexibility to push the boundaries of how we tell this story during principal photography (which is coming up in the next few days)! Though this new goal will not be expressed on our fundraising page's tracker because of Seed&Spark's policies, any new donations will be accepted and greatly appreciated (with all of those extra incentives, of course)! Thank you all so much! We can't do this without you :)

HAPA is a story that comes from personal experience of being half-Japanese and half-white, while also incorporating the experiences of my fellow mixed friends. While writing the script, my goal was to include moments of overt and covert discrimination; those subtle moments that just don’t sit quite right with you as a kid until you understand its underlying meaning later in life. I reached out to some of my mixed friends and asked them if they had ever experienced microaggressions, stereotyping, or bullying directed at their identity. Every person I talked to could recall a specific moment. Though I knew this story was important to tell before writing, after having these conversations, I was validated in my expression.

HAPA explores the importance of friends who can empathize and understand you in the more nuanced ways--the kinships that you treasure more and more as you grow up. Ultimately, while HAPA specifically focuses on themes of being mixed or of Asian background, my wish is for there to be a universal connection, whether that be through the instances of bullying or the dread of starting middle school -- we can all connect in some way to feeling anxiety. We hope that this story will help others understand the anxiety that stems from discrimination of identity -- something out of our control.

This project can be traced back to a basic screenwriting class offered at the University of Washington by Warren Etheredge. This was during the first full-blown covid-19 quarter. There was dread around every corner and the thought of doing class online sounded awful to me. However, Warren’s class kept me on my toes and a smile on my face for the entirety of Spring quarter. His energy radiated through the screen and I felt instantly connected to him and my fellow group member Kenna Fojas. I ended up taking his advanced screenwriting class in the Fall of 2020 and that’s when I wrote HAPA, not for an assignment, but because I felt I had to. And though I did not think about filming it right away, one push from Warren was all it took.

Kenna is the strong-willed producer I’ve always wanted and we are excited to shoot a story that so many have already connected to. Warren has been mentoring us along with Kenna’s family friend Andy Sacks, a filmmaker/producer whose knowledge we’ve been taking to heart. Encouraging words about my script from these people who have this much experience in filmmaking makes me motivated to bring this story to life. 

In pre-production right now, each department is working together to secure filming locations, to finalize our cast, create a presence online and on social media, to collect costumes and props, and to storyboard to make every shot meaningful--all to effectively produce the story and make connections to Asian-Americans in Seattle who want to be a part of this important conversation. 

The music composer for this short, Emi Meyer, is a half-Japanese, half-white artist who lives in Tokyo and will be creating original music. As a hapa herself, she resonated with the script and is working on the project mainly for intrinsic reasons. That means the world to us because it means this story is important. Music in films helps create a tone and lingering feeling in the audience -- having original music from someone who has lived the experience of the story firsthand makes the portrayal of HAPA that much more genuine.  

Because the cast of HAPA is young, we want to create an educational experience on set for all of the kids. Not only do we want to create a film that can be shared and viewed digitally, but we also want to ensure that in the process, these kids know what they are getting themselves into. It is our duty to make sure the cast understands the message of the film and our intentions of making it before we begin shooting. The goal is have themselves feel a motivation beyond acting to be involed. The last thing we want is for them to come out of this experience thinking that certain parts of the story -- discrimination against identity, is okay to take part in. Rehearsals will include conversations about bullying and discrimination, the importance of the antagonist in our story - the idea that the "bad" characters in the film are not reflections of them as a person, but as real-life instances that need to be portrayed by an actor.  

Our goal with this piece is for it to be screened at film festivals in order to populate them with Asian-American filmmakers and of course to have our work shared with as many eyes as possible. Beyond festivals, we have connections with educators who are encouraging this piece as something that could be shared within an educational setting. In fact, one of our consultants is Amy Noji, a hapa teacher in Seattle who is supporting the production. Kenna and I sat down with her and talked for hours about the concept of being hapa and how this story could be incorporated into the curriculum of educators down the line, as well as connecting it to local institutions such as the Wing Luke Museum in Chinatown. Amy was confident in us receiving funds for this short--there was no hesitation in her answer.

During this entire process, we plan to strictly follow the updated Covid-19 guidelines for in-person groups while on set. Our entire team is fully vaccinated and will continue to have covid-aware conversations with the kids and families we will be working with. We are aware that vaccinations for kids are tricky right now, so encouraging the kids to get vaccinated as soon as they can is a priority to us before shooting at the end of August. 

We have been spreading the word and the time is now for stories like this--the encouragement received from our community is overwhelming and we cannot wait to start fundraising to make our story possible. Our team is not only proud of the story being told, but the entire process of bringing it to life, such as: building a team of women and POC, educating the cast and crew, and reaching out to Asian-Americans in Seattle who want to help the growth of these conversations. 

We hope you consider being a part of our community by donating any resource you have. Any donation amount or even encouraging message is helpful for us to bring HAPA to life. Let's do this thing! 

- Abby