We’ve been prepping for the LA film fest and Don’s been on vacation so we’ve been quite busy. Among the craziness, however, we were sure not to forget to send our congratulations to “Under the American Sun”, Camp Roxas! The documentary film from Guam has also been selected to the 25^th Annual Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival which will be held from April 30 – May 7.

Congratulations to director Burt Sardoma, producers Alex Munoz and Bernadette Provido Schumann and the whole crew for their accomplishments and recognition with the film. We know that it’s not an easy undertaking and that just completing a film alone is enough to drive you crazy, so it’s a big testament to their efforts – especially on such a personally driven project.

This is great news for us all.

What I hope this recognition does for future filmmaking on Guam is to propel the foresight of a local film industry forward. It’s still in its infancy, and there may be light years to go, but it doesn’t have to be the case. With homegrown films from Guam - whether it’s a comedy, a drama, a documentary or music video - quality productions can become a viable export for the island in such a way that it is for the Philippines, Japan, Australia, China and Korea.

In 2008 and 2009, Guam has been making a decent size impact in the arts. Rose Laguana with Dot Dot Dot on Fox’s primetime “The Next Great American Band”, Leo Babuata publishing his best-seller “The Power of Less” and making TIME magazine, “Shiro’s Head”, “Under the American Sun” and the student film “Casting Our Net” bringing some attention to Guam filmmaking through international film festivals and conferences, Joy James’ singing talents made it to Hollywood in “American Idol” and JAMA productions working on the “By Blood” video, so it’s been good thus far. But there is still a long way to go. We’re still looking at these outside influences for acceptance or to measure success. A dream would be to have our arts industry contribute as an export and not an import. And with more films being crafted from Guam, it just may come true.

(Note: Hopefully we’ll be talking with the “Under the American Sun” filmmakers on a Guamology interview towards the end of March.)

Also, I’ve been told that along with Camp Roxas and Shiro’s Head there will be two Guam-related films (the names of which I don’t know) will be part of this year’s film festival in LA. So if any of you can find out what they are, please let us know. One of them, I believe, might be the documentary, “The Insular Empire” (I’m hoping to get an interview with them as well. Also coming up is an interview with the DIY filmmakers (Ed Kahana and Ken Quitugua) of the way cool“Guahan” test scene.

THE INSULAR EMPIRE

GUAHAN PROMO TEST SCENE