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I Was A Simple Man

USA2021100 minEnglishDrama

PART OF THE CENTREPIECE SPOTLIGHT ON HAWAI'I

On the pastoral North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii, the end is near for Masao, an ill and elderly man with regrets to spare. As he looks back, his family history, dreams, and mythology swirl around him as  ghosts he carries with him in his final days. Meanwhile, I Was A Simple Man shifts in time through pre-WWII country landscapes of days past, statehood, and a concrete-bound, contemporary Honolulu, mirroring 20th-century Hawaiian history. 

Following his atmospheric first feature, August at Akiko’s, and developed from his short film Obake (Ghosts), which showed at Reel Asian in 2012, with I Was A Simple Man, Christopher Makoto Yogi ambitiously continues to reach for the place between the seen and unseen, the feelings deeply felt but left unsaid, and to chart changes over time, all told with sublime imagery and sound, with a deep connection to the land, sea, and sky of his hometown in Hawaii. 

-  Aram Siu Wai Collier

Cast

Steve Iwamoto

Constance Wu

Tim Chiou

Recognitions

OFFICIAL SELECTION

Sundance Film Festival, 2021

BAMcinemaFest, 2021

Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, 2021

Director Bio

Christopher Makoto Yogi

Christopher Makoto Yogi is an artist and filmmaker from Honolulu, Hawaii. His debut feature film, the award-winning August at Akiko’s, had its world premiere at the International Film Festival Rotterdam in 2018 to critical acclaim. Yogi is a Berlinale Talents, Visual Communications armed with a Camera, Kyoto Filmmakers Lab, and New York Film Festival Artists Academy fellow.

10 Nov, 2021

to 19 Nov, 2021

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Rating

PG

In Partnership With

Community Partner

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