Giant Robot Store and GR2 News

The best thing about editing Giant Robot magazine was being able to share the rad things that friends do. And make new friends that do rad things. That’s how I feel about my first sizable “solo” project, assembling (and sometimes even participating in) excellent shorts that friends have created and then complementing them with works by new friends. So while the Animal Style (Chicago) and Son of Animal Style (Honolulu, San Diego) skate video programs have given my crew an outlet for their hard work, they have provided me with fodder to keep engaged, keep pushing culture.

And is there a better place to do it than the Hawaii International Film Festival? No other fest balances East and West, high and low, or big budget and indie like HIFF. And while it makes sense for the latest iteration of the Animal Style program to show alongside the long-awaited Bones Brigade: An Autobiography, it’s even cooler that it is on the same roster as Cloud Atlas, Tai Chi 0, and The King of Pigs. It puts skateboard movies in the same conversation as “real” cinema. And with guys like Spike Jonze, Mike Mills, Jason Lee, and even Sam Lee coming from the world of skateboarding, why not?

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After being fortunate enough to cover the Hawaii International Film Festival a number of times for Giant Robot magazine, and I have to say that it’s my favorite of all time. The range and balance of art to trash, big budget to indie, and Asian to not Asian perfectly suits my tastes. Plus they get the raddest filmmakers to attend because who wouldn’t want to travel to Honolulu? (The beach, shave ice, malasadas, and friends and relatives don’t hurt, either.) So I’m super excited to attend this year’s festival as a contributor as well as a supporter. I’ve been helping some friends get their skate videos shown on the big screen as part of the Animal Style program, and this showing is doubly cool because they’ll be right alongside the much-anticipated Bones Brigade documentary. Many of my filmmaker friends are already on the island–probably ripping it up at the skate parks and local spots as I type this–and I can’t wait to join them tomorrow. If you happen to be on Oahu, I cordially invite you to attend. If you have buddies there, it would be awesome if you told them about it as well. Looking forward to seeing a lot of you out there! Get the scoop at http://program.hiff.org/films/section/son_of_animal_style_skate_shorts.  
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