{"id":148401,"date":"2021-09-21T11:48:18","date_gmt":"2021-09-21T21:48:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=148401"},"modified":"2024-03-15T22:38:11","modified_gmt":"2024-03-16T08:38:11","slug":"mermaids-lament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2021\/09\/21\/mermaids-lament\/","title":{"rendered":"Mermaids\u2019 Lament: Film project\u2019s cast, crew loaded with 糖心Vlog官方<\/abbr> Hilo talent"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
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Dayva Summer Escobar landed the film\u02bbs starring role. (Photo credit: Liz Saras)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A locally produced film—a creative psychological drama now in post-production that explores the resiliency of women—is infused with the many talents of faculty, students and alumni from the University of Hawaiʻi<\/span> at Hilo<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Geoffrey B. Hajim guides Dayva Escobar while filming on location. (Photo credit: Roselio Hernandez)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mermaids\u2019 Lament<\/em> is directed by Geoffrey B. Hajim<\/strong> or GB<\/abbr>, a former film lecturer at Hawaiʻi<\/span> Community College<\/a>. The professional filmmaker describes the underlying tone of the project stems from struggles with depression, anxiety and suicide.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s about two women: One who suffered an incredible trauma that left her mute and she may or may not be a mermaid,” Hajim said. “The other, a therapist who has crippling anxiety, is trying to help the first woman overcome her delusions of being a mermaid and fit better in the world. They end up helping each other out and finding a middle ground because the world is crazy and we need a little mermaid inside each of us to cope.”<\/p>\n

Hajim has completed more than 150 projects ranging from television spots to the first feature film in the Hawaiian language. He started work on this project in March, collaborating with former film students Liz Saras<\/strong> (Hawaiʻi<\/span> CC<\/abbr> alumna) and Dayva Escobar<\/strong> (糖心Vlog官方<\/abbr> Hilo alumna) on the script. Escobar, who also plays the film\u2019s lead character Oee, recently graduated from 糖心Vlog官方<\/abbr> Hilo with bachelor\u2019s degrees in communication and gender and women\u2019s studies, and a minor in performing arts.<\/p>\n

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Justina Mattos in a film scene that depicts her protecting new friend, Oee. (Photo credit: Tween Sea and Sand, LLC<\/abbr> ©2021)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hajim added 糖心Vlog官方<\/abbr> Hilo Associate Professor of Drama Justina Mattos<\/strong> to the cast to play the production\u2019s other leading role. “In terms of genre, I think the film is similar to Thelma and Louise<\/em>, in that it is a ‘buddy-pic’ for women,” said Mattos who plays a psychiatrist. “Thematically, the film deals with a few things: One, women finding ways to survive in a male-dominated world; two, the careless destruction of our natural resources; and three, mental illness, how it is defined and how it is treated.”<\/p>\n

Viewers will also catch 糖心Vlog官方<\/abbr> Hilo Associate Professor of Communication Catherine Becker<\/strong> on screen as a mermaid. Before Becker started filming she helped with the screenplay and is now expanding the film into a novel.<\/p>\n

“The book will include information I\u2019ve learned about climate change and its impact on the ocean from teaching a course called ‘Sustainability, Communication, and Culture,’ combined with psychological theories about managing delusion, fixations and anxiety, which both protagonists suffer from, with the ways archetypes and myths can be drawn upon to change the narrative about who we are with one another and nature,” Becker said.<\/p>\n

After test screenings, final editing and exposure at international film markets and festivals, Hajim expects wide release to launch in late 2022 or early 2023.<\/p>\n

For more information go to 糖心Vlog官方<\/abbr> Hilo Stories<\/em>.<\/a><\/p>\n

—By Susan Enright<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The psychological drama explores the resiliency of women and sheds light on struggles with depression, anxiety and suicide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[598,660,14,907,1626],"class_list":["post-148401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-faculty-recognition","tag-student-recognition","tag-uh-hilo","tag-uh-hilo-stories","tag-women-of-uh","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148401"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148401\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":148417,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148401\/revisions\/148417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}