GiRL FeST FOUNDERS

KATHRYN XIAN,
SAFE ZONE FOUNDATION CO-FOUNDER

Award winning producer/director Kathryn Xian studied film at New York University and Bard College. She was one of the original drafters and organizers of the Multi-Ethnic Studies Program (MES) implemented in 1993 at Bard College. Intent upon encouraging the growth of independent filmmaking in her home state of Hawaii, she co-founded Zang Pictures, Inc.; the only local filmmaking collective which offers education in both digital video and 16mm film production to university interns and the public.

The Problem with Being, her first of three feature length films, had been adapted from a stage play she had written in 1998 under the tutelage of renowned novelist Lois-Ann Yamanaka. Excerpts from the stage play can be found in the Asian-American anthology entitled Take Out published by the Asian American Writers’ Workshop in New York City.

She is the First Place winner and Audience Award winner in the short documentary category for her video entitled Constructions at the First Annual Short Movie Awards 2000, sponsored by PlanetOut and Ifilm. Constructions, a film about female identity and suicide, has also gone on to win a place among the best short films of 2001 Movie Awards of Girlfriends Magazine, the Adam Baran Award for Best Short Film, and local PBS and international internet broadcast. Constructions is distributed by the National Asian American Telecommunications Association. Kathryn is also the Producer/Director of critically acclaimed documentary Ke Kulana He Mahu: Remembering a Sense of Place which premiered nationally at the Smithsonian Institute on October 19th 2001 as a part of the D.C. Asian Pacific American Film Festival. This documentary (recipient of the 2002 Frameline/Horizons Film and Video Completion Award) is currently touring film Festivals from Australia to Berlin and was aired by WNET in New York (PBS) in June 2003.

Several newspapers, magazines and filmmakers have written about Zang Pictures’ films including Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times, Variety Magazine, Filmmaker Magazine, the San Francisco Chronicle, AsianWeek, the Honolulu Advertiser, the Honolulu Weekly, the Honolulu Star Bulletin, the Chicago Tribune, and director Darren Aronofsky of Requiem for a Dream. In 2002 Kathryn co-founded the Cinema Paradise~ Independent Film Festival in Honolulu which screened the U.S. premiere of the acclaimed international film 11’09’01.

She also, along with the University of Hawaii’s Women’s Studies Program, coordinated the Hawaii premiere of the Emmy award-winning film The Selling of Innocents in December of 2002, along with a panel to raise local awareness of the trafficking of women and children for sex to and from Honolulu.

In November of 2003 Kathryn coordinated a well-publicized, peaceful demonstration outside the business address of a sex-tour operator, who soon after shut down his sex-tour operation, Video Travel. This peaceful protest was televised on four local news stations and led, along with testimony provided by Girl Fest and Equality Now, to the drafting of House Bill 2020 which was signed, in May 2004, into law as Act 82 making Hawaii the first State in the nation to illegalize sex-tourism. HB 2020 was supported by a handful of legislators including Representative Marilyn Lee and Senator Suzanne Chun Oakland. Thanks to the watchful eye of global women's advocacy group Equality Now, our local legislators, and the news networks, our demonstration at Video travel and testimonials at the Capitol proved successful in helping to affect awareness and the creation of unprecedented legislation to protect women globally. Currently, three other States have modeled similar legislation after Act 82 to passage in their legislature. Currently, Kathryn is working on introducing local Hawaii legislation to illegalize sex-trafficking.

Xian is also the founder of the Hawaii non-profit 501(c)3 The Safe Zone Foundation, an organization founded to produce educational multimedia projects. She is the non-executive director of Girl Fest Hawaii, an annual multimedia festival and conference in Honolulu whose mission it is to prevent violence against women and girls through education and art. She also established a Girl Fest Bay Area chapter in March 2006 in San Francisco, California.

She co-founded the Rape-Free Zone Coalition on April 4th 2005, which was responsible for enacting change at the University of Hawaii on August 29th 2005 to declare its system (10 Campuses) Rape-Free Zones and requiring all managerial and executive staff to attend an anti-sexism leadership training at Girl Fest led by Jackson Katz, former member of the U.S. Secretary of Defense’s Task Force on Domestic Violence in the Military and founder of MVP Strategies; an unprecedented event in the University’s history. Xian was also awarded the 2005 Ellison S. Onizuka Human and Civil Rights Award by the National Education Association on July 2nd 2005 and also received the Soroptimists of Waikiki’s Women Helping Women Award on October 20th 2005 and the Soroptimists International of the Americas Chapter’s Women Helping Women Award in July 2006.

Her newly released film Hawaii Slam: Poetry in Paradise premiered on October 26th 2005 at the 25th Anniversary of the Hawaii International Film Festival. This film reveals the racial stereotypes which four Hawaii slam poets must dispel to stake their claim at the National Poetry Slam in 2004—the first time Hawaii was represented at this competition. It premiered in New York City for the Pacifika Film Festival on May 20th 2006 and screened at the 2006 Maui Film Festival in Wailea.

THADDEUS OLIVER,
SAFE ZONE FOUNDATION CO-FOUNDER

Originally from Washington D.C., Oliver holds a Ph.D in Political Science from the University of Hawaii, B.A. in International Studies from Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University with a concentration in International Business. He is also a 1999 Award Recipient for the Pacific Asian Scholarship for research concerning the Pacific and Southeast Asia and is also one of the co-founders of The Safe Zone Foundation and Zang Pictures, Inc..

KATHLEEN HOGANSON,
SAFE ZONE FOUNDATION CO-FOUNDER

Kathleen Hoganson has been a computer programmer for over five years. Initially a 3-D CGI graphic animator working with top of the line software and hardware from Square USA, Hoganson has since delved into mulitimedia, bringing her technical expertise in programming and design to practical use. Her company Scientech assists companies with multimedia, system support, graphics, and construction of advanced system design.

GIRL FEST VOLUNTEER STAFF

Kathryn Xian
Non-Executive Director

Erica Werpetinski
Assistant to the Non-Executive Director

Jolivette Mecenas
Film Festival Chair

Selah Geissler & Wow Krittiya Pongpanich
Spoken Word & Music Chairs

Nikki Stevens
Web Guru

Christy Werner & Darron Cambra
Men’s Program Coordinators

Valerie McDougal
Conference Coordinator

ASSISTANT COORDINATORS & VOLUNTEERS

Katherine Burke
Katherine Shulock
Rebecca Meredith
Nikki Williams
Alice Hunting
Jamie McGihon
Jess Morales
Nikki Carroll
Nohea March
Jocelyn Toagafau
Veronica Garcia
Carrie Tribble
Megan Bateman
Meghan Kenny
Lindsey Kemp-Wilbur
Dawn Shin
Stri Longanecker
Julie Yamashiro
Noel Collins
Gina Cardazon

BOARD OF ADVISORS

Joe Bloom

Puanani Burgess

Derek Ellerman, Polaris Project

Kathy Ferguson, Ph.D

Susan Hippensteele, Esq., Ph.D.

Jennifer Johns

Jackson Katz, MVP Strategies

Meleanna Meyer

Jessica Neuwirth, Equality Now

Sonia Sanchez

BOARD OF DIRECTORS
(SAFE ZONE FOUNDATION)

MARGARET FILBEY

Former lawyer for the Environmental Legal Institute, Filbey has worked as an intern for Al Gore, and the Ashford and Wriston Law Firm in Honolulu. She recently returned from a tour in the Peace Corp in Ecuador.

MICHAEL J. BOLLOW

Graduate of the Mid-Pacific Institute for the Performing Arts, Bollow is a producer for E! Entertainment Television. He is committed to promoting Hawaii's fledgling film and video industry in order to boost the economy.

HARRY RAMOS

Mr. Ramos currently resides in New York City and teaches preschool. He is an event coordinator for poetry slams and literary events. Former protegee of novelist Lois-Ann Yamanaka, Ramos is committed to promoting local voices from the Pacific, a trait he admittedly inherited from his mentor and his Filipino roots. He has performed in several venues in the east coast including the Bowery Poetry Club, the Asian American Writers Workshop and Amherst College. Harry currently resides in New York City and has roots in Honolulu, Hawaii where he was known in the early 90s as DJ Skarry on alternative radio station KTUH-- spinning old school ska. He also introduced independent poetry slams to Honolulu paving the way for the burgeoning Honolulu spoken word community which has just recently blossomed in the Pacific.

JAYMEE CARVAJAL

Ms. Carvajal has trained numerous students and interns in video technology and continues to do so at 'Olelo, Hawaii's progressive public access channel. A native of Guam, she has worked in several capacities as a producer, director and technician on several independent films. She is the award-winning co-producer of "constructions" and "Ke Kulana He Mahu: Remembering a Sense of Place."

MEREDITH ING

Ms. Ing is a teacher at Dole Middle School in Kalihi. She has formerly worked for the D.C. based Human Rights Campaign on the Protect Our Constitution Campaign in Honolulu in 1998 to give equal rights to gays and lesbians with regard to marriage. She has also worked for CARAL in San Francisco lobbying the California Government to ensure that legislation continue to protect women's right to choose.

WESTON WILLARD

Mr. Willard is a teacher at Hakipu'u School. He has an M.Ed. from Harvard University and is committed to improving the lives of children in Hawaii. He has been teaching for Hawaiian public charter schools for over four years and remains a steadfast reformist of the current education system which leaves too many children without adequate skills for learning.

HINALEIMOANA WONG

Ms. Wong is a Hawaiian language and culture instructor at Halau Lokahi Hawaiian Public Charter School. She also teaches Hula to highschool students. She is a community leader and activist in indigenous Hawaiian rights maintains a firm belief in the preservation of indigenous culture. Her work has helped form bridges of understanding between communities in Hawaii and communities on the continental U.S. with regard to Hawaiian rights.

JENNIFER JOHNS (bio TBA)