Not the typical Hawaiian isle ukulele talk

You know a DVD is going to be quirky when a company called Bald Guy With a Dent in His Head Productions releases it. "Rock That Uke," a 62-minute documentary co-directed by William Preston Robertson and Sean Anderson, features voice narration by Academy Award-winning actress Holly Hunter ("The Piano," "The Firm" and TNT's "Saving Grace").

The press materials are too good not to quote: "'Rock That Uke' is a funky, oddly philosophical cinematic love poem that examines the near mystical allure of the ukulele and the recent wave of alternative and experimental musicians who have taken up the four-stringed underdog of the music world to incorporate it not just into their raucous and irreverent original compositions, but into a countercultural/post-punk ethos." Whew! How could you miss it?

One of the most compelling questions the film asks is what motivates someone to "amplify and distort this little instrument to play loud, aggressive music?" It also includes interviews from musicians and ukulele fanatics all over the country. Will let you know more when I review it.

A skateboarding video called "The Struggle," produced by Aala Park Boardshop, will premiere at the rRed Elephant at 6 p.m. Dec. 29. Clips portray a nicely done home-movie style, but it certainly entertains with spectacular tricks and nasty wipeouts that make you wince. DJ Observ and Kavet the Catalyst will provide music during the screening. Check out a short trailer on www.downwithapb.com.

The Academy of Creative Media is celebrating the end of a lucrative semester that brought in significant donations and contracts. A mainland couple who asked to remain anonymous provided $83,000, Island Insurance gave $50,000 and the Hawaii Film Office supplied a $49,000 contract that covered ACM's workshop and film co-production with Shanghai University students. It also helps with the exchange that will send ACM students to the Shanghai Film Festival in June. In other news, don't forget about the Pacific New Media Certification Workshop Jan. 12. Visit www.outreach. hawaii.edu/pnm for details.

A screenwriting competition sponsored by a grant from the Office of Student Equity Excellence and Diversity at UH is offering $1,250 to filmmakers interested in gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (did we leave anybody out?) topics, to produce a narrative or documentary. You can win even if you're straight. But you do need to meet the Jan. 14 deadline with a signed letter of introduction which includes a statement of intent, a completed screenplay, a one-paragraph synopsis of the story and a preliminary budget with all costs of production and post-production.

Contact assistant professor Joel Moffett at 956-3353 or moffett@hawaii.edu.

Look for Wailuku resident Brad Falcon on the NBC show "Deal or No Deal," airing at 8 p.m. Jan. 9. More on that (and him) later!

"Screen Time" is an occasional feature in the Today section. E-mail knichols@starbulletin.com.