Filmmakers Eddie and Myrna Kamae are recipients of the Hawai'i International Film Festival's third annual Film in Hawaii Award presented by the state to the film or television entity that has significantly contributed to promoting the local film industry. Eddie and Myrna Kamae
to receive film festival award
Movie magic
Movie award nominees cover wide range of drama
Schedule of highlights
By Tim Ryan
tryan@starbulletin.com
Previous winners were Tom Selleck and Walt Disney Studios.
This year's Film in Hawai'i Award will be presented at an awards ceremony and reception on Nov. 7, at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel.
Hawaiian native Eddie Kamae, 75, was born in Honolulu and built a career from his talents as an ukulele virtuoso, singer and composer. He was co-founder of the legendary band Sons of Hawaii, later becoming a filmmaker, researcher and key figure in the Hawaiian cultural renaissance.
He made a name for himself as an ukulele player in the late 1940s in Hawaii, teaming up with Shoi Ikemi as Ukulele Rascals at Waikiki's Lau Yee Chai restaurant.
In the 1980s, while still leading the Sons of Hawaii, Kamae and his wife Myrna began a new career as filmmakers and have produced and directed seven award-winning documentaries dealing with Hawaiian musical and cultural tradition.
Their most recent film "The Sons of Hawaii: a Sound, a Band, a Legend," documents Kamae's legendary group.
In 1979, he was designated a "Living Treasure of Hawaii" by the Honpa Hongwanji Mission of Hawaii. In 1987, the Hawaii State Legislature recognized Kamae for his many contributions to Hawaiian music.
He is also the recipient of the Hawaii Academy of Recording Artists Lifetime Achievement Award and the Bishop Museum's Charles Reed Bishop Award.
The Ukulele Hall of Fame Museum and its members are proud to have chosen Edward Leilani Kamae as a 2001 inductee into the Ukulele Hall of Fame.
His films include "Hawaiian Voices, Bridging Past to Present," "Luther Kahekili Makekau: A One Kine Hawaiian Man," and "Sons of Hawai'i: A Sound, a Band, a Legend," an up-close-and-personal glimpse of the Sons of Hawaii.
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