Talent Town

A story about passion, cultural identity and the pursuit of big dreams from the small island of Guam USA.

Talent Town is a thought-provoking journey through Guam’s landscape of world-class, homegrown talent.

In a span of less than seven years, top organizations and publications including Time Magazine, Interscope Records, The Olympics, Filmmaker Magazine, Variety Magazine, the UFC, Bellator MMA and Major League Baseball have all featured the homegrown talents from one of the most unsuspecting of places…a small Pacific island only thirty seven miles long and five miles wide; the island of Guam, USA.

Award-winning filmmakers Don and Kel Muña conduct over thirty exclusive interviews with some of Guam’s most notable residing talent.

Director: Don and Kel Muna

Award-winning producers, writers and directors, brothers Don and Kel Muña are best known for their internationally acclaimed independent film, “Shiro’s Head“ (2008), Guam’s first locally produced full-length feature film. Their debut film was crowned Winner of the Silver Ace Award at the Las Vegas International Film Festival, Best of Festival and Best Feature Film at the Sandhills Film Festival, as well as Grand Jury Award Finalist at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival. Their film had also been officially selected to screen in France, Japan, Hawaii and Philadelphia and has been used as academic curriculum at Purdue University, University of Hawaii and University of Guam. Talent Town is their second feature-length film.

Specifications

Film Type:Documentary, Feature

Genres:culture, art, music, diaspora, social issues

Runtime:1 hour 35 minutes

Completion Date:August 1, 2014

Production Budget:65,000 USD

Country of Origin:Guam

Country of Filming:Guam

Film Language:English

Hush

Indo-Canadian director, Punam Kumar Gill, felt that questioning anything around abortion was a treason to her feminist identity. But when she heard that the health information being given to women was subject to the politics of the people involved, and that 50 million women annually could be affected, she determined to take an honest, scientific look, and trudge through the highly volatile and politicized information around abortions' long-term effects on women's health. What she discovers in the process is not just vital to the subject of abortion, but also critical to her own life, and integral to the ongoing progress of women everywhere.

Director: Punam Kumar Gill

Punam Kumar Gill is a self-taught, award-winning independent documentary filmmaker. With a hunger to learn about movie making, she gave up her established career as a VP in fundraising to work at the bottom of the production ladder, educating herself while working on film sets.

Specifications

Film Type:Documentary

Genres:Social, Political, Investigative, Health, Women

Runtime:1 hour 41 minutes

Completion Date:May 31, 2015

Production Budget:200,000 USD

Country of Origin:Canada

Country of Filming:Canada, United Kingdom, United States

Film Language:English

Eighth day of the week

A cinematic documentary trip towards unlimited world done by a cinematic team with

many characters come from a different social environments. Past ,present and the future

of these characters are shown by this trip .

Director: khaled h othman

khaled othman born in Damascus-Syria 1986

i graduated from faculty of pharmacy 2010 from university of kalamoon Syria

i worked as an actor and director between Syria and Egypt ..

Specifications

Film Type:Documentary, Student

Genres:Drama, experimental, docudrama, biography

Runtime:1 hour 27 minutes 3 seconds

Completion Date:September 1, 2015

Production Budget:20,000 USD

Country of Origin:Egypt

Country of Filming:Egypt, Syrian Arab Republic

Film Language:Arabic

Blender

Blender is an autobiographically inspired documentary. 

The title stands for a 1100 meter high mountain at the foothills of the Alps, where my parents founded an open home for the mentally ill and gave it the name of the mountain, BLENDER.
Why did four of the six protagonists have to leave the home during shooting? This question is also connected to my childhood, where patients were coming and going all the time. Of course the reasons for it are understandable: Disappearing from the Blender is often associated with alcohol, violence, death.

Director: Susann S.Reck

BLENDER is not primarily about craziness or being different. Against an impressive natural backdrop the film follows diverse forms of human existence following their lonely paths through life."

Specifications

Film Type:Documentary
Runtime:1 hour 45 minutes
Completion Date:March 18, 2014
Production Budget:10 EUR
Country of Origin:Germany
Country of Filming:Germany
Film Language:German

Following Kina

Two young women from some of the most forgotten places on earth, fight against all odds to become the next champion. The documentary traces the life of Alicia and Anita as they follow the footsteps of Kina Malpartida, the first Peruvian ever to win a World Title. Without any official support, they are driven by passion and perseverance to succeed in a totally male-dominated sport. Alicia, 23, divides her time between boxing and herding alpacas in a village at 16,000 feet, where most of her cattle, and many babies and old people in her community die every year from the frost. Her gym has no ring, no punching bag and no trainer. Anita, 15, lives in the toughest neighbourhood in the port of Lima. She combines high school studies, working with her mother in a street market with her intense training. She almost quit when her middle-aged trainer whom she trusted and admired tried to abuse her sexually. No obstacle is big enough to distract these women from their goal. The road ahead is tough but so is their resolve.

Director: Sonia Goldenber

Sonia Goldenberg is a Peruvian filmmaker, journalist and author. She has directed and produced several films on political, social and cultural issues which have been exhibited at prestigious festivals and received international awards. She is the author of “Reportaje al Perú anónimo”, “Decidamos el Futuro” and “Amor y Poder en el Umbral del Milenio”. She has an M.S. from Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. Goldenberg now directs Escuela de Cine de lo Real, a documentary film school in Lima.

Specifications

Film Type:Documentary

Runtime:1 hour 2 minutes

Completion Date:August 18, 2015

Country of Filming:Peru

Film Language:Spanish

Larco Avenue

In the mid 70’s, in the middle of the military dictatorship in Peru; Tavo, Cesar and Lucho, childhood friends from the Breña neighborhood in Lima, get together to achieve their dreamed project, forma a rock band. They wanted to do it right and after some rehearsals they realized that they wanted to gain more knowledge in music in order to have more elements to compose. They decided to go to the National School of Music and in this way Fragile was born; that sublime feeling that elevates you while their music lasts and lands you when they finish.

In the beginning of the 80’s they record their first album titled, Larco Avenue, name of the song that photographs the parties that went on in this renowned avenue in the district of Miraflores and, after 38 years, it still is the most know and performed hit in Peruvian rock.

During all these years, Fragile recorded eight discs and one single, they had three drummers and four lead singers who, at their respective time, gave life to each of their songs with their voices and music.

Specifications

Film Type:Documentary

Runtime:2 hours 7 minutes 50 seconds

Completion Date:October 13, 2015

Production Budget:250,000 USD

Country of Origin:Peru

Country of Filming:Peru

Film Language:Spanish