Maui is known around the world for its natural beauty, a myriad of landscapes, and a vibrant culture. It’s not known as a hotbed for filmmaking – at least not yet. That’s where Hisako Film Lab comes in.

Hisako Film Lab is a non-profit organization providing hands-on filmmaking experience to Maui’s youth. The lab was founded by Maui-born-and-raised filmmaker Destin Daniel Cretton, known for directing Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and Tokyo Vice, among other films and television shows.

The program is run by co-directors Brad Kester, a filmmaker and credentialed film educator, and Joy Cretton, a successful costume designer for film and television and frequent collaborator of her brother Destin.

We spoke with Joy and Brad about empowering Maui’s young creatives and what Hisako Film Lab means to the community they care so deeply about.

DAVIS READ: Joy, Brad, thank you so much for speaking with me. To start, would you mind explaining what Hisako Film Lab is?

BRAD KESTER: We’re a Maui-based nonprofit organization targeting students who want to get hands-on experience with filmmaking. We provide a community and a platform for them to do that. Most of the kids in our program are high school students who are ready to dive into film in a more serious way. 

Where does the name Hisako come from?

JOY CRETTON: Hisako was the name of my grandmother, who always supported mine and Destin’s creativity and aspirations growing up. She gave Destin his first video camera (a big clunky one when he was 10 years old) and that’s where it all began! Every play, magic show, and commercial we made was suddenly being filmed and directed by my big brother!

I was always in charge of the costumes. My mom kept a wicker basket fully stocked for us with garage sale finds and random fabric scraps, which I would use for the costumes.

Grandma’s house was where we spent much of our childhood and have some of our fondest memories. She always cultivated the most welcoming environment where we were free to create, imagine, and play. She warmly welcomed all our friends from all walks of life into her home and made them feel seen and understood.

This is the goal of Hisako Film Lab. Our current office is out of our grandma’s home, and her legacy lives on through Hisako Film Lab.

DR: Prior to Hisako Film Lab, what was your experience with filmmaking?

BK: I got into film in my early 20s and spent a while trying to make independent films. I sort of fell into teaching by accident. I was working in San Diego as an independent filmmaker, and I got involved with a local arts high school that was bringing filmmakers in to work with students as guest teachers. I was doing that for a handful of years before I finally decided to get my teaching credential and become a high school teacher. Our founder, Destin, was actually teaching at that high school with me.

Since then, his career has really taken off and he’s gone on to direct bigger and bigger films. He’s wanted for a long time to give something back to the community he grew up in. When my wife and I decided to move to Maui (she’s also from Maui), it was a no-brainer to start up this organization.

JC: I’ve been making films with my brother, Destin, since we were young kids on Maui. Growing up, we made films all the time just for fun, with no sense that it could one day be a career path. When we got a little older, he went off to film school and I went to fashion school, having no idea that costume design was even an option. My first foray into costume design was designing the costumes for Destin’s short films in college. One of the shorts that I worked on with him was Short Term 12, which won at the Sundance Film Festival and allowed Destin to make it into a feature film, which I also worked on. So that’s when costume design turned into a legitimate career option for me. 

DR: People probably don’t realize how much work goes into the costumes for a feature film. Could you give us an idea of what a costume designer is responsible for on a film?

JC: You start with a breakdown of every character, what they like, what they dislike, and you get to know them as if they are real people. That’s how you know what they would wear, what colors their clothes are, what the tone of the film should look like. You work closely with the production designer and all the department heads to make sure everything meshes well in the final product. 

DR: Short Term 12 is a true independent film, and it’s a great movie. What is the indie filmmaking process like, and how does it compare to some of the bigger studio films you’ve done since?

JC: It was much harder when we didn’t have any money to work with(but no less fun!). On the short film, Destin was trying to do everything himself – using his own money, relying on favors from friends, trying to findgreat actors who would do it on such a low budget… that’s when he discovered LaKeith Stanfield.

Destin still lived in San Diego at the time, so he was sleeping on my couch while trying to get permits and find locations. I went around tolocal restaurants and basically begged for food to feed the crew. It was very different from the films we work on now, but he still manages to make it always feel like a family on set.  

DR: Did either of you have something like Hisako Film Lab when you were younger and just getting interested in film?

BK: No, definitely not. I grew up in a small town in Idaho, and my first exposure to filmmaking was just making movies with my friends in high school. My school did have an “Oscar Night” where people could show the films they made, but there was no teaching or training element to it.

JC: That’s similar to our experience growing up on the island. We just didn’t know filmmaking was a career because we didn’t know anyone doing it. There were some media classes in the high schools, but we were home schooled, so we didn’t even have that exposure. That’s a big reason why Destin wanted to start the lab – he always wanted to do something on Maui for kids to have the opportunity that we didn’t have growing up. 

DR: What is the Maui community like in terms of its support for creatives?

JC: We’ve found the community to be extremely supportive! We go through this process of making the films with the kids and then we premiere them for the public at the end of the program, and we’ve been blown away by how many people come out to support the films. The attendance was so strong that we’re able to move to a larger venue for our next session, which is something we’re really excited about.

BK: One of the cool aspects of our program is the access we get to great guests. We’ve been trying to connect students with people in LA and people here on the island who work in film. Part of it is allowing the students to hear from the guests about what it’s like to work in professional filmmaking, but another part of it is that students are able to share their ideas and get feedback from these industry pros. 

DR Who are some of the guests you’ve been able to involve?

JC: We base our guests on what part of the filmmaking process the students are in. They start off by pitching ideas – this year the students were pitching to Jordan and Aaron Kandell, who were writers on Moana. They live on Oahu and have been involved in a couple of our programs. When they get into drafting the screenplays, we’ll bring in more writers, like Destin came in to speak in this last session. We were also able to collaborate with Rachel Kondo and Justin Marks (the writers of FX’s Shōgun), who are also based here on Maui and have been really supportive of our program. They came in recently and hung out with our students and did a little brainstorming session and gave them notes on their work when they were a little further along in the process. 

BK: We also were able to bring in some cinematographers to talk about camera work with the kids, we just try and make it relevant to whatever the kids are working on in that moment. 

JC: There were some kids interested in animation this year, so we were able to put them in touch with the director and producer of Bob’s Burgers. We had a documentary activist filmmaker speak with the kids. We’ve had a SFXmakeup artist come in. I am always seeking out any students interested in costumes and working with them. We really try and tailor the selection of guests to what the kids are interested in.

DR: What sort of students are encouraged to apply? Is it students who have never picked up a camera before, or are they students who already love film?

BK: Our program is geared toward students who ideally have some experience and are looking to take it to the next level. That said, even if students have never picked up a camera before, if they have a serious interest in filmmaking and are ready to dive in, we welcome them too. 

JC: We do interviews with anybody that applies to the program. It’s a free program, but we just try to gauge if it’s something they have a passion for or if it’s just something their parents are making them do. We bring so many different kinds of kids into this community. We have kids who are, like I was at their age, shy and introverted and they’re working alongside kids who are the outgoing, loud, popular types. I just think it’s so cool that they’re all able to work together and encourage each other. 

DR: You mentioned that this program is free to participate in. Why was it important to you to make Hisako Film Lab free?

BK: We want this program to be available to as many students as possible. It’s not something we’re trying to make money from. 

JC: We don’t want a lack of funds to ever be a factor for kids who want to explore this interest. We want to open as many doors as possible for them. That’s what Hisako Film Lab is about. 

DR: How can people support Hisako Film Lab?

BK: You can go to HisakoFilmLab.com where there’s a “donate” button – anyone who wants to support us can donate.

JC: As the students have completed their films, we’re now entering them into film festivals and giving them the chance to showcase their work alongside other young filmmakers. We recently took our students to Oahu to share their films at a film festival there. Now there is another one in San Diego we want to take them to. These are amazing experiences that we want to make available to our students, but they cost money. It’s a good problem to have, but that’s why fundraising has been especially important lately.

DR: What is the exhibition like at the end?

BK: We give the kids a whole red-carpet experience. Their films are shown on a big screen, we invite the public, and the kids have a great time watching each other’s films. I originally wasn’t even sure we should do a premiere because I didn’t know if people would show up, but we went ahead anyway, and it was a completely packed house! It made for a really special night for the students. 

JC: They all get a lei, we have photographers take their pictures, they show their films, do a Q and A, and then the rest of the night is like a reception for everyone in attendance. It’s a lot of fun, and it’s something all our kids look forward to at the end of the program. 

DR: Here in LA, we are still recovering from the devastating wildfires earlier this year. Maui is still rebuilding in the aftermath of the 2023 wildfires. How has that impacted the mission of your organization?

JC: We have seen the community come together stronger than ever to rebuild, but you still feel the devastation. There are so many students from Lahaina that were displaced and had to move schools (and uproot their lives), and we’ve had some of those students in our program. We hope that our program can be a form of therapy in a way. Giving these kids a creative outlet is important to us.

BK: We’ve been working on some plans for the fall to gear our program specifically toward kids in Lahaina. We’re partnering with another great organization on the island called the Fuzz Box, and they have a cool space in Lahaina we hope to use to target that population specifically. 

DR: What is the most rewarding part of the work you do?

BK: There’s always a point for the students when they’re writing their films and it starts to get overwhelming, but as soon as they start filming it becomes so joyous. Seeing them go through that process and gain the confidence that comes from finishing a film is really rewarding.

JC: As a filmmaker, you forget about all the hard things you go through once the cameras start rolling. That’s how I have been on every set I’ve worked on. We see the kids go through the same thing, and we just encourage them like “It’s ok, this is normal, you’ll be on set soon.” Then once they’re filming, they’re having the times of their lives. 

DR: What are you excited about in the Film Lab’s future?

JC: I’m excited about taking the kids to more film festivals after the first one and how excited they were. It was such a cool experience for them when a lot of our students have never left the island before. It’s something they won’t forget. So, I’m looking forward to hopefully doing that more. 

BK: One of the things we’d really like to have down the road is our own space – right now we’ve been meeting out of a local college, which we appreciate. But we’d like to have our own community hub where anybody interested in being creative can come have a place to hang out and make things.

DR: Do you have any advice for young filmmakers who don’t have something like Hisako Film Lab in their community?

BK: One thing I try to tell my students is: Don’t try too hard to make it perfect. The important thing is going through the process and finishing a project by whatever means you have available. The way students grow the most is by seeing the whole process through and then moving on to the next project with the knowledge they’ve gained. You just rinse and repeat that, and your craft will get exponentially better. 

JC: We’ve had a lot of students who have never had access to cameras or professional equipment but have found other ways to be creative with the resources they have available to them. That’s what Destin and I grew up doing – it’s not about the equipment, it’s about your own creativity. Just keep making stuff! BK: Whether you have an organization like ours in your community, or you just seek out a couple of friends who share your interests, it really helps to find people in your life you can collaborate with. If you don’t have your own Hisako Film Lab, maybe start a film club at your school or make a movie with your friends. The most important thing is having fun and enjoying the process.