Six student films from the UH Manoa Academy for Creative Media, including a Hawai'i-China co-production, have been selected for showing at the 11th Shanghai International Film Festival set for June 14-22.

Six ACM student filmmakers will travel to China for the festival and to shoot short films on location with students from Shanghai University, marking the first U.S.-China student film co-production. The effort is part of the SMART (Student Media Art) Exchange program, partnering the two universities with the Hawai'i International Film Festival (HIFF) and the Shanghai International Film Festival (SIFF).

"It Happened One Afternoon," directed by ACM student Russell Blanchard and featuring Shanghai University student filmmakers in the cast and crew.

"Fresh Lenses," a documentary on the collaboration by Crystal Chen, will be featured in the Shanghai program along with "Matalasi," by Dana Ledoux Miller, "Catching Chase," by Jay Hanamura, "Just Like That," by Nasser Marghalani, and "Yamanote Line," by Ark FangRan Mu.

"Matalasi" screened at the 2007 HIFF, and "Yamanote Line" was filmed in Tokyo and Honolulu.

Another ACM film, "My Brother's Keeper," also screened at the 2007 HIFF, was selected for inclusion in the festival's International Student Short Film Competition.

The SMART Exchange program brings student films and filmmakers from ACM to Shanghai, and from Shanghai University to Honolulu each year as part of the decade-long relationship between the Hawai'i and Shanghai international film festivals.