• Anne Misawa

    Associate Professor
  • Campus & Program:

    UH Mānoa

  • Email:

    amisawa@hawaii.edu

  • Phone:

    956-7736

Anne Misawa has worked internationally in various aspects of film production, with work in both film and TV since 1997.  She was largely raised in Hawaiʻi and has studied filmmaking at the University of Southern California’s Graduate MFA program in Film and Television Production.  Her primary work is as a Director and Cinematographer, as well as a Producer.  Her work as Director of Photography in TREELESS MOUNTAIN was nominated for a Film Independent Spirit Award for Best Cinematography, 2010.  She is currently teaching in the Digital Cinema track at the Academy for Creative Media, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and has served as the department chair, 2013-2016.

Directorial highlights include:  WAKING MELE, (Sundance Film Festival, Best Short Award at Austin Film Festival, Student Academy Award Finalist, 2000), the feature-length narrative EDEN’S CURVE, (BFI London LG Film Festival, Emerging Film Best Feature Award at North Carolina GL Film Festival, 2003; translated to four languages), and the feature-length documentary STATE OF ALOHA which she produced and directed at ACM, (Halekulani Golden Award Nominee for Best Documentary at Hawaii International Film Festival, Documentary Competition Nominee at CAAMFest and Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, PBS TV broadcast, 2009, 2010; educational rerelease with support from the Hawaiʻi Council of the Humanities, 2020.)

Her work as a Director of Photography (cinematographer) includes theatrical film and TV releases, with highlights:  MARGARITA, WITH A STRAW, (directed by Shonali Bose, Sundance Institute’s Mahindra Global Filmmaking Award, 2012, NETPAC Award at Toronto International Film Festival, 2014; 130+ film festivals, 25 awards,) JACK & DIANE, (directed by Bradley-Rust Gray, Tribeca Film Festival, Locarno International Film Festival, 2012), TREELESS MOUNTAIN (directed by So Yong Kim, NETPAC award at Busan International Film Festival, Berlin International Film Festival, and New Directors/ New Films, 2008), TIME OUT, (directed by Xelinda Yancy, executive produced by John Singleton, HBO Award, 2004), SALT, (directed by Bradley-Rust Gray, Caligari Award for Innovative Filmmaking at Berlin International Film Festival, 2003), and LIV, (directed by Edoardo Ponti, co-DP by Rogelio Gonzalez, produced by Robert Altman, Michelangelo Antonioni, Venice International Film Festival, 1998.)

Anne has a background in writing:  She also holds a BA in English from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, a MA in Creative Writing, Poetry, from New York University, and has studied at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, Naropa Institute, with its multidisciplinary approach to writing with writers and artists such as William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, and Stan Brakhage as teachers.