Documentary Expedition Amana is a Finalist at the MY HERO Film Festival

The MY HERO Project is delighted to announce that the documentary Expedition Amana directed by Mason Le, Kai Smith, Julian Goodman and Niki Wallin is a finalist for the 2024 Sylvia Earle Ocean Conservation Award. MY HERO presents this annual award to filmmakers who showcase heroes who are working to protect the world’s oceans

Expedition Amana is about a Japanese Explorer investigating the possibility that 8,000 years ago, Native Californians crossed the ocean to Hawaii in a reed boat. Adventurer Jin Ishikawa designs and builds a reed boat like the early Polynesians and is going to sail it from San Francisco to Hawaii.

Watch the film here: expedition-amana

MY HERO interviewed Mason Le about his experience as a filmmaker and his contribution to this project.

How long have you been making films?

Mason: I got into editing during COVID; at the time I was in 8th grade and with too much time on my hands I started playing Minecraft and creating YouTube videos. I reached 50,000 subscribers and made 2000+. This is how I developed my video editing skills with Premiere. Once COVID ended and I returned to in-person school I was able to join my school's film program – AIM (Academy of Integrated Humanities and New Media Studies). The program gave me the opportunity to work on numerous projects. Prior to joining I had experience with photography but had never considered creating documentaries. Documentaries are in a completely different world from YouTube videos but learning the process was exciting. My favorite part is meeting new people with different views and backgrounds of my own and learning from them. In total I have made 4 documentaries + a few other films. In the second semester of my junior year (2022-2023), I partook in the creation “Amana”. 

What were some of the challenges, successes, and high points?

Initially, we had trouble figuring out what we were going to do. I wanted to find something that had a story, rather than being a topic. At first, I thought about Ai; Open Ai was based in San Francisco so I reached out to a few people I knew. But then Kai came across the idea of Medical Aid in Dying. Aside from the sensitivity of the topic, I thought the idea was very interesting. I like talking to people and seeing how they live life and view the world, and this topic would be an opportunity to talk to someone dealing with something we all have to face one day. The topic was also quite accessible given that both of Kai’s parents are doctors, and our families know a lot of doctors. Although the topic may not have exactly followed the prompt, Kai and I discussed it quite a bit and felt that it was unique and would make for a good documentary. I had a good vision of how I wanted the documentary to turn out and we had filmed an interview with a patient and spent time chatting with another, so it was depressing to get the feedback from the teachers that they didn’t agree with the proposal. As we were searching for new ideas, none of them piqued my interests. They felt plain or boring compared to Medical Aid in Dying. We went on for a while trying to search for a new topic. Then Julian found a group providing mental health services, but I disliked the topic because in the previous semester, I had worked on something similar. Then came Saturday, I had woken up early and was still frustrated about the topic. I was out on the hammock in my backyard trying to listen to music and relax when Ms. Scharf sent out a Remind, linking an article with a suggestion of a doc topic. I had seen this article in the IJ on Friday but my group turned down the idea for various reasons. But now that a teacher had suggested it, I thought that it was an easy way to get my group on board with the topic. So I excitedly ran to my computer (Single best decision in my life – maybe). I scrambled to my desk trying to find a way into the project. I sent out messages to whatever emails, Instagram pages, or Facebook accounts that I managed to come across. Eventually, I found one page, with no more than a paragraph on it. It mentioned the launch day event and had the email of an event coordinator: Tom Kowalski. I pasted my pre-written message and went back to the hammock to relax. Then no more than two minutes later, Bing. Tom had written back. We sent a few emails back and forth and concluded on having a Zoom chat at 1pm. At this point, I had not told anyone in my group about the boat project, since I felt they were set on mental health services. I knew that in order to persuade them, I had to make it as easy as I could for them to jump on board, so I wanted to do as much as I could before telling them.

During the call Tom gave us an overview of what the project was and told us we were free to film. Tom met Jin around 5 years ago and was helping Jin with logistics. At the time of the call, Jin had still not responded but Tom told us they were constantly working at Galilee Harbor. In hopes of getting in contact with Jin, we drove on by to see what was happening. At the site, I recognized one of the people from the IJ, so I went up to him – camera in hand – and told him about our documentary. Little did I know that this would be the beginning of my friendship with Stan Teng. They were extremely welcoming and friendly, and loved the idea of us making a documentary about the project.

Jin IshikawaMason Le 

From there I spent a lot of time with Jin and the other volunteers – Peter, Jude, Stan, Yoshi, Norio, Yuko, Eric, Sarka, Brad, Aussie, Joe, Cheryl, etc. I felt that in order to film them I had to truly understand who they were, what they were doing, and why. Soon every day became me driving down to Galilee, to spend the next 9 hours filming. I was accepted as the videographer, always recording every moment as we had lunch, worked on the reed boat, or just sitting in the bed of the truck with Peter as we went to and from his house to build the rudders. I was lucky enough to be involved in such an amazing project and be part of the community that Jin had built. 

What in your opinion is the importance of the film, and what does it mean to you?

I have never met someone like Jin before. Jin defies our society, he lives “outside of the box” as he puts it. There is something to the way Jin sees the world that I have not experienced. He grew up in Japan, a place known to be traditional, and not common to have a person who defies tradition. Yet here Jin is, a Japanese man trying to cross the Pacific Ocean on a reed boat. After talking with him I learned that he was not always like this. He too once lived “inside the box” and dreamed of being a teacher. But there was something in the Sahara that changed him forever. After surviving six months alone in the Sahara, he was no longer “in the box.” I feel as though I live inside the box and that I have learned and am still learning from him. Learning his way of life has taught me that there is more to life than what is expected of me. Life is not just getting good grades, and accomplishing things, there is more. I am yet to find out what that is, but Jin has pushed me to find out for myself. 

Mason LeReed Boat 

One thing that I have noticed from being around Jin is his charisma. No matter who you are, there is something about him that attracts people to him and creates this want to help him. We could be working on the boat in Galilee, having breakfast at Fred's, or sailing the boat, but all the while he has a smile, and he is always greeting them as if they were not strangers. He is able to create a community of people who want to help him and want to be around him. I feel like this is the one major thing that has allowed Project Amana to exist. I feel as though I am not as open, or my approach to others is not the same as his, but I want to be like him in that I am able to create a community of people who all want to help each other to reach our goals.

Could you tell us about the process of making the film?

Throughout the process of filming, I was constantly trying to figure out how we were going to structure our film. I wanted our film to stand out and be able to represent this amazing project which I was given the opportunity to be a part of. I felt this connection with the members of Amana and knew that I had to push us to create a good documentary. I was going off of what I felt was lacking from other documentaries and wanted our documentary to be less informational and more experiential. I spent many nights thinking about the documentary as I was going to sleep. In the end, I discussed my thoughts with Kai, and together we created a detailed storyboard for the project. The project consumed me and led me to question why I was even trying in other classes. I wanted to devote my full attention to the documentary. From skipping class, to constantly thinking about the documentary, I learned how to manage my time in order to meet my responsibilities, while also spending as much time as I could with the documentary.

What was your role?

I spent most of my time filming, outlining, and managing. I felt as though I had the most knowledge in this field and needed to work to each person's strengths in order to make something I liked. It came easy between Kai and me, but I realized that constant communication was important. I had a strong vision for the documentary and in order for us to all be working towards the same thing, it was necessary for me to be always voicing my thoughts. There came times when there was disagreement, but we were able to present our cases and talk it out. 

What is next?

I am so glad that I was given the opportunity to work on this project which allowed me to make new friends, all while doing something I was passionate about. Even though the project for school is over, I am continuing to spend time with the friends I made, from having dinner with them at the Sausalito Yacht Club – to say farewell to Jin because of his return to Japan to spending 6 hours to go check out reeds in the Delta with Stan and Jin. I have been accepted as the project's filmmaker and will continue with this project, and hopefully create a documentary on the real reed boat that will go to Hawaii!

Julian Goodman added:

There is not much more I can say from the filming process as Mason was very in-depth, and also the closest with the subject, but the commentary I can give is my own experience and also the only senior in the group and the one most familiar with AIMS policies (so the boring stuff). Going into this, this was my 5th documentary and my 4th and final with AIM, so one thing I was focused on was making something I was proud of, while also teaching juniors. And while I went in to think I could teach them a lot, they know a lot and at some points more than me, the only thing I feel I was able to teach was story structure and narrative, as Mason was a lot more skilled physically with the camera and Kai already had skills with editing and Niki was able to talk to people. One thing I was very impressed with, the program is used a lot by students for college purposes, especially second semester Juniors (the entire group but me), and by that a lot of people want to do good on their grade. However, my group surprised me by being less concerned about the grade and more so the story which is a mindset that sadly cannot be taught in an academic setting that surprised me and I’m excited to see where they go with their documentaries. 

Do you have any previous experience?

My experience with documentaries stemmed from my Video Journalism Career. I was a journalist/video journalist beforehand; however this never really scratched the itch for me. However, documentaries did. My first real one was with the program where I interviewed people about the Art scene in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco, it really opened my eyes. However, the single most eye-opening part was when I interviewed two individuals about what they think of some of the famous murals, one point that stuck with me was how two different artists viewed a butterfly mural. It was a massive one that both of them saw nearly every day. One loved it, however, the other one, brought up multiple points on how the city painted it with an outside artist to gentrify the area. It really opened my eyes and by extension, it really made me think more about how things have multiple meanings, and wanting to present those meanings is why I went more into documentaries.  

The Sylvia Earle Award

The annual award is named for Dr. Sylvia Earle, a world-renowned marine biologist, oceanographer, explorer, author, lecturer, leader, and research scientist who has led more than 100 expeditions and author of more than 200 publications. It is sponsored by MacGillivray-Freeman Films’ Educational Foundation's One World One Ocean campaign[i]. 

Said Greg MacGillivray, Chairman of MacGillivray Freeman Films: “Sylvia Earle is our ocean hero, and we hope this award inspires aspiring filmmakers to shine a spotlight on other dedicated people from all walks of life who are working tirelessly on behalf of our oceans."

To ENTER for the 2025 Award, go to: /sylvia-earle-ocean-conservation-award.

Find out more about the MY HERO Film Festival here: /festival-information

[i] One World One Ocean is a global non-profit campaign designed to connect people emotionally to the world's ocean. Their mission is to raise awareness of ocean degradation, to inspire audiences through cinematography and to spark a global movement to protect our seas.