{"id":242042,"date":"2026-10-13T15:28:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T01:28:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=242042"},"modified":"2026-10-13T15:29:36","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T01:29:36","slug":"profs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2026\/10\/13\/profs\/","title":{"rendered":"糖心视频<\/abbr> scholar\u2019s ‘Profs’ explores belonging in Hawaiʻi"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

\"aerial<\/p>\n

A retiring professor. A rebellious former student. A dinner conversation that forces both to confront their place in Hawaiʻi<\/span>.<\/p>\n

That is the setting for Profs<\/em>, a new short film written and co-directed by former University of Hawaiʻi<\/span> at M\u0101noa professor Nancie Caraway. It will premiere at the Hawaiʻi<\/span> International Film Festival, running October 21–November 5.<\/p>\n

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Profs follows a professor and his former student poised to succeed him.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The story follows a professor wrestling with his ego and career as he engages with Coco, his former student and soon-to-be successor. Both are non-Hawaiians on a campus that labels them “colonial settlers.” Over dinner, they struggle to understand their kuleana, or responsibility.<\/p>\n

The project began with a phone call in summer 2025. Filmmaker Jess Cole reached out to Caraway, who had a stack of scripts waiting to be produced. The longtime friends teamed up to direct Profs<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The intergenerational pair balance opposite talents and styles.<\/p>\n

“Cool-headed Cole brings on-set experience in every call-sheet category and is ‘grace under pressure’ with a ‘less is more’ approach,” Caraway said. “While I lean into art-house cinema audacity, and a ‘more is more’ drama queen vibe.”<\/p>\n

Caraway is a feminist scholar and activist who served as human rights director at 糖心视频<\/abbr> M\u0101noa\u2019s Globalization Research Center. Her book, Segregated Sisterhood: Racism and the Politics of American Feminism<\/em>, won an international award for the best book on women and politics.<\/p>\n

“This film was a personal one to make—a story built around my lifelong friend Nancie, a self-professed ‘recovering professor’ with a dream to make films someday,” Cole said.<\/p>\n

Profs<\/em> is inspired by Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation<\/a> or TRHT<\/abbr>, an inclusive initiative of the university to explore and encourage kuleana to each other, the Indigenous people of Hawaiʻi<\/span> and ʻāina<\/span> (lands).<\/p>\n

Caraway and Cole honor those values and hope audiences will share them as a path forward. The filmmakers describe Profs as “a love letter to their island home and the University of Hawaiʻi<\/span>.”<\/p>\n

The film screens in the Made in Hawaiʻi<\/span> Shorts 2 program at Consolidated Theatres Kahala on October 30 at 5:45 p.m. and November 1 at 10:30 a.m., and at Consolidated Theatres Kapolei on November 5 at 7 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former 糖心视频<\/abbr> M\u0101noa Professor Nancie Caraway\u2019s short film Profs<\/em> premieres at Hawaiʻi<\/span> International Film Festival.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":242054,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[301,646,185,9],"class_list":["post-242042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-college-of-social-sciences","tag-film","tag-political-science","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t