Edgy Lee
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Edgy Lee is an independent [[Hawaii -born filmmaker. She has also produced records featuring artists as varied Joe Higgs, The Wailers, and His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. Lee's music credits include co-compositions with Wayne Shorter (CBS Records, "Atlantis") and film composer, Joseph Vitarelli (Fox Network, other).
Lee's films include Papakolea – Story of Hawaiian Land, Paniolo O Hawai'i – Cowboys of the Far West, Waikiki – In the Wake of Dreams and The Hawaiians – Reflecting Spirit. These films were made in the hope of bringing a deeper awareness of the Hawaiian culture to a national public whose image of native Hawaiians may have been shaped by stereotypes.
Waikiki premiered at the National Geographic Society and received the 2002 New York International Independent Film Festival awards for Best Cinematography and Best Editing. At the Chicago International Film Festival it received an Intercom Gold Plaque. The Hawaiians premiered in 2004 at the opening of the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian.
Other Lee films have premiered at the City Museum and Hirschhorn Museum in Washington DC, the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, the Heard Museum in Phoenix, the Autry Museum in Los Angeles, at other US museums and small theatres, and at special film screenings and events held on Waikiki Beach and New York's waterfront.
Warner Reprise released a companion soundtrack CD to the film Paniolo O Hawaii produced by former Warner Reprise Nashville, Pres. Jim Ed Norman with Hawaiian Kumu & performer, Nani Lim; and Public Radio International aired a one-hour program incorporating excerpts and music from the film.
Edgy also recently co-produced and directed Life or Meth and ICE: Hawaii's Crystal Meth Epidemic, two independently produced films on the methamphetamine epidemic in Hawaii. Both films were simulcast across the state of Hawaii on eleven TV stations and continue to garner national acclaim.
In 1999 Edgy produced a CD with the Dalai Lama for the Office of Tibet – a compilation of His Holiness' symposiums, rare traditional Tibetan music performed by artists living in exile around the world, Hawaiian chants, and remarks by the late Reverend Abraham Akaka and kumu hula John Lake.
[edit] Awards and presentations
- 2004 Pacific Business News Leadership Award, Non profit category
2003 Honolulu City Council Award for Outstanding Community Service
- 2002 New York International Independent Film and Video Festival – Best Cinematography (Jorge Dvorsky)
- 2002 New York International Independent Film and Video Festival – Best Editing, Documentary Film (Edgy Lee)
- 2001 Chicago International Film Festival – INTERCOM Gold Plaque
- 2001 Kahili Award, Literary Category (Edgy Lee / Paul Berry)
- 2000 Kahili Best of Show Award and Kahili Award for Media Broadcasting
- 1998 Chicago International Film Festival – INTERCOM Silver Plaque
- 1998 Chicago International Film Festival – Individual Achievement Award, Writing (Edgy Lee)
- 1995 National Educational Media Network Silver Award
- 1994 Corporation for Public Broadcasting – Silver Award (Excellence In TV Programming, Independent)
- 1993 CINE Golden Eagle Award (Papakolea – Story of Hawaiian Land; Edgy Lee, Producer/Director/Writer;
Haskell Wexler, Cinematography; Saul Landau, Co-writer)
