Melina Kiyomi Coumas is an award-winning filmmaker from the island of O'ahu, now based in the Pacific Northwest. With a BA in Film Studies, her focus is in experimental filmmaking while also pursuing interests in photography and writing. Her works have screened both locally and internationally. She shoots primarily on celluloid film formats, exploring themes surrounding memory, identity and perception.
Melina is currently a freelancer for arts organizations and film festivals, offering various services in coordinating, outreach, grant management, project review, and programming.
Photography
Ocean Moon, Water Mother 海月/水母 (2023)
16mm, Color, Sound
Narrative short currently in pre-production.
Spit it Out (2023)
Super 8mm, Color, Sound
A personal, intimate short detailing what growing up with a speech
impediment was like for the filmmaker and how it continues to affect her
to this day.
$hithole Paradise (2020)
Super 8mm, Color, Sound
A comment on over-tourism in Hawaii, particularly along the historic Waikiki strip in Honolulu. An advertised “Paradise,” Waikiki has become an epicenter for drugs and crime. Once a powerful sacred place for Native Hawaiians, now a dirty playground for tourists.
Call Me Back (2020)
Super 8mm, Color, Sound
Using the last voicemail Melina's Grandmother left on her phone, the
short becomes a mediation on loss and haunted spaces. Originally made
just for family.
Aquí (2019)
16mm, Color, Sound
An exploration of what home means to a multicultural young woman.
In Spanish with English subtitles.
Day Off Vibes (2018)
16mm, Color, Sound
A rumination on the pressures of being productive.
Obsidian Glaze (2016)
Super 8mm, Color, Sound
A mysterious entity attempts to communicate with strange images
Reverie At Noon (2016)
16mm, Color, Sound
Inspired by the summer heat and a newfound obsession with ASMR
A Ritual Phantasm (2015)
Super 8mm & 16mm, Color, Sound
Super 8mm footage was an experiment shot in 2015 with 16mm hand painted segments made during a 2016 workshop with Japanese experimental filmmaker Makino Takashi
Kaigan (2015)
Super 8mm, Color, Sound
An attempt to remove tourists from a tropical landscape, returning it to its pure and natural state
Film
Recent Exhibitions
& Upcoming
Seattle Asian American Film Festival
South Sound Experimental Film Festival
aCinema Space
Antimatter Media Art
Time/Space Series - Eugene Contemporary Art
Splice Film Festival
Made in Hawaii Film Festival
Peripheries Experimental Film + Video Festival
Experimental Films Online
Fisura International Festival of Experimental Film + Video
