 Aloha and welcome back to Talk Story with John White and our special program today to talk about an industry that very few people knew about that actually is quite important to the state of Hawaii. It's an industry that creates I would say hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars for our economy and more or just as importantly it spends it provides multi-millions of dollars in promoting our state as a great place to visit and a great place to do business something that we all are concerned about. My guests today are two people that are associated with an organization called Haifa, Hawaii International Film Association. First of all I'd like to introduce former senator of the state of Hawaii and any representative of Haifa, Brickwood Galateria. He's here with us today. Aloha Brickwood. Brickwood is sort of a neophyte except for his support in the legislature for this industry but we have with us sort of the architect I would say of this industry Leroy Jenkins. Now Leroy is Leroy should I consider you one of the founders of Haifa? Would you say that? Yeah I'm one of the founders. There were several that put Haifa together but I was one of them. I was the first co-chairman and then became the first president. And so you've been associated with the industry and with Haifa for what? I don't want to for longer than I was governor. I know that. Yes, that's correct. Haifa was formed in 1986 so that's when I started with several others and we put Haifa together. Why? Why what what does Haifa what does the okay guys people out there once again Haifa stands for and this might be the last time we do this the Hawaii International Film Industry right? Or how much? Right well go ahead. No no so given that majestic name in the back of the initials what and why tell us all about it. Well Haifa like I said was founded in 1986 and prior to 1986 and I jumped into the industry in the late actually 1985. A lot of us had a common goal and we had different challenges that we needed to solve. In 1986 Japan was very popular with Hawaii and becoming more popular film crews, different production crews, tv crews, commercial crews, documentaries love coming to Hawaii and so they were coming here but in 1986 we had a issue with immigration and labor and so a lot of us that were kind of in the business in a direct way with Japan as far as who they contact production service companies local producers kind of got together and we needed to figure out how to solve the issues of a foreign film crew coming into the state of Hawaii to work with the people of Hawaii. Let me just you know put some understanding here when you're talking about popular with Japan and film crews coming out I mean are you talking about like movies like Godzilla being filmed in Hawaii or what what are we talking about here what is the more tv programming more commercials feature films have always been few and far in between due to budgets they don't have the Hollywood budgets but basically what makes up Haifa and the content and the projects that come through Haifa basically is everything from a small video crew coming in to do a documentary a restaurant guide showing the visitors that come to Hawaii from Japan you know where they can go whether it's Sonoma Bay or the North Shore or a cool or ranch and up to your television campaigns it could be ANA Airlines it could be Japan Airlines it could be Shiseido all the different different companies like that Hawaii became very very desirable to come but one thing that was not being accomplished is the education of how to come to Hawaii and do business in Hawaii so they would just come and bring everybody because they just didn't know any better there was no introduction at that time made to our our local resources which is our labor as well as our talent so basically an issue popped up in 1986 and that it had to be handled so basically a lot of us that were affected by this situation in 1986 and I'm not only talking about the people that were dealing direct with Japan I'm talking about talent agencies equipment rental houses these were people that they could have been hiring in Hawaii so well I'm reading between the lines or listening between the lines and what you're suggesting Leroy is that one of the things that Haifa did was connect Japanese companies with local resources so that they would hire local companies and local employees yes and and they were not educated or the introduction had not been made prior to 1986 so the first thing that Haifa had to do when a number of us got together and that included not only the production service companies that had direct communication with Japan but like I said talent agencies because they would benefit from international film equipment rental houses even where you took them to restaurants and groups you know large groups the restaurants would benefit and everything so we all had to meet with the immigration director in 1986 and asked him what we could do to get the industry back on its feet because the issue in 1986 basically shut the industry down okay they were not coming so this is where Haifa started and it was founded by a number of people and I was the first co-chairman who was another person named Bud Weisbrough who happened to own the movie camera rental house so there were a lot of people that had a lot a lot a lot of interest in fixing the international problem so Haifa basically we took it upon ourselves and felt that it was our responsibility to educate to go to Japan which we did we traveled in groups of 30 and 40 everybody kind of paid their own way we put on seminars with many workshops simultaneous translator workshops we taught them about budgets we talked to taught them about payroll labor customs visa anything that they had to understand on what to do through us Haifa members and to come to Hawaii to so that they would have a successful film shoot and go home happy and return so not what Haifa did though was was actually create a whole new industry oh we did it was a new industry it was a small industry what when I jumped into it I did some research and found out there was only about 15 or 16 small projects coming here well as we go through this with with with the audience let's say the pandemic starts in January of 2021 I just this is it starts a little later but sure or whenever now you go with 15 little companies coming in in in 1986 by the time we get to 2020 let's say what what's what what's the growth of this industry the growth of where we're at yes there's an average of 150 to 175 different projects a year coming through Haifa and it's visa programs that we can talk about but yeah that's the growth and so when you talk about the money or what's coming into the economy I'd probably say 10 to 15 million dollars a year easy not counting the promotional value because now we're talking about programs from NHK Fuji TV you're talking about campaigns you see Diamond Head in the background and then somebody comes here on vacation so that promotional value you cannot put a dollar sign on so we're very close to some of the public relations firms in town that work with Japan and they think it's easy a billion dollars and promotional value that we're losing right now because of the current situation Haifa basically took the responsibility as regulations changed from 86 to 90 and when we first met John uh up to 98 I have to confess yes I was I was in the um I was in government at that time right I was one of them well I guess you would call me the man or whatever but I think it's also yeah I was gonna ask you Senator how important is this industry for Hawaii it's growing over the years I think that you know if you if you took the well you just he just mentioned a billion dollars but let me also say that what Haifa did was created a a collaborative a collaboration with the locals who are in the business so as a caveat it was almost well you know they have so much support over the years they've been so much support from the local unions yes yeah I was really leading up to that and I'm glad you brought it up senator because you know one of the things one of the issues that can occur when you bring in foreign companies is precisely that who did they hire do they bring in their own people how many local people are actually benefiting so or this place or this place for the place so what what's the situation or at least what the situation what was the situation to say let's say for arbitrary day 2020 I mean we know that right now that's not happening but what what was it I mean the process was simple Haifa and its membership were the historians of this last program that we had and that we were the Haifa was contacted to approve of any foreign film crew that would come in and we worked with local labor so one thing that we did when we went to Japan several times and did a number of seminars we would take over gaffers or lighting technicians we would take over cameramen we would take over equipment rental house people so that we and I figured this out a long time ago especially with Japan or or even Korea and the other Asian markets visual is best and like you said introduction that's what they were lacking in the beginning and this is where Haifa came in through Haifa they met the qualified technicians the the talent if needed to be part of the production this is what Haifa did we we educated them we made the introductions and it was quite amazing once we took those steps when someone would make a return visit like a television campaign they would ask their key people would ask for the same people because they established relationships and this is where what I call the pendulum in the beginning they didn't know anybody they didn't know anything and then we just made it go this way so less people came just key people because it was their project done in their language and then the rest of the people were hired here and that's the relationships that we have with labor which is extremely important but there has been no problems with labor or anybody especially with the the government like your state film office and DBAD department and business and we're going to need to take a short break and when we come back I'm going to follow up on that very question and ask the good senator over there as a member of the government side of this the state government side of this what was the state of Hawaii's attitude to this new industry that was created by people who thought enough about local employees and businesses to go out and train and train a market for them so we're going to take a short break right now and we will be right back I'm Mitch Ewan host of Hawaii the state of clean energy on think tech Hawaii Hawaii the state of clean energy is about following the many clean energy initiatives in Hawaii Hawaii the state of clean energy appears weekly on think tech Hawaii at 4 p.m on Wednesdays thank you so much for watching our show we'll see you then Aloha Aloha and welcome back to our fascinating show about an industry in Hawaii that's so little of us know we see we know that Hawaii is a great place to do filming and video productions and the like we see creation of fabulous commercials and I was just for example ran into somebody the just the other day and then I just looked up at him and I said hey you must use somebody you know you guys remember this is what happened well evidently people from Japan and Korea and Asia is taking advantage of it you know and coming to Hawaii the film and we are talking about the people who got that industry started I have also with us this afternoon Senator Brickwood Gallateria and as a member of the legislature of the state government what were your thoughts or just in general the government the state's thoughts about Haifa and what they were doing in order to bring about this kind of business opportunity to people you know in the in the government apparatus we're very very aware of first the top industry is tourism obviously tourism and the what the role that Haifa plays in tourism is incredibly important because they help promote Hawaii right and so you know they're very placed in the number one industry is very very important and then you go down the list a little bit more and then you know you have the military construction and then you have the film industry itself not only as it relates to tourism but as a standalone industry and you know Haifa plays a big part in that too because it's it's a revenue stream as well for the state of Hawaii so indeed Haifa is a part of I think the revenue production of the state and it's also something I would assume that the state work to support I mean this is something that the that the tourist that the movie office at dvd or the department of economic development would be supportive of I'm just assuming I think you know you're you're correct it is development the department of business economic development and tourism so it's a really important part of of the government and in addition to that you know we try and make it as small as possible for them to to come in and do their work you know yeah which which which really brings us back to you Roy and that is my understanding is that obviously foreign crews coming to Hawaii need to get through immigration and customs like like we do if we come back to Hawaii from the trip yes and so my understanding but either one of you is that right now or since 1986 actually there was a process that would people could apply for in Japan for example that would allow them to have a visa to come to Hawaii my understanding is that process was very laborious and you Haifa was able to help people get through that process maybe you want to give us a little bit about the history of how that occurs well it's a simple history basically what we were trying to do is like Rick would said the senator said is make it comfortable for them to come and to represent them why they're in Hawaii and make sure they go back home after a good production but like the first step is is to come through that airport that's an immigration process right now it's border protection so around 1998 and early 1988 with the help of senator to your noise office the labor unions the guild d-bad the film office a lot of people involved we were given a program a pilot program that we could use that people could apply through Haifa through one of its full members to come to Hawaii and that process would only take one week with very little paper what what was the original process that you were where we were coming from yeah the original process basically when you count the time to prepare the paperwork in Japan the documents that needed to be filled out you need an immigration lawyer to do the application to apply for it's called the ovsa currently then you have to get all the national labor organizations and then it has to go back to the embassy for security clearance and stuff but when you put that time frame together we're looking six to eight weeks now the speed of production we don't have six to eight weeks for an approval and so you so you worked on the creation of a special program program to accompany to work with the speed of production so basically I would say out of those 150 jobs a year that I mentioned probably 147 of them only have about a two-week time frame well before we're notified you know including my private company so we're notified oh there's a campaign coming in uh maybe we'll have three weeks but that's about it so basically why Hawaii was missing the opportunity and the growth of a new industry so we had to work on just that basic thing of the time frame and this is where we worked with the film office in debat in 98 and senator Enoi's office at that time and the immigration director at that time gave us a pilot program now since then we've had over 2,500 projects come in through Haifa and it's 22 member companies which you know 150 or whatever it is but it was it was a slow growth but we noticed a big difference as soon as we were given that program everybody wanted to come to Hawaii nobody had any problem with working with labor in Hawaii the Haifa member took the responsibility as a sponsor for that inbound film crew right and labor had to approve because of American labor they had to approve of who came in and basically that is what we do before a project even comes in and this was a pilot program that was established locally so it was something unique to Hawaii very unique and specific to Hawaii it was good at the international airport in Honolulu and Kona okay so right now I'm assuming the reason why we the reason why we're talking about it as the sort of that used to have that it does it right right now that program which was such a success as a pilot program in Hawaii is what's the status of it maybe we'll ask the senator you represent Haifa so what is the status of the program senator of this program that made this industry so successful it's no longer being executed there was a an interesting situation that evolved because almost a perfect storm of COVID the previous administration is locking down of the borders and the inability to access this particular program so it results now it results in the program being dormant and so what we would hope to see is let's redo do the program in different ways we could do it legislatively we could possibly do it in a regulatory fashion we want to work closely with the borders and patrol and and however we want to do it we'd like to maintain and on top of that we still have a little bit of time to reinstate the program because the Asian borders especially the Japanese border they have not opened themselves up yet fully so well actually the timing right now the timing is in our favor in the sense that as long as we keep working on it though because I don't know about anybody else but I don't want to see this industry lose its momentum in the state of Hawaii so we do have the time to do something about it and well something let me ask you a question that as I said here is troubling me a little bit and or or I'm not troubling as much as it seems to me from what Leroy talked about and the evolution of things as they outlined that our this industry has had a very collaborative relationship with the powers that be voted with the state and with the federal level and so for and so does that give you optimism I mean is that something that you think we can build on Leroy I think this for you okay yeah I'm very optimistic I think the timing is on our side right now but we need to keep moving forward our relationship especially with the state and the film office just so you understand how serious Haifa took this program or the international industry when projects are finished we all have to give Haifa's main office the data how many jobs are created how much money came into the economy how much was spent on hotels so we are a contributing factor to the overall industry but I think because past administrations like both of you mentioned I think that we now have to embark on reinstating this program with new safeguards and that we have to maybe educate the people and the powers at border protection they're not familiar with us or our history even though they've honored the program since 9-11 wow yeah I mean they have been party to this is this this this program was in place for over 20-something years and what we need now is to get it or some version of it back in place and so you know it seems like the pieces are all there it seems like your your commitment to making this happen as well as work with the powers that are there and you've got important people like senator egalitaria strategically helping you and Leroy I remember from the 1990s when you first walked in my office and tell told me that there was this great opportunity to bring TV commercials and things from Japan to Hawaii and make sure because initially you know people were afraid that they would be just bringing in their own crews but actually you ended up making it what I would consider a hawaii industry it is a hawaii industry and labor is very happy our relationship with labor is very stable there a lot of their members have grown up on Haifa productions right so you were just taught to any of their BAs they're they're very happy to work with Haifa there's one thing that these years have proven out is that Hawaii is on the map we have to compete with other parts of entry or other countries like Australia so you have to keep Hawaii in the forefront and so if you make it comfortable for them to come that's the first step they will come we're I'm contacted all the time and I'm sure other Haifa members are too they want to come back they're asking can we come back unfortunately in fact I may have to ask you guys back when we find when you finally solved the problem but yeah you know thank you unfortunately we've hit the end of our time and I do want to thank you very much for being the guests on this show and to bringing to our attention the importance of this industry and hopefully I hope that people who view this get to understand what you're doing and become very supportive so thank you so much Leroy and Senator Galateria it's a pleasure to have you thank you