Ballistic (2021)

Ryan Watanabe, a local skateboarder receives notice of a ballistic missile inbound for Hawaii while working his day-job in the iconic Waikiki. He has twenty minutes left to lead his persistent mother Michi and baby sister Jasmine Watanabe to a safety bunker in Diamond Head, overcoming family tension and the erupting cultural disparity to survive paradise nearing oblivion. Ballistic hopes to provoke a dialogue between the intricacies of emotion and one's cultural identity. Utilizing the 2018 false missile alarm in Hawai'i as a backdrop, 'Ballistic' plunges first-person into the irreplaceable bond between Mother and son. For even against dire odds, one cannot reject the inherent love for family and survival. Doomsday be damned. What began as a larger community project in 2019 was delayed due to another world-wide crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic. Now after spurts of time when the team could come together, this short is ready. Ready to open audiences to the story on the ground, as it felt that day in the islands.