Festival Director
Maui Film Commissioner Brian Kohne is an award-winning motion picture writer/director/producer (Get A Job, Kuleana), music producer (Barefoot Natives, Willie K), and playwright (White Hawaiian w/Eric Gilliom). A 1982 Baldwin High graduate and Art and Radio/TV/Film alumnus of San Jose State, he returned home to Maui in 2005 from Silicon Valley, having excelled as a national director of sales and marketing, as a senior user interface architect for an interactive television corporation, and in sports broadcasting and corporate video production. Kohne is also a tenured assistant professor who built the Academy for Creative Media at University of Hawaii Maui College.
Festival Producer
Stefan Schaefer is an award-winning filmmaker whose work has premiered at festivals including Berlin, SXSW, and Hawai‘i International, and been released theatrically and on Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, HBO, PBS, and the Sundance Channel. He has over fifteen feature credits, among them Aloha Surf Hotel, My Last Day Without You, and Arranged. His documentary on Poet Laureate W.S. Merwin, Even Though the Whole World Is Burning, aired nationally on PBS. In television, Schaefer has developed and sold series to major studios including Warner Bros., Sony Pictures Television, AMC, The Weinstein Company, Big Beach, and Mandeville.
Head of Programming
Barry Wurst II is the founder of the Hawaii Film Critics Society and a film instructor at the University of Hawai‘i Maui College. He writes film reviews for The Maui News, Maui Pulse, Hollywood in Toto, and ScreenGeeks.com, and has been published in Bright Lights Film Journal. Barry is the former co-host of Akakū’s long-running program What’s Going On and spent fifteen years as a film critic for Maui Time Weekly. He holds an MA from the University of Denver and grew up in Makawao, where he still resides.
Director of Communications & Media
Amber Bobin is a Maui-based media strategist with over two decades of experience spanning film production, talent representation, and global advocacy. She has worked on over twenty-five films and represented dozens of Hollywood actors, managing campaigns that connect stories to audiences worldwide. Her work spans human rights, education, and social impact initiatives, building cross-cultural collaboration and amplifying voices through media and storytelling.
Director of Marketing
Keely Badger is an international human rights attorney and impact media executive with nearly two decades of experience elevating award-winning films and festivals. She founded 360 MEDIA in 2015, a woman-led agency advancing social and environmental justice through the power of film. Keely has spearheaded major campaigns for The Sundance Institute, The Redford Center, Human Rights Watch, KPJR Films, and more than 50 award-winning independent films. Her work amplifies underrepresented voices and leverages media as a catalyst for community power and systemic change.
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