#159 | Etienne Aurelius | His insane life & journey to becoming an award-winning filmmaker

Etienne Aurelius is an award-winning feature film director from the island of Kaua’i. Not only is he a producer, cinematographer, writer, and creative director, but he is also the founder/CEO of The ECOH which is a top-tier archival indigenous film studio specializing in theatrical narrative feature films, short films, TV and streaming episodic shows, scripted reality, documentaries and so much more. He is a internationally recognized filmmaker worked with Jason Momoa’s production company On The Roam as the director of Film Content. During this time he created 70 commercials, short films, documentaries, and spotlight narrative profiles with his award-winning documentary, We Are Mauna Kea, featured on CNN and Jason Momoa’s Oscar spotlight featured in Vogue Magazine. He was also the head of visual marketing in which he was independently contracted by warner brothers for Aquaman, legendary picture’s Dune, & the launch of Apple TV +. In 2021 he became the first person in history to complete two Narrative feature films in two years attaching academy award winning and nominated producers and securing the largest distribution deal ever for a native Hawaiian filmmaker. His two films Lucy and KAPO won multiple awards and was nominated numerous times at the biggest indigenous film festivals in the world.

In this episode we talk about moving around growing up, life in Kaua’i, how he got into filmmaking, drug addiction, going to jail, making his award-winning films, his love for Hawaiian culture, upcoming projects, and so much more. Enjoy!

Find Etienne here: https://www.instagram.com/i.am.aurelius/

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