Kaipo Dudoit (left) plays Pili and Jayron Munoz plays Edmar, seniors from clashing friend groups at Lahainaluna High School who are forced to work together on a school project in the film “My Partner.” KSG Films photos
The Maui News
A film that follows the story of two Lahainaluna High School senior boys whose separate words collide has been selected for screening at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival on May 7.
“My Partner,” described as Hawaii’s first boys’ love drama, focuses on the lives of Edmar, a high-achieving Filipino student, and Pili, a Native Hawaiian student athlete standout, who are part of rival senior class friend groups at Lahainaluna, according to a news release for the film. The two sides clash when Edmar’s group is caught overfishing a native species in a restored freshwater stream by Pili’s group.
When Edmar (played by Jayron Munoz) and Pili (played by Kaipo Dudoit) are assigned to work on a class project together, they strongly protest, but eventually come to better understand each other’s cultures — the demands and limitations Edmar and his friends face as working-class Filipino immigrants, and the intergenerational cultural erasure and physical dispossession of Hawaii’s native people that Pili and his friends struggle with. Things come to a head when their friends get into a big fight at school.
Boys’ love started as a Japanese literary genre that crossed over and was popularized in manga during the 1980s and ’90s, according to the news release. It spread across Asia and now has a worldwide following. Boys’ love stories involve two male characters who unexpectedly develop romantic feelings for one another.
Jayron Munoz (left) is Edmar and Kaipo Dudoit is Pili in the film “My Partner,” which has been chosen to screen at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival next month.
Directed by Native Hawaiian visual storyteller Keli’i Grace and written by Maui’s Lance Collins, “My Partner” was produced through “a pono filmmaking process” and aimed to engage kanaka, LGBTQIA+ and environmental communities. The cast and crew are all based in Hawaii and are all first-time film actors.
Character dialogue is in Tagalog, Hawaiian and English.
For more information on the film and to view the trailer, visit www.mypartnermovie.com/.
Kaipo Dudoit (left) plays Pili and Jayron Munoz plays Edmar, seniors from clashing friend groups at Lahainaluna High School who are forced to work together on a school project in the film “My Partner.” KSG Films photos 
Jayron Munoz (left) is Edmar and Kaipo Dudoit is Pili in the film “My Partner,” which has been chosen to screen at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival next month.Today's breaking news and more in your inbox
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