Edgy Lee

Edgy Lee (1957-) is an independent Hawaii-born filmmaker well known in Hawaii. She has also produced Shanachie Records artists as varied as Joe Higgs and The Wailers, and the 14th Dalai Lama. 1999 when Edgy produced a CD for the Office of Tibet – a compilation of the Dalai Lama's symposia in Hawaii, with rare traditional Tibetan music performed by artists living in exile around the world, Hawaiian chants, and remarks by the late Reverend Abraham Akaka and kumu hula John Lake.

Her early career included on camera work as a model, in TV commercials, series, and films including "The Last Married Couple in America", "Magnum Force", as co-host of the popular children's series, "Bill Cosby's Picture Pages", and more. Lee's music credits include co-compositions with Wayne Shorter (CBS Records, "Atlantis"), film composer, Joseph Vitarelli (Fox Network, other); and with composer Robert Wehrman. (Waikiki in the Wake of Dreams contains an original production of the Hawaiian classic, "Waikiki" performed and arranged by Grammy winners, Take Six; "Paniolo O Hawaii" soundtrack produced by Jim Ed Norman, former Pres. Warner Records Nashville.

Lee's films include Papakolea – Story of Hawaiian Land (Academy Award winning cinematographer, Haskell Wexler; Emmy winning writer/producer, Saul Landau); Paniolo O Hawai'i – Cowboys of the Far West, Waikiki – In the Wake of Dreams and The Hawaiians – Reflecting Spirit among other films. These documentary films were made in the "hope of bringing a deeper awareness of the Hawaiian culture to a national public while images of Native Hawaiians may have been shaped by stereotypes.

Waikiki premiered at the National Geographic Society and received the 2002 New York International Independent Film Festival awards for Best Cinematography and Best Editing. Its Hawaii premiere was held on Kuhio Beach, the first open air public screening of a film in Waikiki which initiated the City & County of Honolulu's successful tourism event that now attracts thousands to Waikiki every month to the "Sunset on the Beach" film screening event. At the Chicago International Film Festival it received an Intercom Gold Plaque.

Other Lee films have premiered at the Smithsonian Institution, City Museum and Hirshhorn Museum in Washington DC, the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, the Heard Museum in Phoenix, the Autry National Center and the Museum of Natural History in Los Angeles, at other U.S. museums and small theatres, and at special film screenings and events held on Waikiki Beach and New York's waterfront. In 2005 Lee's film, The Hawaiians - Reflecting Spirit (title sponsor, Office of Hawaiian Affairs) opened festivities at the Smithsonian's Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.

Warner Bros. Records released a companion soundtrack CD to the film Paniolo O Hawaii produced by former Warner Bros. Records Nashville, President Jim Ed Norman with Hawaiian kumu and performer, Nani Lim; with a Public Radio International one-hour program incorporating excerpts and music from the film.

Edgy also co-produced and directed Life or Meth and ICE: Hawaii's Crystal Meth Epidemic, two independently produced films on the methamphetamine epidemic in Hawaii. Both films were simulcast across the state of Hawaii on eleven TV stations and continue to garner national acclaim. Utilized by several Native American communities where meth addiction is on the rise these films were the first in depth documentaries on the subject.

In 2008 Lee founded PacificNetwork.tv, an Internet network streaming high quality HD video, original films, cultural news, a "Hawaiian portal to the world". Pacific Network is known as an early example of "new media" aligning with traditional media and bridging the gap between competitive media platforms. Pacific Network studios are located in Honolulu and Papeete, Tahiti. Edgy Lee was also the U.S. representative of the Honotua Project, the submarine cable connecting French Polynesia to the U.S. via Hawaii.