“Too Much Life” is a feature film that follows the story of a middle school student named Harper Hudson who runs for class president while juggling life.
This year, the movie has been picked up by streaming services such as YouTube TV, Amazon Prime, Tubi and soon — Apple TV.
That’s according to Elliot Lucas of the Kauai Film Academy, who was the producer and cinematographer of the film.
“The whole mission of this movie was to kick-start an industry here, and we're tired of waiting for movies to come here,” Lucas said.
The story was inspired by a student who was just like Harper. The idea came from an after-school program at Kauaʻi High School in 2010.
“One day she had to leave the after-school program early because she had to be somewhere else,” Lucas said. “My filmmaking partner asked her if she was OK as she was leaving, and she looked back and said, ‘I just have too much life,' and left."
The cast is made of Hawaiʻi-based actors — 90% are 12 to 14 years old.
Lucas said the film was supposed to be set in high school, but most of the 400 people who showed up to casting auditions were middle schoolers. So he changed the premise of the film.
Katelyn Lopes plays Harper and is the youngest in the cast. Lucas said he was blown away by how the teens did, especially Lopes.
“She held that through the entire movie, where she was just having fun and it didn't really matter to her what was going to come of the movie,” he said. “She enjoyed every bit of the movie and that’s what made it great.”
