Niwot High graduate debuts film in Boulder

Niwot High School graduate Aamuro Kanda, Class of 2019, debuted his first feature film, "Mr. Yanagi's Aliens," at the Boedecker Theater in Boulder on Jan. 7. Kanda co-directed and co-starred in the movie with his roommate, Aspen native Alex Buysse.

At NHS, Kanda took filmmaking classes and was a member of the Boulder International Film Festival's Youth Advisory Council before attending The University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts, where he met Buysse.

Kanda said, "During film school, COVID-19 shut us down for a year and a half. For me, because I was already doing stuff on my own during high school, I used that time to figure out my own work. Come senior year we all graduated during the writer's strike and it was just the worst time to enter the industry. We decided to make a movie that could just be low-budget and fun."

Kanda explained that it can be difficult to find a place to start. He said, "In school, we get into this mindset of 'We have to create something perfect, we have to make the best movie ever right out of the gate,' and I thought we just need to make something instead of getting caught up on all the budgeting and red tape."

The film has a synopsis mirroring Kanda's life in an absurd way. The synopsis of the movie reads, "Alex and Aamuro are two film school burnouts without many prospects. After hearing about reported alien sightings in Minnesota, they decide to bet everything on one final documentary before giving up on their dreams of making movies. While in the middle of nowhere, they cross paths with their hero, an eclectic Japanese monster-movie director named Mr. Yanagi, whose suspicious involvement makes the story run deeper than they initially thought."

The movie script was drafted around the filming locations available, including Colorado, Minnesota, Michigan, and Japan. Kanda said, "Along with the documentary feel, this project was meant to be a nod to Tokusatsu films, the campy, Japanese monster movies. We built a set in my garage for that film sequence and shot it at Longmont Public Media as well as filming other scenes at some sites around Boulder and Longmont."

The project originally premiered in October 2024 in McIntosh, Minnesota, one of the major filming locations. A Los Angeles premiere of "Mr. Yanagi's Aliens" is also on the horizon.

The future is bright for Kanda and Buysse. Kanda said, "We are working on a documentary, hopefully shooting in Hawaii in March, and I personally want to write and direct a drama now that I've gotten the comedy out of my system a little with this project."

Kanda has advice for aspiring filmmakers. He said, "I think it is so important for young artists to just get out there and do things instead of getting caught up and overthinking things. Things will always go wrong at some point during a project, but no matter what, it's important to remain positive and remind yourself why you started a project in the first place."

Kanda also suggests that aspiring filmmakers "try a bunch of different things, see what sticks from each project, and with every project, take the best thing you've learned to put towards the next project. You just keep doing smaller projects and refining your skills."