My name is Kanai Funumari, I am a Senior Digital Video Editor with over 20 years of experience.
I come from Karkar Island in the beautiful Madang Province of Papua New Guinea. Being the youngest in the family of nine and growing up in the Island of Karkar, life in the village was simple yet tough.
At times, I helped my father to cut and sell Copra in order for him to pay for my older siblings school fees. When I was in grade 1, a tragic thing happened. My father passed away through illness. Despite this tragedy, I continued to fend for myself, cutting and selling copra, this time, to pay for my own education.
Despite the struggle, I worked very hard completing my Primary school and ventured onto Secondary Level with the support of older older siblings.
After Year 12 at Malala Seconday School, I was selected to attend UPNG in 1996. Although my mother & older siblings had their own dreams for me, I chose to study what I always loved. And that is my passion, music, in the School Of Music & Creative Arts.
After graduating from UPNG in the year 2000, I applied to be a High School Teacher. My first posting was at Papitalai High School in Manus Province. But due to unavailability of my Airline Ticket, I did not go to Manus. Instead, I stayed back in Port Moresby.
Going toward the end of year 2000, I came across Mr Eddie Elias & (late) Mr Thomas Lulungan. They were at that time, Sound Engineers with the CHM & Sons SuperSound Studio. The late Mr Thomas Lulungan asked me to join them at CHM & Sons Company to work under their Multimedia Department. I saw that as a great opportunity. Because I loved music, I did not hesitate to join their team. The following day, I met with the owner of CHM & Sons, Mr Raymond Chin (MBE) but instead of giving me a job in the MultiMedia Department, he asked me to join their Video Production Department. At that time, their video production Department was newly created and they needed staff.
Although I graduated with a Diploma in Music in Creative Arts, I decided to try out a different path. I humbly accepted the challenge and join as a Video Production Assistant under the leadership of Mr Stephen Rae.
Being a Video Production Assistant is not easy. I carried tripods, cleaned camera lenses, dusted and arranged DV Tapes and BetaCam Tapes. Assisting in every possible way when doing outdoor filming and so forth.
My first ever filming job came about in the early 2001. My boss was away on a duty travel and I was challenged to film a music video clip from the Sega Brothers of Mailu. Although I was not confident, I had to film and edit the music video clip without any supervision. When my Mr Rae returned, he was impressed with the outcome and that’s when my Editing Career started.
From that day forward, with the knowledge and skills I attained, I have helped and mentored a lot of young people, both male and female in the field of Video Editing. My advice to young people who want to pursue career in the Video Editing field, is to always have an open mind. Be creative and innovative. Be open to criticism. Accept, learn and move on.