Molokai is a long way from director Amy Glazer’s Oakland home and San Jose State University classroom, where she teaches film. But the Hawaiian island is where her muse took her when she made “7000 Miles,” her fifth feature film.

The story of a young pilot who suspects her grandmother harbors a thrilling secret, unlocking one of aviation’s greatest mysteries, screens twice during this year’sCinequest Film & Creativity Festival, which runs Tuesday, Aug. 15, through Aug. 30.

“It’s fun that I’m finally one of the filmmakers,” Glazer told the Chronicle during a recent video interview. “I always bring the filmmakers in from Cinequest to my classes. That I am able to share this film with my academic community and my students is thrilling.”

“7000 Miles” came into Glazer’s life through actor and producer Alixzandra Dove, an actual pilot who performs some of the film’s aerial maneuvers and who stars as Jo.

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Dove and Linda Rothschild provided the idea for Colette Freedman’s screenplay set in 1977 that finds Jo at a low point, with the world unaccepting of a female pilot. When she returns to Molokai for her grandfather’s memorial service, she sees her grandmother Meli (Wendie Malick) showing signs of dementia. As Meli’s mind travels back to her past, she talks about surviving a plane crash. The memories are so vivid that Jo investigates and realizes that the air disaster Meli apparently remembers is that of Amelia Earhart, the pioneering aviatrix who disappeared in 1937 during an attempt to circumnavigate the globe. Could Meli really be the missing flyer?

“When I read the script, first of all, I have always been in love with Amelia Earhart,” Glazer said. “She had been this iconic figure for me growing up. I love what Colette Freedman did in terms of this ‘what if’ story. … I thought it was such an interesting story because it set up the idea that Amelia had said, ‘OK, I’ve had enough. I just want to reinvent myself.’ ”

“It’s a very touching story,” added producer Jhennifer Webberley. “I love the relationship story, the encouragement and empowerment that happens through the relationship of these women.”

The cast is a mix of Hollywood and Hawaiian actors as well as nonprofessionals that Glazer cast in small roles sensing they would add to the texture to the tale. The film emphasizes the beauty of the tropical location with scenes that take place on land and sea as well as in the air.

But certain challenges were baked into both story and location. For one thing, Glazer is afraid of flying. She had to stay on the ground during aerial shoots, entrusting cinematographer Jim Orr with capturing the images she needed. Another hurdle: Hawaii’s famously irregular weather.

“We embraced it,” Glazer said. “Sometimes it was pouring and I said, ‘Great, let’s get some B-roll.’ While everyone was hiding under tarps with a torrent of rain coming down, we’d be running around getting these wonderful little shots.

“Also, there were so many Hawaiians working on the film, and they know the weather. We’d be working on a shot and they’d go, ‘All right, it’s coming.’ All of a sudden, I’m standing there trying to direct and I see everybody grabbing the camera and running for shelter. Two seconds later, I’m drenched. … Ten minutes later, the sun is shining and it’s beautiful and green and gorgeous again.”

Seeing that Hawaii beauty destroyed by the wildfire that ripped through Maui on Aug. 8, mere miles from her Molokai filming location, the devastation hit home for Glazer. Among her Hawaiian cast and crew, many are from the island or have family there, she said. As the filmmaker now prepares for her Cinequest screenings, she plans to call attention to the state’s plight during her festival visit.

“Our hope is to use this screening to raise awareness and help, in some small way, to garner support for the enormous needs that the people of Maui are facing,” Glazer said. “We have so much gratitude for the local Hawaiian cast and crew whose generous aloha spirit was so instrumental in the making of our film and in telling our story.”

Throughout “7000 Miles,” Glazer continued to work at her day job as a teacher; she came to filmmaking later in life. She taught theater and directed plays throughout the Bay Area at places like Magic Theatre and San Jose Rep. Then a department chair noted that she had minored in film at the California Institute of the Arts and asked her to teach a film class. That first class, Glazer said, made her feel like a fraud from her lack of experience, so she began making films, eventually trading theater for cinema.

She continues to pass that passion on to her students — even on location.

“I was teaching from Hawaii on my day off,” Glazer said. “I was able to say, ‘Hey, meet my cinematographer, Jim.’ He talked to my class. Wendie, in her bathing suit, talked to my class about being an actress. It may have been a little chaotic, but I do believe good professors are doing what they’re teaching.”

格雷泽也给予一个教训”7000英里,“though nothing heavy-handed, just an observation about the nature of relationships between women and how much Jo and Meli have to gain by listening to and learning from one another.

“Part of what makes the film touching for me is that they empower each other,” Webberley said. “Meli’s pushing Jo the whole time, but it comes full circle as Jo helps Meli in her journey. I think it’s an important thing to remember with our elders, that we are helping them, too.”

“Amelia Earhart is the iconic figure that pulls the story together,” added Glazer. “But, really, it’s about a grandmother and her granddaughter, and enabling Jo to find her voice and be who she was meant to be.”

Pam Grady is a freelance writer.