Featured articles, opinion pieces and reviews by select HIFF staff, interns and content providers.
HIFF43 continues its streak of showing the very best in Asian action cinema from Japan, China and South Korea. From old school martial arts, including a documentary examining the posthumous bootleg Bruce Lee movie pipeline that flooded cinemas worldwide, to Japanese female assassins, savage samurais vying for power, and in-person tributes to action superstars Daniel […]
Action Asia at HIFF43 Read More »
Albert Pyun – a Son of Hawai‘i, born and raised on the Windward side of Oahu, who would work as a cameraman at KGMB, had high aspirations to break into Hollywood as a filmmaker. He never did, relegated to mostly direct to VHS movies, yet his 50-filmography represented a volume of work that goes unprecedented
Enter the Albert Pyun-iverse with HIFF43’s weekend double feature! Read More »
Growing up Asian in Hawai‘i, one can argue that the Asian American experience is different from Asian Americans living on the continent. As a Gen X-er, I grew up in the 1980s, where the majority of my elementary school teachers were Japanese and female, my neighbors were Asian, Pacific Islander and Kanaka Maoli. But, is
What it means to be Asian|American in Hawai‘i Read More »
As part of HIFILM (HIFF43’s “Industry Hub”), comes the return of HOMETOWN HEROES, a now perennial panel that explores the “State of 808 State Filmmaking,” and it’s trajectory as a burgeoning and sustainable indie film & tv industry in the ideation and production of authentic local stories. This year’s HOMETOWN HEROES panel is a little
HIFILM spotlights upcoming film about Hawai‘i’s greatest night in sports history Read More »
HIFF43’s short film programs are here! With an overall twelve shorts programs, I want to focus on four international shorts programs that are full of impactful and insightful stories from around the world (16 countries to be exact!). Short films are integral to film festivals not only because of their ability to pack variety into
Programmer’s Picks: HIFF43’s International Shorts Programs Read More »
JOIN OR DIE traces social scientist Robert D. Putnam’s life work in studying the decline of civic engagement in the United States over the last half-century. The film offers Putnam an opportunity to reflect on two of his highly influential works, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (2000) and Making Democracy Work:
Film For Thought: JOIN OR DIE (HIFF43) Read More »
For Indigenous people living under settler colonialism, the themes of NO MĀORI ALLOWED (2022) and STILL WE RISE (2022) feel more than familiar. In the former, director Corinna Hunziker (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Kahu) interviews Māori elders and community members to confront—some for the first time publicly—the acute racial segregation that pervaded Pukekohe, a small township in
Film For Thought: NO MĀORI ALLOWED + STILL WE RISE (HIFF43) Read More »
A feature debut and homage to coming-of-age films, nineties nostalgia, and awkward teenage transitions, MUSTACHE, written and directed by Imran J. Khan, won the Audience Award at SXSW and poses to be a new classic. The film begins with 13-year-old Ilyas’s (Atharv Verma) voiceover, as he contemplates the multiverse and whether there’s a place for
Film For Thought: MUSTACHE (HIFF43) Read More »
Film Festivals are more than just a curated collection of film screenings. Over the years, HIFF has also expanded its panels, talk stories and education initiatives, as the Festival invests in the cultural and economical pathways to independent cinema and content creation in Hawai‘i. The goal, since HIFF’s inception in 1981, is to be a
HIFILM: The hub for Hawai’i’s industry professionals, creatives, and film fans Read More »
HIFF43 Opening Night to highlight Taika Waititi’s NEXT GOAL WINS & Hayao Miyazaki’s THE BOY AND THE HERON for Closing Night; Co-Centerpieces are NYAD from FREE SOLO directors and South Korean disaster epic CONCRETE UTOPIA starring Lee Byung-hun & Park Seo-joon. HIFF43 reveals full lineup of feature film selections and programming HIFF43 presented by Halekulani
HIFF43 PRESENTS: FULL PROGRAMMING LINEUP Read More »
With aloha, HIFF acknowledges its occupation of ancestral, traditional and contemporary lands of the Indigenous Hawaiian people, the Kānaka Maoli.
With gratitude, we honor the ʻāina itself and the generations who steward it.
