THOUGHTS / KARMALINK: A Companion essay by scholar Ida Yoshinaga // Who remembers spiritual cinema, the early-2000s trend, which promoted feature films with messages of uplift and inspiration? Few of these spiritual-cinema entries addressed macro-societal aspects of living in the 21st century, such as globalization and unequal impacts of the digital era. These overlooked issues […]
FILM FOR THOUGHT: KARMALINK Read More »
THOUGHTS / THE ISLAND IN ME: A Companion essay by scholar Caryn Lesuma // Filmmaker Gemma Cubero del Barrio’s The Island in Me follows Florence “Johnny” Frisbie and Amelia Borofsky as they make a homecoming journey to Pukapuka, a Cook Islands atoll, where both women spent their formative years. The film frames Frisbie and
FILM FOR THOUGHT: THE ISLAND IN ME Read More »
THOUGHTS / HIGH TIDE, DON’T HIDE: A Companion essay by scholar Jaimey Hamilton Faris // The youth are our future ancestors. The Youth Climate Strike generation, who organized the largest-yet direct action for the climate in 2019, are especially important elders-in-the-making as they mobilize for their future families and generations to come. Emboldened and
FILM FOR THOUGHT: HIGH TIDE, DON’T HIDE Read More »
THOUGHTS / CROSSINGS: A Companion essay by scholar Vernadette Gonzalez // In 2015, an assembly of women who wanted to take a walk, raised a stir on the Korean peninsula. Their intention was simple, gather, talk, and sew—to create community through the simplest of acts, and to make imaginable a vision of peace on
FILM FOR THOUGHT: CROSSINGS Read More »
We are honored to provide a special for-your-consideration (aka FYC) screening of KAPAEMAHU, which won the HIFF40 Made in Hawai‘i Award for Best Animated Film, and is currently short listed for Academy Award consideration in the Best Animated Short category. In the long and storied history of the Academy Awards, Hollywood and the entertainment industry
FYC: Watch award-winning KAPAEMAHU on HIFF Streaming Service through February 20 Read More »
WAGON, a documentary feature directed by Maui-born and raised Aniston Eyre, received the HIFF40 Documentary Audience Award. This is significant because Eyre is the first student filmmaker to win the award in the Festival’s 40 years. Now 19, Eyre is currently attending Columbia University (remotely from Maui because of the pandemic). We recently sat down
HIFF HANA HOU Spotlight: Q&A with Aniston Eyre, Director of Audience Winner WAGON Read More »
Within the creative confines of a classroom setting, one is expected to perform to a certain standard, while also contributing to the peer learning experience. This becomes especially challenging when the assignment requires students to empathize with texts and search introspectively in order to form a response with substance and actual stakes. In WIRUN, lead
HIFF HANA HOU Spotlight: Best Actress Ebony McGuire for WIRUN Read More »
Peering into an unfamiliar moment, without influencing its procession is a rare privilege. This space, often explored in immigrant-made films, is a powerful one recognized by both HIFF and The Vilcek Foundation, who together formed the New American Perspectives program (NAP). NAP is a slate of impactful films created solely by immigrant filmmakers. The collaboration
HIFF40 Recap: A Multitude of Cinema Through the Immigrant Lens Read More »
Extended reality or XR encompasses various modes of immersive media not limited to virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality. Virtual reality blanks out the real world, placing users in an artificial 3D space, augmented reality uses the real world as a backdrop with virtual items implanted throughout, while mixed reality enables users to manipulate
HIFF40 Recap: XR and Engaging the Space Around Us Read More »
Tuning in to Zoom calls of casually dressed film directors, sharing laughter and conversation with HIFF staff members portrayed these brilliant minds as human, just like us. The utilization of video-chat in bridging the gap between fiction, documentary, and life as we know it has been a gift in this year’s festival. The mosaic of
HIFF40 Recap: Film For Thought 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.