This year at the Hawaiʻi International Film Festival, I watched some of the best films in indigenous cinema and representation of the local community here in Hawaiʻi. HIFF44 featured the premiere of its centerpiece presentation, Alika Tengan’s MOLOKA’I BOUND. I had been anticipating this film since seeing the original short a few years ago. Before […]
MOLOKA’I BOUND: The journey from short to feature Read More »
Disclaimer: There are NO bad films on this list, all of them are 5 stars in their own right. A reminder that this is just my opinion as a viewer who watches stuff for fun. You do NOT need to agree with me. HIFF44’s START MOTION SHORTS is a selection of animated shorts from around
Review of the START MOTION SHORTS Read More »
The first time I saw CHAPERONE, written and directed by Zoe Eisenberg, I felt like such a basic bitch. I just could not move past how much I hated the film’s main protagonist, Misha played by Mitzi Akaha. Misha was an incredibly awful woman who can best be described as: uji. Of course, to have
Misha, Misha, Misha – a CHAPERONE review Read More »
V/H/S BEYOND is . . . hard to describe. It is a → found footage / forced perspective, science-fiction, horror, anthology → film It is the seventh installment in the series (but ninth overall) in the V/H/S franchise. The film takes up a feature film block of time, but operates more like a shorts program,
V/H/S BEYOND: Playing the Game of Horror Read More »
THE CIGARETTE SURFBOARD is an eye-opening documentary directed by Ben Judkins that has been making waves at the Hawai’i International Film Festival. We dive into Taylor Lane’s journey as he collects thousands of cigarette butts from beaches to create a functioning surfboard. What started as an art project turned into a life’s mission to save
THE CIGARETTE SURFBOARD and Our Responsibility to the Ocean Read More »
Sometimes a fire needs to be set. WE WERE DANGEROUS (2024) is a piece on girls finding support and freedom within a community of “undesirables.” Winner of the HIFF44 PASIFIKA award, this New Zealand film directed by Josephine Stewart-Te Whiu celebrates the strength of young Maori women and a wider take on girlhood. Placed in
WE WERE DANGEROUS – Using fear to control Read More »
HIFF ONLINE CREATIVES & CRITICS IMMERSIVE (HOCCI) mentee Sho Araiba reviews ASHIMA, a documentary from director Kenji Tsukamoto that follows Ashima Shiraishi, one of the world’s youngest elite rock climbers, as she embarks on an incredible journey with her biggest supporter and coach, her dad. Together, they set out to conquer a V14 boulder climb in
ASHIMA: what the family of a rock-climbing prodigy can teach us Read More »
There is something about eating dumplings that is almost ethereal. I remember my first time having soup dumplings – the puncture felt like piercing a veil. The burst of warm soup disrupted all I had known about soup and dumplings separately, and by some well-executed design, it was all happening in one spoon. Chewing on
Food and film collide in GIFTS FROM THE KITCHEN Read More »
WOVEN is an indigenous short film directed by Vilsoni Hereniko and Alex Cantatore. It tells the story of an incident involving an indigenous basket weaver (played by Vilsoni Hereniko) trying to complete the traditional art of basket weaving but struggling to do so in a world where that custom is being forgotten. This film explores
Indigenous aesthetics through WOVEN Read More »
The VFX-heavy YIN YANG MASTER ZERO presents itself as an exhilarating roller coaster, topped with all the bells and whistles, but the ride itself may not be enjoyable for everyone. Although director Shimako Sato attempts to breathe new life into the historical characters, the high-fantasy elements and big budget do most of the heavy lifting
YIN YANG MASTER ZERO: The Battle Between 2001 and 2024 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.
