Alika Tengan’s Every Day in Kaimukī (2022) is the first narrative feature by a Kānaka Maoli filmmaker to premiere at Sundance, but it arrives as part of a cohort of similarly unconventional features from Hawaiʻi, including Christopher Makoto Yogi’s August at Akiko’s (2018) and I Was a Simple Man (2021), and Christopher Kahunahana’s Waikiki (2020). […]
Sundance 2022 Review: EVERY DAY IN KAIMUKĪ Read More »
For the past two years, I lived on Zoom. I watched films on streaming platforms. The death knell of cinemas was and still is looming. My livelihood and the fate of the Hawai‘i International Film Festival was in jeopardy with a lot of unknowns on the fate of cinema. Then, movie theaters eventually reopened, albeit
HIFF Artistic Director’s Top 10 Films of 2021 Read More »
HIFF41’s TOP STAFF PICKS We asked our HIFF staff to pick their favorite films from this year’s festival program. Here’s our top films, that you need to check out before online access closes on November 28. Watch these films now at watch.hiff.org and check out our official TOP FILMS list on LETTERBOXD at https://letterboxd.com/hiff/list/hiff41s-top-films/ MAD GOD MAD
HIFF41’S TOP STAFF PICKS Read More »
Timothée Chalamet (pictured) as Paul Atreides Not even the dunes of Arrakis could smother the massive-scale retelling of Frank Herbert’s 1965 DUNE and psychedelic-inducing spice pales in comparison to the vision Denis Villeneuve achieves. But with that, we still have to ask: Is Dune a “white-savior” story? Note from the author: In an attempt
Notes on DUNE from a Native Hawaiian / by Kanani Lyons Read More »
A Sweet Transgender Story Drowned in Motor Oil and Wrapped in Titanium Body Horror // This review DOES contain spoilers for TITANE – I do believe this movie is most effective without having any idea what will happen before going in. With that being said, it feels next to impossible to write about it without
REVIEW: TITANE (2021) Read More »
Sign up for HIFF Selects, a monthly curated streaming club Love in All Its Awkwardness Aspiring jazz singer Bertie is effortlessly beautiful in her voice and demeanor. As a New Orleans native living in the South of France, you hardly ever get the impression that she’s out of place. Lane is a slightly different story.
HIFF Selects: MA BELLE, MY BEAUTY Read More »
This review contains spoilers to Justin Chon’s BLUE BAYOU – A work of art (film in this instance) can be broken up into two intersecting concepts: form and content. While content is the subject of the artwork, form deals with the different ways the artist utilizes their respective tools (camera work, costumes and set
BLUE BAYOU: Form vs. Content Read More »
Sign up for HIFF Selects, a monthly curated streaming club A riveting mix of suspense and social commentary, the debut film from director Sam Quah crackles with an intense energy in a pot-boiler with a sinister performance by the stalwart and legendary Chinese American actress Joan Chen as a corrupt police chief. Set in a
HIFF Selects: SHEEP WITHOUT A SHEPHERD Read More »
It is only apropos to celebrate the Tokyo Olympics with a new documentary that celebrates the game changing feats of Olympians that competed in the last Tokyo Games. As visually stylish as it is overall captivating, THE WITCHES OF THE ORIENT takes a solidly crafted look at a fascinating chapter of Olympic history with
HIFF SELECT AUGUST: THE WITCHES OF THE ORIENT Read More »
For this month’s HIFF SELECTS, the festival programmers are honored to present HOPE, Norway’s official entry to the Academy Awards International Film category. The second film by director Maria Sødahl, who debuted with her award-winning film LIMBO in 2010, HOPE is a tour-de-force led by powerful performances by Andrea Bræin Hovig and Stellan Skarsgård. Synopsis:
February’s HIFF SELECTS: HOPE directed by Maria Sødahl 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.
