There’s far more to Hawaii than sun, sand and swaying palms. It’s a mid-pacific meeting ground, a place where artistic ferment is as much in flower as the Island’s legendary flora.
Case-in-point: the Hawaii International Film Festival. Things get underway this Friday, April 13. The screenings just keep coming, all the way through April 19.
This year there’s a bit of a documentary renaissance afoot at HIFF. These are the kinds of reality shows that move you, make you think. One of them is First Position, a show promoters liken to Glee meeting Spellbound. The film follows a half-dozen gifted dancers from different walks of life. What Hoop Dreams was to basketball, this film just could be to ballet.
Life’s not all soft lights, and passionate pas de deux. It can be gritty, scary, and downright ominous. The Big Fix exposes the root causes of the worst environmental disaster in the history of this country, the April 22, 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster than befouled the Gulf of Mexico and made America rethink some of its priorities. HIFF labels the film “a damning indictment of a system of government led by a powerful and secretive oligarchy.”
Love video games? You’ll probably like Indie Game: The Movie. This film delves into the lives of independent video game developers as the search of the digital version of the Holy Grail. Make no mistake, this medium is potent. See the players, up close and personal, as they conceive, design, and program their own personal dreams.
Sure, the rest of Hawaii is here too – lush, lavish and loaded with outdoor pursuits. But the folks who put on the Hawaii International Film Festival are betting you’ll want to spend a lot of your time this trip in a screening room.
Story by Jerry Chandler
