Huliau Youth Environmental Film Festival Encore

By Vanessa Wolf

Tomorrow night you can learn a little bit more about threats to the local environment via some short films made by Maui youth.

Each year, Maui’s young filmmakers are highlighted in the Huliau Youth Environmental Film Festival.

Held every year in June at the Iao Theater in Wailuku, the event showcases the short films made by the students of the Huliau Environmental Filmmaking Club program during both semesters of the previous school year.

If you missed the original sold-out showing earlier in the month, a second and final screening of the 11 short student films occurs tomorrow night, June 20, at 6:30 p.m. at the new ʻAʻaliʻikūhonua Creative Arts Center on the Seabury Hall campus.

Among the films to be screened are “Hawkbills, A Path to Recovery” by Lily Katz, Dylan Falces and Koali’i Pu’u; and “Barges” by Koali’i Pu’u, Nathan Sullivan, Prana Castallian, and Bernardo Buenrostro

“Pump, Don’t Dump” by Jason Schwein and Jai Litman sheds light on and encourages environmentally friendly boating practices.

Also being presented are “From Mountain to Sea” by Kamahi Carter, Dylan Falces, Kelsi Fillon, and Natalia Polinesky and “Battle Miconia” by Kawelu Blando-Ka’aihue.

Taking on the hot topic of GMOs while superimposing eyes and mouths onto ears of corn is “Beyond the Kernel” by Max “Blaze” Coulston, Jacob Harris, Piers Polinsky and Xander Robertson.

Lastly, Jason Schwein and Jai Litman were busy, and their second entry “The Tiny Invaders: Small Frog, Big Threat” looks into the noisy invasive Puerto Rican Coqui frog problem.

Maui Huliau Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit founded in 2010 to provide unique environmental education programs to Maui’s youth.

Their mission is to promote “environ- mental” literacy and leadership among Maui’s youth through community-based educational experiences to create and maintain a sustainable island by inspiring active, educated, and innovative stewardship

The event is free to the public with donations of any amount gratefully accepted.

Doors open at 6 p.m. and the show begins at 6:30pm.

Have an idea for a fun or thought-provoking story or topic? Get in touch: we want to hear from you. -Vanessa (@mauinow.com)