Hawai‘i International Film Festival returns to Maui with six feature films and documentaries, selection of short films

The Maui Arts & Cultural Center presents the Maui Showcase for the Hawai‘i International Film Festival (HIFF) with six feature films, one short film, and a collection of four ‘Made in Hawai‘i’ short films. All screenings will take place in the MACC’s McCoy Studio Theater starting Saturday, Oct. 19 and concluding Sunday, Oct. 20.

Tickets for HIFF 2024 Maui Showcase go on sale online only at 10 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 26 at MauiArts.org.

The MACC continues to support the Maui Food Bank and will be collecting donations during the two-day period. The need continues, so HIFF patrons are asked to bring non-perishable items for those still impacted by the wildfires. Donation bins will be located on site.

HIFF’s 44th edition represents some of the best from filmmakers throughout the Asia-Pacific region. Filled with insight and discovery, HIFF is dedicated to advancing understanding and cultural exchange among the peoples of Asia, the Pacific and North America by presenting films from around the world.

Each year, more than 50,000 attendees throughout Hawai‘i experience the sounds and images of filmmaking from approximately 45 countries.

Saturday, Oct. 19 film schedule:

“KANIELA: THE DANIEL KALEIKINI STORY” | 1 p.m. | 68 minutes
Directors: Michael Lum, Pawel Nuckowski

A loving tribute to the late ‘Ambassador of Aloha’ including interviews with the man himself completed before his passing last year. Born into a large family in Papakōlea, Kaniela began working in Hawai‘i’s tourism industry in the 1950s and grew to be a beloved and internationally known entertainer with over 30 years of performing, not only here, but Las Vegas and Japan as well. One of the last projects he worked on was recording with his grandson Nicholas.

“MADE IN HAWAI‘I SHORTS PROGRAM” | 3 p.m. | 89 Minutes
“HEALING LAHAINA”
Director: Laurel Tamayo

Director Laurel Tamayo’s family lost their multi-generational home in the 2023 Lahaina wildfire. Through personal recounts, this documentary paints an intimate portrait of survival, climate change and colonization, and community resilience.

“IT’S SHAVE ICE”
Director: Jaye Orikasa

Discover the colorful journey and stories that have made shave ice the popular treat it is today. From the behind-the-scenes action of local shave ice shops to the cultural history and significance of Hawaiʻi’s coolest snack, “It’s Shave Ice” will introduce you to a world beyond the syrup and snowy ice so many have come to love.

“KAI HALI‘A (SEA OF MEMORY)”
Director: Angelique Kalani Axelrode

In the abstract realm of memory, a diasporic kanaka struggles to connect with their family and lover. By engaging with their moʻokūʻauhau (genealogy) and calling on their kūpuna (ancestors) and ke kai (ocean), they are able to cope with buried trauma and come back to themselves. Seeing memory as an intricate ʻupena (net) of both intangible and tangible threads of reality, intertwined with visceral feelings that intimately connect us with our kūpuna (ancestors) and the ʻāina (land), and the art of remembering brings us back to our core.

“RECLAIM”
Directors: Geeta Gandbhir and Justyn Ah Chong

Honor follows in the footsteps of his older brother Hanalei in learning the Hawaiian tradition of hula. The young brothers are proud of their role in reclaiming Hawaiian heritage, not just through dance but also the meaningful power of language and custom. Hanalei is selected to dance at Merrie Monarch, a prestigious competition considered the “Olympics of Hula.” Along with the rest of their family, Honor cheers Hanalei on as he takes the stage and plays his part in sustaining the practice of hula — one that has stayed resilient in the face of cultural erasure and colonization.

“ONE MILLION DOLLA” | 5:30 p.m. | 99 minutes
Director: Stefan C. Schaefer

In this Maui-set mockumentary, Big Island content creator Alex Farnham plays the Guy, a houseless buffoon with a heart of gold. He chases chickens and sells coconuts in his happy-go-lucky existence. However, everything changes when he’s unexpectedly gifted one million dollars and a documentary crew decides to follow him. Before Guy knows it, people come out of the woodwork, latching on to become his posse and he soon finds out who his real friends are.

“TERRESTRIAL” | 8 p.m. | 76 minutes
Director: Alex Farnham

The struggle of a teacher being forced to work in an environment where he feels as if he doesn’t belong and to work with a severed partner from his past. Maybe a friendly creature is the only one he can count on. Buckle up because this sci-fi rocket is about to take off! Written, directed and starring Big Island filmmaker and Internet personality Alex Farnham and co-starring Lindsay Watson of “The Wind And The Reckoning” and local comedian Easton James, “Terrestrial” is an 808, homegrown, ode to horror like “The Faculty,” mashed together with sci-fi comedies like “Evolution.”

Sunday, Oct. 20 film schedule:

“SHAKA, A STORY OF ALOHA” | 1 p.m. | 80 minutes
Director: Alexander Bocchieri

The Lāʻie community figures large in this documentary that tries to find the origins of the state’s “Swiss army knife” of good-natured gestures. The latter part of the documentary spends a good deal of its time relating the fascinating story of community leader Tutu Hamana Kalili back in the 1910s that may have started it all.

“STANDING ABOVE THE CLOUDS” and short film “THE QUEEN’S FLOWERS” | 3:30 p.m. | 94 Minutes
Directors: Jalena Keane-Lee (“Standing Above The Clouds”) | Ciara Lacy (“The Queen’s Flowers”)

“Standing Above The Clouds” follows the largest political movement in modern Hawaiian history, and the indigenous women leaders who have successfully sustained it since 2010. At the center of the global movement are Pua Case and her two daughters Hāwane Rios and Kapulei Flores. They are joined by Mehana Kihoi and Leinaʻala Sleightholm who have changed their families’ lives by joining the movement. All three families have put their bodies on the line, faced arrest standing off with police, and testified as key petitioners suing the State of Hawaiʻi to prevent the building of the world’s largest telescope on their sacred mountain. Through the lens of mothers and daughters, our film explores inter-generational healing and the social and emotional labor of retaining ancient ceremonies in a rapidly modernizing world. With the fate of the telescope still to be decided, the film shows that victory is in the perseverance of a movement and the inter-generational healing found in this sisterhood.

A magical take on a true story, “The Queen’s Flowers” is an animated short adventure for kids that follows Emma, a native Hawaiian girl in 1915 Honolulu, as she makes a special gift for the last monarch of Hawaiʻi, Queen Liliʻuokalani.

“MOLOKAʻI BOUND” | 6 p.m. | 112 minutes
Director: Alika Tengan

After years of incarceration, Kainoa De Silva, a wayward Hawaiian man, is released on parole and committed to reconnecting with his family. Most important to Kainoa is rebuilding a relationship with his adolescent son, Jonathan. But acclimating to a normal life in Hawai‘i is harder than it seems. While working to get back on his own feet, Kainoa must contend with pressures from old friends and relatives. In response he tends to do all the wrong things for the right reasons. In trying to prove himself worthy of his family and his native heritage, Kainoa’s journey is a story of both reconciliation and redemption

All films are unrated and film titles & show times subject to change. For more details on HIFF and this year’s films go to https://hiff.org/. Film trailers are also available on the MACC website.