The Hawaiʻi International Film Festival kicks off this week with events on Oʻahu, starting with the world premiere of “The Navigator” on Wednesday, Oct. 21.
The festival, presented by Halekulani, features 84 films, including 34 world premieres, and new cinema from the Islands, Asia, the Pacific and around the world.
"We sit at a crossroads in the middle of the Pacific, and we want to turn HIFF into a film festival that truly lives up to Oʻahu’s name as ʻthe gathering place,ʻ" Jean Lee, HIFF’s new executive director, told Aloha State Daily via email.
The opening film, “The Navigator,” which is soldout, explores how Nainoa Thompson became the first Native Hawaiian in six centuries to navigate from Hawaiʻi to Tahiti in a voyaging canoe, without the use of a compass or modern instruments. It also shares how he repeated the approximately 2,400-mile voyage again, nearly 50 years later, using the stars and teachings of the late Master Navigator Mau Piailug. The screening starts at 7 p.m. at Hawaiʻi Theatre Center.
Among those scheduled to attend the event are Master Navigator Nainoa Thompson, who is also CEO of the Polynesian Voyaging Society; Bruce Blankenfeld of the Polynesian Voyaging Society, who studied navigation without instruments under Thompson and Piailug; Director Jordan Manley; Producer Kathy Muneno Thompson; members of the film team and crew; and Lee, HIFF’s executive director.
That event will be followed by a HIFF46 Opening Weekend Celebration at the Capitol Modern on Friday, Oct. 23. The party features live music from Da Araz and Human Era, musicians with songs featured in HIFF films this year, as well as DJ Romeo Valentine and Irie Love. There will also be HIFF merchandise designed by Hawaiʻi Artists. Get tickets, which are $5.
Festival screenings will take place on Oʻahu from Wednesday, Oct. 21, through Thursday, Nov. 5. After that, screenings will move to Neighbor Islands, including Maui, Molokai, Lanaʻi and Hawaiʻi Island, from Friday, Nov. 6, through Sunday, Nov. 15. Buy individual tickets or passes.
This weekend also marks the dates of the HIFilm Industry Conference, a workforce initiative run by HIFF, which brings together filmmakers and industry professionals from across Hawaiʻi and the Pacific on Saturday, Oct. 24, and Sunday, Oct. 25. Tickets with access to both days of events are $125. Details.
Thursday, Oct. 29, is the day of the HIFF46 Honoree Gala: Voyagers & Visionaries, which honors Nainoa Thompson, Ke Huy Quan, Sung Kang, Luciane Buchanan and Bryson Chun, and will take place in the Halekulani Ballroom. Tickets start at $500.
This is Lee’s first festival as executive director, after she joined on Sept. 1. Lee is a former Associated Press bureau chief for the Korean Peninsula and was the East-West Center’s inaugural presidential chair.
“HIFF has a beautiful mission of introducing Hawaiʻi to the world's cinema and the world to Hawaiʻi's storytellers," said Lee, in a written statement. "I've spent my career as a journalist trying to build understanding between East and West. There is no better place to continue that work than here, at the crossroads of the Pacific, with a film festival focused on bringing people together.”
Honolulu-born Screenwriter and Producer Jordan Kandell was also voted president of the festival’s board of directors on Sept. 9.
"This is an exciting new era for HIFF," Lee told ASD via email. "We are coming into these roles with so much enthusiasm and awareness that we play an important role in nurturing and highlighting storytelling here at home in Hawaiʻi, as well as across the region."
To learn more about the festival, go to: hiff.org.
Katie Helland can be reached at katie@alohastatedaily.com.
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