Father Geek here at the Geek Headquarters Barbwire Compound in Austin, Texas where we've been busy this week filming segments for Harry's regular SKY TV show as well as doing interview/photo shoots for upcoming magazines like: PEOPLE, EMPIRE, GQ, VANITY FAIR and others. We put in a 14 hour day for "SKY" on Sunday out in our Screening Room - Script Archive. Suprisingly we've still been able to keep the page updated and check out a few new flicks. Here's another busy AICNer, Ms Moon Yun Choi and her latest from our "Grass Hut AICN Editorial Offices" on the beaches of the mid-Pacific...
Moon Yun reporting from "the islands" to let you know...
Moon Yun reporting from "the islands" to let you know...
That the award-winning documentary "Black Picket Fence" is out on video and available at your major video/bookstore stores.
Brazilian filmmaker Sergio Goes, who now resides in Hawaii, made off with 2 Wins at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival. He ended up with a second place win in the MTV:News:Docs:Prize and a "Charles E. Guggenheim Emerging Artist Award" Honorable Mention. Goes is also the head of "Hawaii's independent film festival". And there's a call for entries! The Cinema Paradise Film Festival will be held September 19-25, 2003 in Honolulu, Hawaii. Cinema Paradise 2003 seeks to showcase the most inventive, progressive and uncompromising work from the international film community. This year they are proud to announce the Hawaii Filmmaker Award, presented by the Movie Museum. A cash prize earmarked in the thousands will be awarded to a local filmmaker chosen by a jury of invited industry professionals.
For information on how to submit your film, visit their site at www.cinemaparadise.org and download an entry form.
SUBMIT YOUR FILM!
Cinema Paradise 2003 call for entries is now open to all categories. Log on to www.cinemaparadise.org to download an entry form.
QUESTIONS? email them at This Mail Box.
NOW... for more of my reports about the fun-tastic Maui Fest 2003 …
It was very fitting that Lisette Marie Flanary’s film about hula was screened right next to a classroom where a hula dancing lesson was happening.
“American Aloha: Hula Beyond Hawai’i,” a documentary about the ancient art of hula being perpetuated outside of its land of origin, made its Hawaii premiere at the Maui Film Festival 2003 on June 14.
Flanary, who is the producer/co-director/writer, made the 55-minute documentary with her filmmaking partner, Evann Siebens, who is the director/co-producer. “American Aloha: Hula Beyond Hawai’i” follows three “kumu hula,” or master hula teachers, over a span of five years. Flanary flew from New York City, where she’s based, to present the film. The documentary, shot in color with some black and white footage, was shown to a good-size crowd at the Maui Arts and Cultural Center’s McCoy Theater. Siebens, who’s a dance filmmaker and trained in ballet, wasn’t able to attend.
As a “local girl” who grew up most of my life in Hawaii, I didn’t know before seeing this documentary that hula was being practiced as a serious art by many native Hawaiians who moved to the mainland to pursue educational and professional opportunities. The film focuses on three “kumu hula” in California: Sissy Kaio, Mark Ho’omalu, and Patrick Makuakane. They have been teaching hula in California for over twenty years. Kaio teaches traditional dancing, while Ho’omalu dances to cutting-edge music, and Makuakane invents innovative choreography.
The documentary opens with old black and white clippings of Hollywood’s stereotypical “grass skirts girls” then it gets down to showing footages of the serious, authentic practice of the culture. The men dancing hula were striking in their powerful and dignified performance.
While I understand Makuakane likes to put modern, creative juice in traditional hula, some of his choreographic numbers didn’t work for me. The techno music and the sparkly grass skirts reminded me of men dancing in drag. Other than that, the rest of the documentary did a marvelous job in conveying its message: how the Hawaiians on the mainland are maintaining their ties to Hawaii with hula and how they are keeping the culture alive by passing the tradition to natives and non-natives alike.
After the screening, a couple of her filmmaker friends who also have films at the MFF came up to congratulate Flanary. David Yoneshige, who co-produced “A Tradition of Honor,” had this to say about the film: “It was really interesting because what it showed was the survival of a culture outside of its homeland. It’s being displaced. It moves to another place and yet the culture survives in the people.” The L.A. filmmaker added, “I thought it was a really beautiful message.”
Craig Yahata, who’s the director and co-producer of “A Tradition of Honor,” was talking up the documentary, along with Yoneshige, to an enthusiastic Kelly Hu earlier that day after the Wahine (Women) In Film Panel. Their documentary tells the story of Japanese-Americans who fought valiantly in World War II.
Flanary looks part-Hawaiian but her ethnicity is Japanese, Irish and Cherokee Indian. Tall, slender and graceful, she has the body of a hula dancer. So it was hard to believe she didn’t think she could dance hula. She had to overcome her shyness and hesitation. But ever since she really got into hula in 1999 through the Hawaii Cultural Foundation in NYC, she said it became a huge part of her life. “I cannot imagine life before I started hula dancing.”
Although the 30-year-old filmmaker was not born nor raised in Hawaii, her mother is from Hawaii and her grandmother was a picture bride from Japan. She's been coming to Hawaii often since childhood to visit relatives and even more so in the last five years to do research for the film.
Her mom and relatives are ecstatic about the film but sadly her grandparents can’t share in her accomplishment because they passed away. “You might have seen in the film that we dedicated our film to our grandparents,” she said. “I love the idea of genealogy and ancestors which is so Hawaiian … to kind of say, ‘I am standing here talking to you only because of those people that came before me.’”
For those of you who’d like to see the documentary, it will be broadcast nationally on PBS on the P.O.V. series on August 5. Check local listings for the time. To see the trailer, log on to: By Clicking Here. And then Check out the incredible production still photos, and photos from the festival at: This Location annnnnnnd For more information about the Hawaii Cultural Foundation in NYC, log on to: www.hawaiiculturalfoundation.org.
Well, the jury is in on Rob Reiner’s “Alex & Emma.” The critics have panned his new romantic comedy (ouch!) but it still made it to the top seven at the box office. The film took in an estimated $6.11 million at the box office over the opening weekend after its national release on June 20. Reiner, who was at MFF to promote his film and accept an award, admitted that this is a small film. “We’re not even trying to compete with the 'Hulk' (which premiered on the same day). It’d be lost if we tried to. The picture cost $23 million to make so we don’t have to do that much business in order to be successful.”
That was Reiner talking from the point of a businessman. But speaking from the side of an artist and filmmaker, he said ultimately it comes down to “making films that you think are worthwhile.” He added: “At the end of the day, it’s for me. It’s not about making money. I want to make something that’s at least an extension of something that I feel is worth looking at.”
The versatile filmmaker said there are movies to be made for a little bit more sophisticated audience, such as the case with “Alex & Emma.” Reiner, who opened the festival June 11 with “Alex & Emma,” certainly found his audience with the approximately 2,250 people who came to see his movie. Reiner watched his film with the huge crowd at the outdoor, under-the-stars Celestial Cinema. He was very pleased by the audience reaction.
“It was astounding to hear people laughing like that,” he said. “That was pretty cool. Plus, in all fairness, I was very lucky to have my audience there. Not that they came to see me but that the people would enjoy this particular film.”
He added: “I think most of the people were in their late 20’s, 30’s, and 40’s and up. They were a little bit more sophisticated and a little bit more discerning in what they would watch. These people were more interested in seeing something a little bit more humanistic and character driven. I think they appreciated it. I was thrilled to see 2,300 people paying attention and appreciating something that I did.”
Reiner’s “Lights! Camera! Passion! Award” was on June 12. That same day we found out that legendary actor Gregory Peck passed away. Reiner paid his respect to an actor he admired stating: “When you look at ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ and ‘Gentleman’s Agreement,’ these are important films in terms of the social issues that they dealt with.” He’s seen “To Kill a Mockingbird” at least 20 times.
He added: “Major studios don’t really want to touch too many of those things now. The pictures cost too much. They cost too much to market even if they don’t cost a lot to make. An average studio picture for the cost of the picture and the market is anywhere between $75 million to $90 million dollars every time out of the box so you have to appeal to a broader audience to make your money back. And so there’s a big market overseas. Those markets are going to obviously respond to the more visual, the more action oriented things that aren’t very talky and aren’t heavy on theme and so on. So you’ll find those are the kinds of films they’re going to make. Ultimately, it’s all a business.”
Reiner shrugged. “I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing and hopefully there’ll be enough people … there doesn’t have to be a lot … just enough to get me by.”
That’s putting it modestly. Reiner has directed a succession of box-office hits, including “When Harry Met Sally …,” “Misery,” and “A Few Good Men.” These films have received critical acclaim as well. He was nominated by the Directors Guild of America for the modern romantic comedy classic, “When Harry Met Sally,” and “A Few Good Men” received four Oscar nominations, including Best Picture. Although “Alex & Emma” is not his best work, the movie has value in that aspiring writers can learn about the writing process from this film.
Alex, played by Luke Wilson, tells Emma, played by Kate Hudson, that he doesn’t know how his story will end because his characters lead him to where they would naturally go.
And that’s reflective of Reiner’s writing style: “In the film we explain the [writing] process as the movie is progressing. And the very things that we talk about in the film are the things that I actually go through when I’m creating something. [It’s that] whole idea that the characters will lead you, that you don’t impose the story on the characters. Let the characters create the story for you. That’s a very organic way to work. And that’s the way I like to work.”
During the discussion part of his award ceremony, Reiner revealed that he would have changed the title of his movie to “Those Sweet Words,” a Norah Jones song that is featured in the movie soundtrack, if he had known about her new single in time.
“Those Sweet Words” is such a better title and it has that “it-sounds-like-a-good-movie” ring to it. It’s too bad Reiner couldn’t have started out working on the story with that title. I imagine that “Those Sweet Words” would have led him on different course, and perhaps we’d have seen a more poignant, romantic comedy.
MFF wasn’t all celebrity sightings and award ceremonies. It was about food, too. Good food and lots of it. No, make that mouth savory, top of the line, incredible food. Check out one of the culinary parties I went to by clicking here: Click Right Now Before They Eat It All.
Check out a whole slew of photos of the entire festival by checking out my site: By Just Clicking Your Mouse Here.
The 4th Annual Maui Film Festival at Wailea was held June 11-15, 2003. Next year’s festival will be held from June 16-20 2004. For additional information, call the Film Festival Headquarters at (808) 579-9244 from Hawaii or (888) 999-6330 toll-free from the mainland or visit www.mauifilmfestival.com.
