Father Geek here. Ms Moon Yun just sent this in to Geek Headquarters from paradise. Her ace reporter Albert Lanier is covering the newest film fest to arrive in the islands for us... Cinema Paradise. Speaking of paradise I'm boarding a jet for Hollyweird, Karloffornia in a couple of hours... I've got some old classic 3-D flicks to catch out on the coast...

CINEMA PARADISE OPENING DAY

by Albert Lanier

Cinema Paradise, Hawaii's new independent film festival, kicked off its second year in the festival business this past Friday, September 19 with a mix of documentary and short film screenings and the feature length opening night film WHAT ALICE FOUND.

The very start of the festival day on Friday appeared to bode ill for Cinema Paradise with sound and technical problems plaguing the first film that was projected-a short film shot on DV called PINAYTRATION-which was promptly stopped after the audio kept cutting out persistently. The film will more than likely be rescheduled some time during the week.

However, the rest of the day seemed to go off without a hitch and the rest of the screenings were smooth sailing technically speaking.

In fact, Cinema Paradise's Director Sergio Goes-a fi! lmmaker who directed the documentary BLACK PICKET FENCE-seemed absolutely euphoric about the fest thus far at the opening night party at Downtown's Indigo Restaurant.

And why not? As Karen Carpenter used to sing "We've only just begun..."

The festival's home and hub this year-as it was last year-was at Wallace's Art House Theater Multiplex in Restaurant Row (although all the short films in the festival and films by Hawaii filmmakers will be also be shown at the Movie Museum, a small theater/ video store, a few miles from Downtown Honolulu) a complex of small office buildings and some restaurants not far from the Downtown area of Honolulu.

Two of the the Art House's nine theaters house Cinema Paradise this year. Screening times on Friday began after 4:15 p.m. stretching to the final time at 10 p.m.

The first day proved quite enjoyable, actually. I got to see at least 17 films including a good volume of shorts.

In fact, this year's crop of shorts appear to be quite strong thus far. Thus far, the strongest I've seen are the Animated short ROOF SEX about two plush, comfy chairs who engage in all manner of sexual activity-No, you are not reading that wrong the chairs actually "get it on"-atop some New York City-type rooftop.

ROOF SEX is 2 minutes long and is directed by PES.

I loved ROOF SEX and I must say this film gives great cushion.

Also excellent was Director J. Brad Wilke's gleefully funny short DOWNSIZING in which one of three children within a normal suburban home will have to be "fired" or "let go"-leave the house forever. The reason? The financial cost of raising children is quite considerable, explains the father. It is fiscally advantageous to let go of! one child and reinvest those moneys back into the remaining two children.

DOWNSIZING is wonderful piece of satire which applies the investment strategies and the profit motive to the family unit. Though Wilkes' direction seems fairly direct, the acting a little forced and weak at times and the film's visual style bareboned, the script is hilariously incisive.

HEREDITARY MISFORTUNE is a well-made short from directors Krystian Lagowski and Ian McCain about the different member of the Smith family who each meet untimely deaths-one uncle dies choking on a lollypop, a grandfather is the victim of an exploding toilet, an older brother who is blind and run over by a a car when his seeeing eye dog leads nto the middle of a street- seem genetically fated to die before their thus suffering "HEREDITARY MISFORTUNE. Nicely shot with a good central perfromance by actor Jonathan Slavin as the major cha! racter and onscreen narrator Adam Smith.

One of the most impressive shorts screened on Friday was KAMEHAMEHA, shot on the North Kohala coast of Hawaii utlizing some area residents, directed by Nathan Kurosawa.

The 18 minute film which was screened just before the opening night feature WHAT ALICE FOUND briefly deals with some of the early childhood of the boy who eventually became Kamehameha, the great King who united all the Hawaiian Islands.

KAMEHAMEHA is technically accomplished with fluid camerawork including gliding pans and gentle crane shots as well as some well composed images.

Other shorts worth noting-Director Jay Bogdanowitch's TEA TIME which is a cute comedy about a hungry soldier who pays the ultimate price for stealing a tea cake, Nilesh Patel's A LOVE SUPREME shot in black and white and detailing the preperation of the Indian culinary favorite-Samosas-by focusing on the hand of unseen woman making Samosas step by step (this film was made a tribute to the director's mother), SEA OF LOVE-also by J. Brad Wilke-in which a dinner between a man and woman turns into a fatal night in for one of the two and director Karl Shefelman BILL'S SEAT, an ominous and slightly unsettling thriller about a young-yuppie looking New Yorker who is forced to detour into a small Pennslyvania town when his car get a flat tire and upon entering a local bar, finds out more than he wants to know about the name plate on the table above a stool that reads "Bill's Seat."

I've only been able to see a couple of docs at this point and they've been a slight mixed bag thus far. Both are Hawaii-oriented docs.

The locally produced THE SONG BIRD OF PUNA documents the life of Aunty Becky Pau, a Hawaiian musician and singer who lives on the islandof Hawaii.

Directed by Keoni Lealoha Alvarez, THE SONG BIRD OF PUNA has an interesting and worthwhile subject in Pau who sometimes seems to be bursting with enthusiasm and joy when she talks about performing but the film is underwhelming and amateurish largely though not unwatchable.

An opening interview seems forced and labored (the onscreen narrator looks as if she is looking down to read her questions), two local news segments are run largely in their entirety and seem more like filler and the overall quality of this video documentary dips-the project seems like a well-crafted home video.

HAWAI'I AN IDENTITY REBORN is a more professional and highly informative French doc on Hawaiian Langauage immersion schools and the extent to which the Hawaiian Langauge has been picked up and utilized by Native Hawaiian students.

Through interviews with Native Hawaiian educators, visits to the private Kamehemeha Schools and language immersion schools all on the island of Hawaii and by talking to students, Director Andre Waksman demonstrates the rebirth and growth of the Hawaiian language once officially banned in Hawaii and rightfully restored-at least in name-as the official language of Hawaii.

The Opening night film, WHAT ALICE FOUND, seemed to be a favorite with the good-sized audience that sat in on the flick that night.

Winner of Special Jury Prize honors at Sundance this year, WHAT ALICE FOUND almost works. A. Dean Bell's direction is generally effective here and the editing is excellent and there are fine performances of Emily Grace as Alice Cahill, a New Hampshire store clerk who endeavors to drive to Florida to visit her friend atteding college there and Judith Ivey as Saundra, a friendly god-fearing woman who Alice ends up on riding on the road with and who is not entirely the person she projects herself as.

However, WHAT ALICE FOUND ultimely fails as a drama ending up a bit too soft and sentimental around the edges when the material needed to be little harsher and meaner.

Director Bell has built up the film beautifully especially due to the fine editing that often smash cuts or cuts directly to flashbacks without the usual transition and delineations but the film's climax and editing are far too simple and pat. Where a jolt was needed, a slight dramatic shove filled in instead.

However, Cinema Paradise Volume 2 has least provided a brief panoply of pleasing films thus far in only its first day and the Opening night party at the charming Indigo restaurant was enjoyable as well.

This festival seems to be well on its way.