COURTESY OF HONOLULU UNDERGROUND FILM FESTIVAL Cinema Paradise 2002.

Festival stars independents

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Gary C.W. Chun
gchun@starbulletin.com

Thanks mainly to the efforts of Sergio Goes, Honolulu Underground Film Festival founder Chris Kahunahana, Wallace Art House film director Don Brown and the Movie Museum's Dwight Damon, Cinema Paradise 2002 kicks off today with an intriguing slate of "independent media that matters."

The digitally shot "Ever Since the World Ended" will be tonight's opening-night movie. It's described as a character-driven "social science-fiction" film about life after the end of the world. Twelve years after a devastating plague empties the world of people, two San Francisco filmmakers encounter and interview a handful of fellow survivors as they struggle with devastating loss, shifting moral imperatives and deep ideological rifts in a fledgling community trying to chart life in a new world.

"Charlotte Sometimes," the closing-night film, debuted at this year's Hawaii International Film Festival and garnered favorable response from respected national film critic Roger Ebert, which will help filmmaker Eric Byler with future screenings.

COURTESY OF HONOLULU UNDERGROUND FILM FESTIVAL The festival begins at 5:15 p.m. with "Ever Since the World Ended" beginning at 7:30 p.m.

TODAY

5:15 p.m. >> Island Visions program

6:30 >> "A Great Deal" / "Mai's America"

7:30 >> "Delusions in Modern Primitivism" / Opening Film: "Ever Since the World Ended"

9 >> "La Tropical"

10 >> "Fists of Steele" / "Blood of the Samurai"

TOMORROW

2 p.m. >> "Amazonia" / "Filming Desire"

3 >> "September 10, 2001"/ Reports from the Global Village program

4:15 >> "Sophie" / "Nobody Knows My Name"

5:15 >> "Current" / "7 Days In September"

6:30 >> "Football Shmootball" / "Pleasure and Pain"

7:30 >> "11'09"01"

9 >> "Dice Raw" / "Scratch"

10 >> "Oregon" / "The Anarchist Cookbook"

SUNDAY

2 p.m. >> "White Balance" / "Afghan Stories"

4:15 >> "Straight Out of Hunter's Point"

6:30 >> "La Tropical"

7:30 >> Youth Media screening / Island Visions program

9 >> "Whoa" / "Black Picket Fence"

10:00 >> "Quienes Son?" / "Cine Mambembe"

COURTESY OF HONOLULU UNDERGROUND FILM FESTIVAL "La Tropical" plays at 6:30 p.m. Sunday and 5:15 p.m. Monday.

MONDAY

2 p.m. >> "Confession" / "Sisters In Resistance"

3 >> "Twins" / "7 Days In September"

4:15 >> "A Great Deal" / "Senorita Extraviada"

5:15 >> "Quienes Son?" / "Cubamor"

6:30 >> "Invisible Cities" / "Kumbh Mela"

7:30 >> "Special Report" / "The Anarchist Cookbook"

9 >> "The Good Son" / "Mai's America"

10 >> "The Drowning Room" / "A Chronicle of Corpses"

TUESDAY

2 p.m. >> "Morning Breath" / "Breath Control"

3 >> "Who the Hell Is Bobby Roos?"

4:15 >> Underskatement program

5:15 >> "The Good Son" / "Cine Mambembe"

6* >> Reports from the Global Village program

6:30 >> "Propagate" / "Freestyle"

7:30 >> "Hobart" / "Cinemania"

8* >> Life is Short program

9 >> "Whoa" / "The Freshest Kids"

10 >> "The Drowning Room" / "Hell House"

COURTESY OF HONOLULU UNDERGROUND FILM FESTIVAL "Pleasure and Pain" plays at 6:30 p.m. tomorrow and 10 p.m. Wednesday.

WEDNESDAY

2 p.m. >> "Special" / "Forbidden Wedding"

3 >> "Amazonia" / "Children of the Crocodile"

4:15 >> "Delusions in Modern Primitivism" / "Street Legends"

5:15 >> "Filming Desire"

6* >> Communication Breakdown program

6:30 >> "Straight Out of Hunter's Point"

7:30 >> "Confession" / "Senorita Extraviada"

8* >> "A Chronicle of Corpses"

9 >> "Drink Me" / "Hell House"

10 >> "Invisible Cities" / "Pleasure and Pain"

THURSDAY

2:00 p.m. >> New Media students' work / Communication Breakdown program

3 >> Life is Short program

4:15 >> "Propagate" / "Freestyle"

5:15 >> "Hobart" / "Cinemania"

6:30 >> "Dice Raw" / "Scratch"

7:30 >> "Procrastinators" / Closing film: "Charlotte Sometimes"

'Cinema Paradise '02' Where: Films on the schedule without an asterick (*) will play at Wallace Art Hourse at Restaurant Row. Films with an asterick (*) will play at the Movie Museum. Tickets: $7; $20 for an all-day pass; $50 for a festival pass. For information call 732-1607 or connect to www.cinemaparadise.org.

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