HAWAII INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Kal Penn, left, and Elvis Mitchell a fielded questions from the audience at yesterday's HIFF press conference.
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Isle film fest grows into global blockbuster
The Louis Vuitton Hawaii International Film Festival has become a cultural centerpiece that provides a boost to the visitor industry, with an impact far beyond theater walls. The 26th annual celebration of cinema, featuring 254 films from 47 countries, began yesterday.
Noted film critic Elvis Mitchell confirmed that HIFF has become noteworthy in other parts of the world.
"Any festival that can persevere and be around for this long calls attention to itself," said Mitchell, a former movie critic for the New York Times who now hosts a radio show called "The Treatment."
Mitchell attended a press conference that marked the opening of the festival.
"I go to a lot of festivals, and sometimes they tend to lean too much toward American independent films, which is basically some sort of family dysfunction with a horrible lesson learned at the end of the movie," added Mitchell, who complained jokingly about having to sit in an air-conditioned theater on his first visit to Hawaii. He said what's often lacking is a sense of diversity, and "that's clearly part of the programming mandate here."
Supplementing the festival's reputation is a partnership between the University of Hawaii's Academy for Creative Media and the Shanghai International Film Festival and Shanghai University. In June, UH sent five ACM students to Shanghai to show their films. Chinese students arrive in Hawaii today with their professors to do the same and exchange ideas about filmmaking.
HIFF also has established an alliance with the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at UH to translate scripts and write subtitles to make films more accessible to a broader audience.
"The idea that we can take film that would never be seen, put English subtitles on it, put it on DVD and help filmmakers and producers in Southeast Asia expand their range is really the driving force for us," said Paul Rausch, associate director of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, which works with the College of Hawaiian Indo-Pacific Languages and Literatures.
"We're particularly interested in the fact that Muslim women are making films, which is a major breakthrough both in their own countries and on the international film front."
This year's ticket sales are well ahead of last year, when the festival boasted 70,000 admissions, including Sunset on the Beach screenings. To draw even more visitors, HIFF established a ticket office at the Outrigger Waikiki. There are also 300 international guests this year -- influential in the movie industry -- as well as a host of media who review aspects of Hawaii beyond the film festival.
The 26th Annual Louis Vuitton Hawaii International Film Festival runs through Oct. 29, with most showings at Dole Cannery Stadium 18. Programs are available at all Starbucks locations, Dole Cannery Stadium 18 and the Hawaii Theatre or online at
hiff.org.