[ WEEKEND ]
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‘Cinema’
alive & well
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But thanks to an aging theater on University Avenue and the vacant first-floor space of a building next door, the festival has a shot of flowering into what festival directors had always dreamed of it being.
Figure in a beaucoup number of features and documentaries, visiting guests, a free youth media workshop, club events around town and the appeal of winning a local film award, and festival directors Sergio Goes and Chris Kahunahana are depending on the help of a small but devoted group of volunteers to get this thing off and running.
"It actually grew a lot from last year," said Goes by cell phone while driving on errands for the festival late last week. "What I like is that this year, we have a strong selection of dramatic features. It's been our biggest challenge the last two years, and we got the features that we wanted.
"We also received more submissions, 600 from 30 countries, and ended up selecting 100 titles from 25 countries for a larger international representation. And being at the Varsity this year is a great move for us. It's a better fit, what with a filmmakers' lounge being set up next to the theater. We're setting up multimedia equipment in there, an overload of visuals.
"We'll be in both theaters the whole week, taking them over, plus using what used to be the First Hawaiian Bank space next door, converting 5,000 square feet of space into a lounge that'll be open to everyone from 3 p.m. to midnight every day of the festival.
"Filmmakers and festival goers will be able to meet each other, plus there'll be a VJ from New York, Seth Fershko, who also did animation music videos for the Roots and Rah Digga, plus cut our festival trailer," Goes said. "The lounge will also have a beverage and food concession, as well as state-of-art editing and sound editing equipment provided by Mac Made Easy, and computers with Internet access."
THERE'LL BE a lot happening between now and next Friday; you can pick up an easily accessible print guide or go to the festival's Web site at cinemaparadise.org for specifics on the workshops and club events (see sidebar). Here's a rundown on some of what's being offered this year:
>> Today showcases opening-night films "The Land Has Eyes" (5:30 p.m.), "Point and Shoot" (8 p.m.) and "The Wooden Camera" (8 p.m. -- see review, Page 9), with cast and crew members of the former in attendance. "Point and Shoot," one of the 11 international features, documents the love affair between filmmaker Shawn Regruto and model Athena Currey set in the decadent glam world of New York City fashion and nightlife.
Since its screening at the Hawaii International Film Festival's spring fest this year, "The Land Has Eyes" has played to packed houses in Fiji and Palau during the Pacific Arts Festival, and is scheduled to screen at the Smithsonian's Museum of the American Indian in New York City on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1 and 2. Audy Kimura has also written new music for this new version.
The Chinese-made "The Green Hat" and the Iranian "Dead Heat Under the Shrubs" are also part of the "world cinema" package (both reviewed ion Page 5 and 10, respectively).
>> 7:30 p.m. Monday will be the screening of "Original Child Bomb" with producer Holly Becker in attendance. Already shown at the festival's lead-in at Indigo's downtown, the film is a haunting meditation on the origins of the atomic age that revisits the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
>> 7:30 p.m. Thursday will feature the closing-night film "September Tapes," with director Christian Johnston and actor Wali Razaqui in attendance. It's the first feature film shot in an active war zone, namely Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban. Much of the film's footage was held by the U.S. Department of Defense.
DOCUMENTARY selections are highlighted by a healthy number of films made timely by this year's presidential election, including "Everywhere But Florida," Robert Greenwald's "Outfoxed" and "Uncovered: The Truth About the Iraq War," the post-9/11 "Parallel Lines" and "Bush's Brain," about Republican strategist Karl Rove. (Bush movie reviews Page 24, "Lines" Page 5.)
Cinema Paradise also offers three shorts programs; an animation shorts section; winners of "The Greatest Story Never Told" animated storytelling international competition; a batch of experimental films; "Island Visions," eight films up for this year's Hale Ki'ioni'oni Award and partly judged by last year's winner, Nathan Kurosawa; surf films from Jack Johnson and friends' Moonlight Conspiracy production outfit; and an inaugural "next coast" section featuring films for youth, done in conjunction with a youth media workshop and the documenting of visiting artists The Barnstormers working with teens from Kuhio Park Terrace's PACT program.
www.cinemaparadise.org
California’s DJ Shortkut
kicks back at Indigo
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"I'm not really even trying to put too much on it," said the 28-year-old about the gig via cell phone from his hometown of Daly City, Ca.
Shortkut, real name Jonathan Cruz, is contemplating his upcoming Honolulu visit while waiting for the oil in his car to get changed.
He sounds confident, but still wants to keep the door open for a few last-minute changes once he gets in front of the actual crowd.
"I used to plan out my whole set," he said. "Now, I'm just trying to be kick-back about it.
"I'm pretty much down to party with everyone else, and at the same time just show off what I do ... and showcase the whole Beat Junkies style."
IT'S THAT "whole Beat Junkies style" that sets Shortkut apart from most of his peers. Since joining the Southern California-based DJ collective in 1994, he's teamed with DJs D-Styles, Melo-D, J.Rocc, Babu, What? and Mr. Choc to rep the West Coast on wax, in mixing battles worldwide and on California's radio airwaves.
"We just feed off each other's knowledge," said Shortkut. "A lot of my influences come from my groupmates."
And likewise, the 1994 and 1998 Dance Music Community West Coast champion influences the rest of his crew.
He was part of group that won the International Turntablist Federation team titles in 1997 and 1998, the first two years that the division was part of the competition. It was a feat later repeated by Hawaii's own Nocturnal Sound Krew in 2001 and 2002.
Shortkut, along with DJs QBert and MixMaster Mike, was also a part of the now-defunct Invisibl Skratch Piklz and continues with DJs Apollo and Vinroc as part another collective, the Triple Threat DJs.
These days, he also works as an on-air mixer at Oakland's KBTB-FM, and is working on a reworked version of his mixtape, "Rekonstrukted Elements," originally released in 1998.
"I only made about 100 copies, and it ended up getting bootlegged around the world," he said. "I ended up going to France, and some guy from Germany asked me to sign one!"
The legit re-release of "Rekonstrukted Elements" is expected in November, and Shortkut said he plans to tour in cities around the world once it arrives in stores.
AFTER A few more questions about the status of his friendship with former ISP member and current Hawaii resident DJ QBert ("We still talk ... I'm hooking up with him when I get out there") and his take on the current state of hip-hop ("It could get better, I guess you would say ... we get older, times change and the music changes"), the conversation returns to the party tonight at Indigo.
"Ever time I play in Hawaii, man ... it's always love," Shortkut said. "Maybe I'll break some stuff that they haven't heard before.
"I'm just trying to keep it open. ... I'll try to bring out the traditional Beat Junkies mixing style and mess with the doubles, remixing it on the spot."
www.cinemaparadise.org
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