Roger Corman's films include this cheesy classic.

Godfather of indies
to be honored

Roger Corman, dubbed "King of the B Movie" with more than 360 films to his credit, will be honored during the Hawaii International Film Festival in special showings on Kauai, site of his "Naked Paradise" (1957) and "She Gods of Shark Reef" (1958).

Hawaii International Film Festival 25th annual event: Oct. 20-30 Venues: Dole Cannery, Hawaii Theatre and Doris Duke Theatre, Honolulu Academy of Arts Tickets: $9 general, $6 seniors and students, $7 HIFF members; on sale beginning Oct. 7 at HIFF box office, Dole Cannery Call: 528-4433 or order online, www.hiff.org Sneak Peak: 'Year One in the North' The Hawaii International Film Festival offers a preview of one of its featured films -- "Year One in the North" -- at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Dole Cannery Stadium 18. The film will be part of a selection of films from the Toei Co., a Japanese studio whose films were popular in Hawaii during the 1950s and '60s. The Japanese-titled "Kita no Zeronen" is a new film that brings together past and present in terms of actors. Veteran Sayuri Yoshinaga appears in her 111th film, while Ken Watanabe ( "The Last Samurai" and the upcoming "Memoirs of a Geisha") is Japan's biggest recent export to Hollywood. Isao Yukisada directs the historic epic set in the Meiji Restoration, circa 1871, about a woman who must endure a forced northward migration to Hokkaido and build a new life in a new world, in a new age. Call 528-3456, ext. 11, or go to the festival Web site, www.hiff.org.

Corman, 80, and his wife Julie will attend the events Oct. 28 and 30 at historic Waimea Theater. Also possible is a seminar in Honolulu on Oct. 27 with film critic Roger Ebert, a HIFF judge, said Art Umezu, Kauai County film commissioner.

Corman's best-known film is "The Little Shop of Horrors" (1960), starring Jack Nicholson in his first major role. The 35mm feature was shot in two days and a night.

Other notable Corman films are "The Raven" (1963), starring Vincent Price, Boris Karloff and Nicholson; "Pit and the Pendulum" (1961), also starring Price; "Caged Heat" (1974); "Death Race 2000" (1975), with David Carradine and Sylvester Stallone; and "Android" (1982).

HIFF is trying to get two of Corman's best-known films for the screenings.

Corman attempted to break into films after studying engineering -- a subject he considered ideally suited to making low-budget films on a tight schedule. He started as a messenger for 20th Century Fox, rising to story analyst.

His direct involvement in films began in 1953 as a producer and screenwriter; his debut as director was in 1955. Between then and retirement in 1971, he directed dozens of films, often as many as seven per year, typically shot extremely quickly on sets left over from other, larger productions.

A screenwriter, producer, director, distributor and sometimes actor, Corman is called the godfather of independent moviemaking, known for tiny budgets, assembly-line production and making a profit.

He made movies with a little sex, a little violence and some sort of gimmick: from gangsters, bikers and hippies to women in prison, monsters from outer space and creatures from beyond the grave.

Corman is also known for his eye for talent. Among many world-class names employed by him at early stages of their careers are Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Jonathan Demme, James Cameron, Peter Bogdanovich and Joe Dante.

His first Kauai movie, the 68-minute drama "Naked Paradise," is about a gangster and his henchmen who try to get a boat to get off a tropical island after a botched robbery. The film stars Richard Denning, who later played the governor on "Hawaii Five-0."

"She Gods of Shark Reef" is about two men escaping the police by ship who are blown off course by a typhoon and shipwrecked on an uncharted island populated by women who make a living diving for pearls. What the men don't know is that the women are also part of a shark cult that sacrifices young virgins to the sharks.