Posted on: Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Films with Island ties worth catching at HIFF
By Michael Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer
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"Only the Brave" producer Karen Criswell and writer/producer/director Lane Nishikawa were at a recent Honolulu screening of their film.
GREGORY YAMAMOTO | The Honolulu Advertiser
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This year's Louis Vuitton Hawaii International Film Festival features some 200 films and dozens of related events. Here's a short, very incomplete list of films you won't want to let slip through the cracks. (One catch: You'll have to choose between true love and great music tomorrow.)
"Mutual Appreciation" — Andrew Bujalski, winner of the Someone to Watch award at the 2004 Independent Spirit Awards for his 2003 film "Funny Ha Ha," returns with this truly original and oddly engrossing black-and-white feature about a man in search of, among other things, a drummer. "Mutual Appreciation" screens at Dole Cannery Stadium 19 at 7:30 tonight.
Bujalski said he had an initial inkling that the film might operate along the lines of Andy Warhol and Paul Morrissey's '70s classic "Trash," although, Bujalski said, the final result "couldn't be more different."
Fellow Harvard-ite Mynette Louie, film industry coordinator for the Hawai'i Film Office, served as co-producer.
Another Hawai'i connection: Punahou graduate and former Dambuilders guitarist Eric Masunaga was the sound mixer.
"Keepers of the Flame" — Best known for his long and luminous career as a musician, Eddie Kamae has proved no less impressive as a filmmaker and historian. His latest documentary (produced by his wife, Myrna) examines the lives of three influential Hawaiian women — Mary Kawena Pukui, 'Iolani Luahine, and Edith Kanaka'ole — all born on the Big Island within a 20-year span. The film is paired with Heather Giugni's "Aloha Live: On the Road with Willie K. and Amy Gilliom." The screening starts at 6:15 p.m. tomorrow at the Hawai'i Theatre. The evening also includes performances by the Sons of Hawaii and Amy Gilliom.
"True Love and Mimosa Tea" — Cary Hiroyuki-Tagawa plays a mystical matchmaker who brews a special tea to bring star-crossed lovers Tamlyn Tomita and Greg Watanabe together. (Tagawa's role was originally written for a woman, but, hey, who can deny a man in wooden getas?) Producer Dana Hankins spent four years trying to bring this film — based on a short story by Honolulu Magazine fiction-contest winner Joey Char — to the screen. Expect a TV broadcast on one of the local network affiliates in the near future. It screens at 8 p.m. tomorrow at Dole Cannery Stadium 18 as part of Hawaii Panorama 4 (rush-line tickets only).
"Only the Brave" — Hawai'i-born Lane Nishikawa wrote and directed this film based on the real-life experiences of his four nisei uncles who served in the 100th/442nd Regimental Combat Team and Military Intelligence Service during World War II. Local actors Jason Scott Lee and Mark Dacascos star. Big Island residents can still catch it at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Hualalai Cinemas in Kona, or 7:30 p.m. Nov. 4 at the Palace Theatre in Hilo.
Reach Michael Tsai at mtsai@honoluluadvertiser.com.
