Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 27, Number 5, 1 May 2010 — ʻŌiwi on the big screen [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ʻŌiwi on the big screen

By Jennifer Armstrong What began as a simple conversation between two people passionate about filmmaking and Hawaiian culture, is now the 'Ōiwi Film Festival filled with stories of the Hawaiian people. In the first film festival of its kind at Doris Duke Theatre,

oiwi iiiiiunaK.ei s — uiuigeiious nawanan iiiiiuiiaK.ei s - tell their stories in their own voices and through their own eyes. Gina Caruso, film curator at Doris Duke Theatre, saw a need to have a film event where Native Hawaiian stories are front and center. "The Doris Duke Theatre at the Honolulu Academy of Arts is honored to be showing these films . . . in celebration of indigenous

Hawanan fiimmakers and fiim, said Caruso. Ann Marie Kirk had a filmmaker's point of view of what this event would mean for Hawai'i. "The goal of the festival is to celebrate the work of Hawaiian filmmakers and to inspire more Hawaiians to heeome a part of this powerful medium," said Kirk, whose award-winning documentary Happy Birthday, Tutu Ruth will be among those screened. Some of the films will have their Hawai'i premiere at the festival, such as Release Our Water directed by Kelly Pauole. "It is a great honor to have our film selected to be in the first ever 'Ōiwi Film Festival," said Pauole. "It means that we now have a venue to launeh our work with the exposure it receives and it motivates other Hawaiians like myself who create films on the side to create more films to help perpetuate our culture, expose injustices and advance our people towards the creation of a Hawaiian Nation." ■

'Ōiwi Film Festival May 1-26 Doris Duke Theatre Honolulu Academyof Arts honoluluacademy.org

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