KILAUEA — Anaina Hou Community Park’s third annual Social Awareness Film Festival begins later this month, with one of nine documentaries scheduled from Feb. 17 through Feb. 27.
The 2022 SAFF lineup is dedicated to “Voices,” following years highlighting themes of immigration and Indigenous peoples and resilience.
“There’s been so much that’s happened across the world for the last five to 10 years: The #MeToo movement, Black Lives Matter, the movement that the kids from ‘US Kids’ started,” Anaina Hou Executive Director Jill Lowry told The Garden Island. “It made me realize we’re getting to a point where people are just tired of the status quo. They want answers, they want change.”
Lowry hopes Anaina Hou’s latest selections amplify such speakers, whether they be “a single voice in the night, so to speak, or … a movement of voices that are just now saying, ‘No more,’” she said.
Pictures include “Attica,” a documentary about the 1971 Attica prison uprising that’s been shortlisted for an Academy Award, and “US Kids,” which chronicles the aftermath of the 2018 Parkland high-school shooting that claimed 17 lives.
Both movies’ directors, and Parkland survivor Samantha Fuentes, will be taking part in question-and-answer sessions following the screenings.
But some voices speak in song or communicate through movement.
SAFF’s opening-night film is “Ka Huaka‘i: The Journey to Merrie Monarch,” which follows kumu, chanters and dancers on their way to the most-prestigious hula event in the world.
Featured halau include Halau Hi‘iakainamakalehua, Ka Leo o Laka i ka Hikina o ka La and Keali‘ika‘apunihonua Ke‘ena A‘o Hula.
“It’s a way to show the very best of Hawaiian culture,” director and producer Gerard Elmore said of Merrie Monarch. “It’s something that’s near and dear to everyone that’s here.”
Elmore was raised on O‘ahu, and identifies with the Hawaiian culture that surrounded him in childhood. But he is not Native Hawaiian, a fact that informs his filmmaking.
“It’s the passion of telling the story of my neighbors and my community,” Elmore said in a recent interview. “I listen to them first, because I’m highly aware this is not our land. We are visitors and we are guests.”
He also chose not to include English subtitles in the documentary’s Hawaiian-language sequences.
This decision was intended to place emphasis on emotional power, rather than “spoon feed” outside audiences.
“There’s no translations in real life,” Elmore said. “We want to drop you into the experience and feel it, when you’re there on that journey with them.”
Elmore is also scheduled to take part in an after-show Q&A session.
‘Cane Fire’ on Kaua‘i
Lowry created the Social Awareness Film Festival, in part, to remind Kaua‘i of issues taking place far beyond its shores.
“Everybody’s busy across the world, but when you’re also geographically isolated, I think there is a tendency to see even less than we normally would,” she explained.
But this year, at least one featured film — 2020’s “Cane Fire” — will hit very close to home.
The 90-minute movie, directed by Anthony Banua-Simon, weaves his family history with footage culled from Hollywood productions set on Kaua‘i.
Its purpose, according to promotional materials, is to illuminate the economic and cultural forces that have cast Hawaiians as “extras” in their own story.
Lowry did not mince words when asked to discuss the message of “Cane Fire” and the sharp contrast between residents’ lived experiences and glamorous blockbusters.
“I think that Native Hawaiians are very clear on their history, and who the culprits were,” she said. “The lessons to be learned are certainly not for them, but remain with some people and institutions that choose to gloss over, romanticize or glamorize Hawaiian history, everything forward of 1778.”
Banua-Simon will be in attendance at “Cane Fire’s” Feb. 24 screening.
Other SAFF features include “Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution,” “This is the Way We Rise,” “The Island President,” “Women Art Revolution” and “Athlete A,” which screens during Free Community Night on Feb. 26.
Tickets and more information can be found online at https://anainahou.org/social-awareness-film-festival-2022/. Screenings will take place at Anaina Hou’s 200-seat Porter Pavilion.
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Scott Yunker, reporter, can be reached at 245-0437 or syunker@thegardenisland.com.
