All Access - 10/19/24 at Village East by Angelika

FILMS:

KANIELA: THE DANNY KALEIKINI STORY
USA | 79 minutes | Pawel Nuckowski, Michael Lum

Kaniela: The Danny Kaleikini Story, is a biographical documentary based on the life of the man known as Hawa’i’s Ambassador of Aloha, as told in his own words.

MAURI
USA | 71 minutes | Zaya Benazzo, Maurizio Benazzo

The film is an intimate, visually stunning testament to a land and a people who have survived removal, exploitation and colonization—and the healing ways that are part of Māori ancestral knowledge.

RED, WHITE, AND BRASS
New Zealand | 85 minutes | Damon Fepulea’i 

When Maka and Veni fail in getting tickets for the most important game of their lives, they decide to form a traditional Tongan marching band, just so they can go to the game.

SHORTS

THE ALI’I KINGS
USA | 27 minutes | Christine Kunewa Walker

Set in the 1960s, a road trip from Utah to Tikiland, California, unveils painful revelations for a Hawaiian-German Mormon family.

APPA

USA | 13 minutes | Keli’i Grace

A short film set on the North Shore of O’ahu based on the true story of a Korean-American farming family tormented by loss and addiction.

BUTTERFLY/BATAPLAI
USA | 8 minutes | Veialu Aila-Unsworth

Raya loves makeup but her family does not. She’s torn between her secret dream of being a makeup artist and her family’s strict religious beliefs. In a nightmare, she receives a profound message from her Papua New Guinean ancestor who encourages her to look at her Indigenous culture for answers.

DEAR ALOHA
USA | 15 minutes | Cris Romento

Displaced Native Hawaiians reveal how aloha sustains them amidst distance, loss, and longing. Meanwhile, back in Hawaiʻi, locals grapple with the history of colonization that has Hawaiians disappearing from their homeland.

DUSK
USA | 9 minutes | Pono Wong

In this cutting-edge experimental multi-media short film, tell a tragic story of an orphan teen struggling to care for his younger brother.

FAIR
USA | 10 minutes | Taylor Gruver

Based on the true story of one woman’s fateful day as a hired party princess at the mansion of her high school nemesis.

HULI

USA | 12 minutes | Daniel Croix

After a boxer relocates from New York to Hawai’i, a friendship with his coach expands his awareness of ancestral connection, purpose, and power. Created on the island of O’ahu Hawai’i.

IN EXILE
Marshall Islands | 11 minutes | Nathan Fitch

A film that explores the US nuclear legacy in the Pacific through the lens of members of the Marshallese community in Arkansas.

KAI HALI’A (SEA OF MEMORY)
USA | 9 minutes | Angelique Kalani Axelrode

In a realm of abstracted and embodied memory, a diasporic Kanaka traces a genealogy of identity through kūpuna (ancestors), ‘āina (land), and ke kai (ocean).

LAST LIGHT
USA | 16 minutes | Koa Bayani

A film crew in Hawai’i fights to get the final shot of a months-long production…thankfully, there’s ten minutes of light left and the director hasn’t finished writing the scene.

LEA TUPU’ANGA / MOTHER TONGUE
Aotearoa | 17 minutes | Vea Mafile’o

A young speech therapist disconnected from her Tongan heritage lies about her Tongan language skills to get a job. Out of her depth, she must find a way to communicate or risk her patient’s life.

MARAHORO
Chile | 17 minutes | Sofía Rodríguez Pizero

A 15-year-old Rapa Nui young boy who has a rough time balancing his father’s wishes for him to become a Rapa Nui folk artist and his own calling from the voices of the sea.

NGAU KAHUA
Chile | 3 minutes | Loreto Vaikapua Gómez Campos, Catalina Baltazar, Macarena Mathias

After feeling homesick for Rapa Nui, Tai immerses himself in virtual reality to relive his childhood on the Island. After remembering that nothing is actually real, he decides to leave the simulation and focus on the present.

THE GATHERING OF NATIONS
USA | 20 minutes | Branscombe Richmond

The 2024 Festival of the Pacific Arts (FestPac) is held in Hawai’i as a symposium for the islands to gather and share in culture, economy, and community. This is a collection of interviews that reflects on the cultural impacts and futures of Polynesia, Micronesia, and Melanesia.

OLA
USA | 4 minutes | Marcus Goh

A Hawaiian teen navigates life and reflects on what his kūpuna has done for him.

ONLY IN AOTEAROA – WĀHINE EDITION
Aotearoa | 22 minutes | Scotty Cotter, Maruia Jensen

Short, sharp, comedy skits told from a distinctly Māori perspective, with real-time conversations between characters that mirror an issue or common experience that affects Māori in a funny, feel-good fashion.

SEARCH FOR HAWAIKI
Aotearoa | 19 minutes | Fredrick Jozef Hoani Teteira Pokai

After years in a psych ward, Fable is released into the care of his estranged whānau only to rediscover his need to find inner peace.

SINA MA TINIRAU
Fiji |  9 minutes | Vilsoni Tausie Hereniko

When a prince is cursed to become an eel and has to win the love of a beautiful woman to become human again, he gifts her with his body in the form of a coconut palm tree in a seductive display.

SNACK
USA | 9 minutes | Lauren To’omalatai

On a night out with friends, Jess briefly opens up about her grandfather’s death. At home, in the kitchen looking for something to eat, she startles her grandmother and the two share a sweet moment through food and song, remembering the man they’ve both lost.

SON OF SAMOA
SAMOA | 10 minutes | Laman Time

Son of Samoa takes you through the journey of Tatau. Where Laman discusses his disconnection from family, community and wavering relationship with himself.

TEINE

Aotearoa | 12 minutes | Giselle Ilaoa

A poignant story of a dutiful eldest daughter within a Samoan household and her internal struggle of the weight of her responsibilities and expectations from her family, as well as, trying to maintain a grasp on her own aspirations in life.

TRADEWINDS
USA | 23 minutes | Mighty Island

Tradewinds in an intimate portrait and examination of the life of CHamoru jazz pianist, Patrick Palomo, whose musical style has combined Chamoru lyrics with the sounds and melodies of contemporary and classic jazz music.

TWO BREATHS
USA | 17 minutes | Kateryna Kurganska

After a man-made disaster decimates an evergreen island, a stranded 11-year-old girl must find the tenacity to leave behind her home with the help of an unlikely friend.

WHO’S THAT GIRL?
USA | 8 minutes | Josh Tatofi

In a vibrant 1950’s high school set in Hawaii, the Sadie Hawkins dance is fast approaching, and as the leader of the jocks, known as “The Mynah Birds,” and the leader of the greasers, vie for the attention of the charismatic leader of the popular girls, “The Puas.”