Posted on: Friday, October 22, 2004

Film festival is back in a big way

By Michael Tsai

Advertiser Staff Writer

It might have been sheer exhaustion that put the manic smile on the face of Chuck Boller, executive director of the Louis Vuitton Hawaii International Film Festival.

Actor David Wenham, film critic Emanuel Levy and actress Maggie Cheung helped open the Hawaii International Film Festival yesterday.

Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser

More likely it was the fact that every time he looked to the right of his podium yesterday, he locked eyes with Flying Snow, or Faramir, or the legendary film critic, or the former Hollywood bigwig who's turning Hawai'i into a hotbed of student filmmaking.

To be sure, there is star power to burn at this year's resurgent festival, as evidenced by the throng of media representatives who turned out for the opening-day press conference featuring Maggie Cheung (a star of the Chinese blockbuster film "Hero"), David Wenham ("The Lord of the Rings"), Emanuel Levy (longtime film critic for Variety) and Chris Lee (chairman of the University of Hawai'i Academy for Creative Media).

And with cinematographer Allen Daviau ("ET," "The Color Purple"), filmmaker Bruce Brown ("Endless Summer") and singer/filmmaker Jack Johnson ("The Moonshine Conspiracy") waiting in the wings, it is clear the film festival isn't just back for another run, it's back.

The festival offers 168 films from 24 countries. It opened last night with a screening of "Clean," starring Cheung, and continues through Oct. 31.

According to Boller, the festival's new online ticketing service and a big community response to ongoing fund-raising efforts placed it on perhaps its firmest financial ground.

"It's not a bigger festival in terms of the number of films," said Boller. "Our advertising (featuring a hula dancer in a celluloid-film skirt) created a real buzz early on and the people we have here this year there's no getting around the fact that movie stars bring press."

As the longest continuously running film festival in Hawai'i, the Louis Vuitton Hawaii International Film Festival has been subject to criticism from inside and outside the local film industry (too focused/not focused enough; too many films/not enough films), and has seen its standing in the Islands challenged by the Hollywood-focused Maui International Film Festival and by more indie-centric festivals like Cinema Paradise and GiRL FeST.

The festival earned its formidable reputation by emphasizing new films by emerging talents in Asia and the Pacific. Over the past couple of years, the festival has emphasized showcasing works by local talent.

Dorothy Moritsugu, a member and volunteer from the earliest days of the festival, said she and her husband, Toshio, noticed a sense of renewed energy and purpose starting with last year's festival.

Chuck Boller is executive director of the Louis Vuitton Hawaii International Film Festival.

Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser

"They seem to have gotten a broader base," said Moritsugu, 63. "There were more socioeconomic groups, more age groups.

"Before, there seemed to be one type of person who would show up for the festival. Now, with the radio and TV ads and ads in the community newspapers, they seem to have found a new audience. It has finally blossomed into what it should be."

Moritsugu, whose son is independent filmmaker John Moritsugu ("Scumrock"), hopes to see "at least 20" films this year.

If this year's festival seems like a return to the late 1980s and early 1990s when critics, actors and industry insiders flocked to Ho-nolulu to catch their first glimpse of films by directors like Zhang Yimou, Boller insisted that no special initiative was taken to upgrade the roster of guests.

Cheung said she's been wanting to take part in the festival since Boller first invited her three years ago after a chance meeting in Rotterdam, but film commitments always got in the way.

"I kept telling him, 'Please keep inviting me, don't give up on me,' " she said. "This year happened to be a good year."

Boller had also been trying to get Wenham for several years. It finally happened after a mutual acquaintance in Hawai'i passed along the actor's cell phone number.

Yesterday's panelists agreed that festivals like the Louis Vuitton Hawaii International Film Festival are as important as ever in providing filmgoers a true diversity of experience.

"Foreign-language cinema is in dismay in the U.S.," said Levy. "We now have to consider festivals as theatrical releases. They're the only way to see foreign films. If we depend on what is released commercially, it will be very limited and very poor."

Levy blamed "laziness" in people who don't want to be bothered reading subtitles and an American viewing culture programmed by MTV, commercials and TV sitcoms.

"That's why people say European films seem too slow-paced, not enough action or broad humor, not obvious enough, not a feel-good movie," he said. "That's why film festivals are important."