9:00 am HAPPY CLEANERS English, Korean with English subtitles (Director: Julian Kim)
A struggling family fights to keep their dry cleaning business in Flushing’s Koreatown, all the while trying to heal intergenerational wounds and broken ties. Compelling, deeply personal, and reflective of the Korean American experience, this intergenerational ensemble drama written and directed by Julian Kim and Peter S. Lee breaks down the model minority myth and reveals the very real hardships Asian immigrant families like the Chois face every day
10:45 am OKINAWAN BLUE - Japanese with English subtitles (Director Tsukasa Kishimoto)
What does it mean to live on an island? Set in the quaint, picturesque island of Zamami, OKINAWAN BLUE explores what the island life means to its visitors and residents, weaving three strands of stories together into an omnibus film. Funny, quirky, and moving, OKINAWAN BLUE captures the breathtaking beauty and uniqueness of the region and its people.
1:00 pm WE, THE VOYAGERS: LATAS CHILDREN (Part 1: Our Vaka & Part 2: Our Moana)
Introduction + Q&A with Directors H. Wyeth and Marianne "Mimi" George
A 2-part documentary of the living crew of Lata, the Polynesian culture-hero who built the first voyaging canoe and navigated across the Pacific. They use only ancient designs, materials and methods and invite everyone to reconnect with ancestors and sustainable lifeways. This is the real Moana!
3:45 pm MAUNA KEA: THROUGH THE KIA'I LENS (Directors Ciara Lacy & Jalena Keane-Lee)
2 Documentaries capturing the ‘Kapu Aloha’ movement happening on top of Mauna Kea and the fight to block the controversial Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) project from breaking ground. STANDING ABOVE THE CLOUDS follows Native Hawaiian mother-daughter activists at the forefront of the movement and THIS IS THE WAY WE RISE, follows Dr. Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio through her creative journey through poetry inspired by the Ku Kia‘i Mauna.
4:15 pm TOKYO HULA + Q&A Meet the Director Lisette-Marie Flanary
Today it is estimated there are nearly 2 million people dancing hula in Japan—a figure greater than the entire population of Hawai‘i. With more people dancing hula in Japan than in Hawai‘i where the native art was born, this explosive growth has created a multimillion dollar industry based on culture as commodity. But what motivates Japanese students and teachers to dance hula and how is it translated into a foreign culture? How do Native Hawaiians participate in this cross-cultural exchange?
Special Events
Waimea Film Festival Pricing
$10/film or
$30/All Day Pass includes meal provided by Gina's Anykine Grindz
*Proceeds benefit the Historic Waimea Theater
An encore of successful films featured at the 39th Annual Hawai'i International Film Festival in Honolulu as well as a film shot by Kaua'i's own Serge Marcil!
Meet the Directors of WE, THE VOYAGERS: LATAS CHILDREN &
TOKYO HULA. Q&A Sessions will begin immediately following each of these films.