Louis Vuitton Hawaii International FIlm Festival 2008

INDIGENOUS FILMMAKING & GLOBALIZATION: Capturing the Film Oeuvre of the Pacific Islander in the 21st Century

From the Western caricatures of SOUTH PACIFIC and BLUE HAWAII, to ONCE WERE WARRIORS, WHALE RIDER and THE LAND HAS EYES breaking the shackles of post-colonial pop culture and media, this is an exhilarating time to be a Pacific Islander filmmaker, thanks in part to new digital cinema tools, film/media education, all effects of Globalization. The panel will consist of filmmakers and scholars of Pacific Islander descent, as they discuss on this new, exciting trend of independent, as well as government funded, film making in the Pacific and recapturing the Pacific Islander motif. Confirmed guests include Professor Vilsoni Hereniko, Faculty Chair of the Center for Pacific Islands Studies at UH Manoa, and writer-director of Sundance hit THE LAND HAS EYES; Maori actor Cliff Curtis (WHALE RIDER, ONCE WERE WARRIORS, SUNSHINE); New Zealand filmmaker Vincent Ward (RAIN OF THE CHILDREN, RIVER QUEEN).