Film festival kicks off with ‘Big Wave Guardians’
Films on surfing, music legends, local causes to screen in person, virtually
“Big Wave Guardians” follows the history of Hawaii’s lifeguards and the perils they face amid massive swells and life-and-death rescues. It will screen on the first night of the Maui Film Festival’s Stardust Cinema that runs from Wednesday through Sunday at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center. Photos courtesy Maui Film Festival
Singer-songwriter/drummer Phil Collins speaks during the documentary “Immediate Family,” which spotlights the musicians behind some of the biggest hits of the 1970s and 1980s and will show at the MACC on Friday.
“Big Wave Guardians” follows the history of Hawaii’s lifeguards and the perils they face amid massive swells and life-and-death rescues. It will screen on the first night of the Maui Film Festival’s Stardust Cinema that runs from Wednesday through Sunday at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center. Photos courtesy Maui Film Festival
Singer-songwriter/drummer Phil Collins speaks during the documentary “Immediate Family,” which spotlights the musicians behind some of the biggest hits of the 1970s and 1980s and will show at the MACC on Friday.
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With more than 60 feature films, documentaries and shorts screening at the 2023 Maui Film Festival in person and virtually, the impressive lineup starts off with the awe-inspiring "Big Wave Guardians" on Wednesday evening at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center.
Opening with scenes of Oahu's Pipeline as a narrator announces, "when a surfer is knocked unconscious, they only have four to six minutes before they run out of oxygen, so you have to act fast," this feature-length documentary explores the dramatic stories of Hawaii's lifeguards who risk their lives in some of the world's most dangerous waves.
It traces their history beginning with Duke Kahanamoku and the Waikiki Beach Boys, who formed the first official lifeguard service to help protect tourists, developing life-saving techniques that are still used today.
Emphasizing the danger on the North Shore, veteran lifeguard Johnny Angel explains that he tells tourists that being hit by a 20-feet wave is akin to "pretty much being mauled by a grizzly bear."
With a tribute to Eddie Aikau, the film includes Brian Keaulana and Terry Ahue pioneering the use of Jet Skis for lifeguards, and interviews with some of the world's best watermen and women, such as Kelly Slater, discussing the risks of surfing mega waves.
The film starts at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday and is followed at 7:45 p.m. by "Humanity Stoked," which spotlights world-famous skateboarders, scientists, artists, musicians, activists and educators reflecting on their unique experiences and what it means to be human.
Another film screening at the MACC at 5:30 p.m. Friday is "Immediate Family," which portrays the musicians behind many of the hit songs from the 1970s and 1980s. The wonderful documentary examines the contributions of session musicians like guitarist/vocalist Danny "Kootch" Kortchmar, bassist Leland Sklar Bass, drummer Russ Kunkel, guitarist/vocalist Waddy Wachtel and guitarist/vocalist Steve Postell.
Featuring interviews with many music greats, the film's director Denny Tedesco reported in a news release: "Within five days of taking the project on, we had Carole King, James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt, Jackson Browne, Phil Collins, Don Henley, Stevie Nicks and David Crosby booked for interviews."
"All I can express is admiration for these guys," says Keith Richards in the film. "They were better players than everybody else."
And, King explained in the film that their "gold standard is to make sure that every song they play on comes out even better than the songwriter imagined."
It will be followed at 8 p.m. Friday by the film "Jules," which follows the quiet life of a man in western Pennsylvania whose day is upended when a UFO and extra-terrestrial passenger crash land in his backyard.
Multiaward-winning Maori musician Tiki Taane from Ngati Maniapoto community is featured with a 50-piece orchestra in the concert film, "Tiki Taane in Session with CSO," screening at 8:45 p.m. Sunday at the MACC. Taane's debut single "Always on my Mind," spent a record-breaking 55 weeks in New Zealand's top 40 chart.
Other Sunday films include "Sweet Adventure," a tale of travel, friendship and great waves, set in El Salvador, at 5:30 p.m.; and "Savage Waters," about a mythical, never-ridden wave in the remote waters of the Atlantic, showing at 6:50 p.m.
Running Wednesday through Sunday in person at the MACC, the festival also features the Virtual Cinema available July 3 to 30, including several films spotlighting local issues and figures.
With spectacular underwater and above-water footage, Alli Waters' documentary "Under Waters -- A Maui Victory" gives a shoutout to the activists who are helping save Maui's precious coral reefs from destruction by wastewater pollution. The film includes input from Maui's Ekolu Lindsey, Kimokeo Kapahulehua and Matt Meola, as well as Hawaii Wildlife Fund co-founder Hannah Bernard, one of the plaintiffs who took Maui County to the U.S. Supreme Court over its use of injection wells in West Maui.
"We're losing the reefs," Maui surfer Francisco Porcella notes in the film. "Beautiful reefs are dying."
Other highlights of the Virtual Cinema include surfing-centered films such as "Ground Swell: The Other Side of Fear," which includes Maui's Kai Lenny in this epic portrait of big wave surfers.
Shot partly at Jaws, it covers the 2021-22 big wave season, which saw Vini dos Santos surf a 97-foot wave at Nazare, Portugal.
"The surfers talked about how they face fear," noted director/producer Paul Taublieb in a news release. "That fear is a tool, fear is a device and if in watching a maniac riding giant Nazare or Pipe or Mavericks and overcome their fear, maybe I can a tad little bit better in my life."
When thinking about the origins of surfing, most folks may not think of Africa. But in "Wade in the Water: A Journey into Black Surfing and Aquatic Culture," professor Kevin Dawson reports that "surfing is a 1,000-year-old tradition, developed independently from Senegal to Angola." This novel documentary illustrates how children at Elmina in Ghana in 1676 learned to swim on bits of boards.
Another virtually available film, the terrific music documentary "Born in Chicago," is narrated by the Blues Brothers' Dan Aykroyd and explores a pivotal time in the evolution of blues, with Steve Miller noting: "It couldn't have happened anywhere but Chicago." It includes interviews with B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Bob Dylan and Keith Richards.
Among the Hawaii-themed shorts screening virtually, "I Am Kanaka" features Kaina Makua from Kauai, who set up a nonprofit, after-school program mentoring kids, while "Scaling up: Hawaii's Food Future," looks at how a state that imports up to 90 percent of what it eats can rely more on producing its own food.
Five Hawaii island kupuna share their mo'olelo of life "back in the day" and how they see it changing in this modern age in the documentary "Hometown Legends." It pays homage to paniolo, lawai'a, po'e ulana, pahu carvers and hoe wa'a, and offers wisdom important to pass down to the next generations.
The 2023 Maui Film Festival presents the Stardust Cinema Wednesday to Sunday at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center's A&B Amphitheater & Yokouchi Pavilion. Gates open at 5 p.m. Per-night tickets are $36, plus applicable fees. A five-night pass is available for $150, plus applicable fees. Individual tickets are available at MauiArts.org while five-night passes can be purchased through the MACC box office at (808) 242-SHOW (7469) from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday. Virtual Cinema single tickets cost $12, and passes range from $22 to $144, available at www.mauifilmfestival.com.