Pacific Films Provide a Window
Indie Films at Festival of Pacific Arts and Culture
Festival of Pacific Arts and Culture
The Festival of Pacific Arts and Culture (FestPAC) was recently held in Honolulu. It is celebrated every four years, hosted by one of the participating island entities. I wrote here about the Festival. I have a passion for independent films and the festival offerings was rich.
Regionʻs Independent “Indie” Films Screened
I love indie films because you are exposed to ideas, experiences, bits of history that you never would have seen if you stay in your own bubble of mainstream media and streaming services. There was a documentary film from New Zealand — A Boy Called Piano — directed by Nina Nawalowalo, about an elder Samoan man giving testimony in a public hearing about the impact of his experiences as a ward of state when he was a teen. The skill that this filmmaker had in blending archival footage with interviews, with imagery, with despair, with hope — was so soul-touching. I not only had “chicken skin” (goose bumps) but also, tears. When the politician of Samoan descent speaks up at the hearing to express the responsibility that she takes for what happened to him and to the other children, it moved me. That he found redemption as a…
