HAWAI‘I FILM RECEIVES SPECIAL JURY PRIZE AT TAHITI FILM FESTIVAL
International Jury Honors “Noho Hewa” for Being “Militant and Uncompromising”
International Jury Honors “Noho Hewa” for Being “Militant and Uncompromising”
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Saturday, January 30, 2010
MEDIA CONTACT:
Ana Currie, Pasifika Foundation Hawai‘i
e-mail: acurrie@hawaii.rr.com
PAPEETE, TAHITI– Hawaiian filmmaker Anne Keala Kelly’s newly released documentary“Noho Hewa: The Wrongful Occupation of Hawai‘i” was awarded a specialjury prize at this week’s Festival International Du Film DocumentaireOceanien (FIFO) in Tahiti.
Thepacked Grand Theatre at Papeete’s Maison de la Culture exploded intoloud cheers, hoots and applause when the special jury prize for Noho Hewa: The Wrongful Occupation of Hawai‘i was announced last night at the closing event of the Festival International Du Film Documentaire Oceanien (FIFO) in Tahiti.
Jurors were moved by its raw and passionate portrayal of the struggles of today’s native Hawaiians.
Noho Hewa had attracted considerable attention among theprofessional and community viewers for its edgy and explicit expressionof the ongoing effects of colonialism in Hawai‘i. For many Tahitian andother visiting Pacific island viewers, Kelly’s film enabled them tounderstand, for the first time, the realities faced by the Hawaiianpeople in their own homeland, and the kanaka Maoli (native Hawaiian)resistance to the desecration and obliteration of their culture by theUS military, real estate development, and tourism pressures.
In the Hawaiian language, hewa means “wrong” and nohomeans “to occupy.” From the military exercises and bombings at Makuaand Pohakuloa and the desecration of burial sites at Hokulia andWal-mart, to Maoli homelessness – in stark contrast to the widespreadconstruction of upscale gated communities – and the resistance to theAkaka bill, Kelly’s film weaves a context of understanding of how theU.S. overthrow and continuing occupation of the sovereign Kingdom ofHawai‘i affect every aspect of native Hawaiian life. The film makes acase that through the force of U.S. laws, economy, militarism, and realestate speculation, the Hawaiian people are facing systematic,intentional obliteration.
The film features interviews with Hawaiian activists and academics,whose comments serve to further clarify the significance and direnessof the ongoing erosion of Hawaiian culture. That’s a message thatresonates deeply with the people of the islands of Pasifika, most ofwhom continue to struggle with many of the same issues.
Noho Hewa was more than six years in production, and in 2008 won the Hawaii International Film Festival’s Award For Best Documentary. Kellyis a Hawaiian journalist and filmmaker who has reported on politics,culture, the environment and indigenous peoples. Keala’s reports airregularly on the Pacifica Network’s Free Speech Radio News and herprint journalism has appeared in The Nation, Indian Country Today, Honolulu Weekly, Hawai‘i Island Journaland other publications. Her news footage has been featured on TheNewsHour with Jim Lehrer and Democracy Now! and in September 2008 Kealaco-produced “The Other Hawaii” for Al Jazeera. She has an MFA inDirecting from UCLA.
The Grand Prize winning film at FIFO was Te Henua E Noho, a moving film about the effects of climate change on a small island community. Te Henua E Noho was directed by New Zealander Briar March and produced by On The Level Productions.
The winner of the Prix Selection du Public – the popular choice of screening audiences – was Terre Natale: Retour a Rurutu,directed by Jean-Michele Corillon and produced by Kwanza & BleuLagon Production & Canal Overseas. A visually stunning andemotionally rich presentation, this documentary tells the story of twoyoung adults, a brother and sister, who were born on the island ofRurutu in the Austral archipelago of French Polynesia and adopted asvery small children by a French couple. After growing up in France,they return to Rurutu to re-connect with their culture and re-discovertheir roots.
Three special jury awards were given; along with Noho Hewa, the Austalian film Bastardy and the New Zealand documentary The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls were also given special tribute by the jury for their unique and compelling character.
FIFO is one of Pasifika’s major film events, a gathering of filmmakers,TV producers, and multimedia journalists from throughout the region tomeet, network, and develop projects together. The 2010 festivalscreenings attracted more than 20,000 viewers in four screening venuesat the cultural center.
Festival officials describe the event as a “meeting place for lovers ofthe Pacific, our vast region, which boasts such a varied and thrivingcultural heritage, synonymous with dreaming, mystery and exploration .. . an enriching, sometimes astonishing, often surprising experienceranging over characters, identities, history and current affairs.”
Hawai‘i was represented at the festival by Kelly’s film, as well as by Olohega, a documentary produced by a partnership of Pasifika Foundation Hawai‘i (PFH) and TV New Zealand/Tagata Pasifika. Olohegawas selected by the festival committee as one of the 25 films screenedfor general festival audiences in addition to the 17 films that wereentered in the juried competition. Both Noho Hewa and Olohegawere also among the seven films chosen for special question-and-answersessions, an indication of the intense interest generated by theseHawai‘i-based films. Pasifika Foundation Hawai‘i executive director AnaCurrie was on hand to answer questions about Olohega, whichchronicles the poignant and heartbreaking story of Tokelau’s fourthisland, Olohega, which was claimed by an American whaling captain, EliJennings, in 1856. In 1925, Jennings’ descendants utilized theirAmerican connections to successfully annex Olohega, known then as“Swains Island,” to the United States, and continue to maintain theirownership of the island today.
The film tells the stories of the Tokelauan people of Olohega who wereforcibly evicted from their island home in the 1950s. In their ownwords, the elders who now live in a tight-knit community on Oahu inHawai‘i, describe their shock, sadness and shame at their eviction, aswell as their longing to return to their beautiful and fertile island.Only a handful of people now live on Olohega, an island that once, ascommunal farming land, supported many Tokelauan communities with itsbounty of crops.
After announcing the special jury award for Noho Hewa,jury member Elise Huffer explained that every member of the jury hadbeen deeply affected by Kelly’s film. “This film is militant anduncompromising,” she stated, and said that the jury was unanimous inchoosing to award a special prize for this film that told such animportant story in such a powerful way.
“I’m shocked and deeply honored,” said Kelly in a post-award interview.“And for me the most important thing is that the message of the filmwas so strongly embraced by the jury, and by the audiences here. Thisis a story that needs to be told, and to be able to share it with otherpeople of the Pacific is very meaningful to me.”
-end-
Photo Courtesy of FIFO
IDs on “FIFO Award Winners” group shot:
From left:
Dong-Ho Kin (jury member from South Korea); Adolphe Colrat (French Polynesia High Commisioner); Jean-Michel Corillon (director, Terre Natale); George Andrews (accepting award for Leanne Pooley, The Topp Twins); Anne Keala Kelly (director, Noho Hewa); Amiel Courtin-Wilson (director, Bastardy); Viri Taimana (jury member from Tahiti); Briar March (director, Te Henua E Noho);Florence Aubenas (Jury President); Gaston Tong Sang (President ofFrench Polynesia); Olivier Poivre D’Arvor (jury member from France);Michael Kops (Regional Director, RFO Polynesie); Mita Teriipaia(Minister of Culture of French Polynesia).
IDs on “FIFO Award Winners” group shot:
From left:
Dong-Ho Kin (jury member from South Korea); Adolphe Colrat (French Polynesia High Commisioner); Jean-Michel Corillon (director, Terre Natale); George Andrews (accepting award for Leanne Pooley, The Topp Twins); Anne Keala Kelly (director, Noho Hewa); Amiel Courtin-Wilson (director, Bastardy); Viri Taimana (jury member from Tahiti); Briar March (director, Te Henua E Noho);Florence Aubenas (Jury President); Gaston Tong Sang (President ofFrench Polynesia); Olivier Poivre D’Arvor (jury member from France);Michael Kops (Regional Director, RFO Polynesie); Mita Teriipaia(Minister of Culture of French Polynesia).
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