Filmmakers from around the Pacific are screening their movies to audiences at the Hawaii International Film Festival.
This year’s theme is “creating new traditions,” featured in over 200 movies screened at the Kahala Mall Consolidated Theatres and other Oahu sites in October, including “Myths and Maidens,” a film focused on dispelling deeply racist and sexist stereotypes surrounding Pacific women and their culture.
“Myths and Maidens, it’s really exploring the Western mythology so to speak, of the female form in the Pacific islands and how it’s basically sexualized through the years from a white patriarchal perspective,” said Anderson Le, HIFF’s artistic director.
The film, directed by Lisa Taouma, highlights various Pacific educators, scholars, actors, celebrities, and activists hoping to confront the narrative surrounding the oversexualization of females in the Pacific.
One of the film’s main themes is shifting the perspective away from the stereotypical maiden trope portraying Pasifika women as non-threatening, sexually illustrious, and white-washed, and instead representing them as they are: culturally unique in their individuality.
“I love that the women in this film were strong enough to overcome the stereotypes that they’ve been presented with,” said Jim McManus, an audience member and HIFF enthusiast.
“Myths and Maidens” also highlights the idea of “Changing the Lens” of how beauty is portrayed in the islands. Views like this make the Hawaii International Film Festival a breath of fresh air in the film industry.
“I really hope that audience members are exposed to new perspectives, maybe different groups of people that they would have never seen represented in film before, as well as just new and different stories,” said Melina Kiyomi Coumas, program manager for HIFF.
The festival continues through November 10 with screenings on neighbor islands. For more information, visit hiff.org.
Ally Whaley is a senior studying journalism at UH Mānoa and is mainly interested in investigative journalism and hopes to help victims of abuse.
Grant Nakasone is a junior, third-year journalism major and political science minor at UH Mānoa, and is primarily interested in web and broadcast journalism with a focus in politics.
Josslyn Rose is a second-year journalism major at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa who loves to focus on local stories, cultural events, and politics.
