Editorials

Friday, December 5, 2003

[ OUR OPINION ]
Hearty praise goes
to isle filmmaker

THE ISSUE
A University of Hawaii professor will head to Utah next year for
the premiere screening of his work at the Sundance Film Festival.

CONGRATULATIONS go to Vilsoni Hereniko whose film will make its world premiere at the celebrated Sundance Film Festival in January. He does his adopted island home proud. "The Land Has Eyes" was written and directed by the Hawaii resident who is a professor at the Center for Pacific Island Studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. The film is a family affair, having been co-produced by his wife, Jeannette Paulson Hereniko, founder of the Hawaii International Film Festival.

The screening of the 90-minute movie is of further note because it is the first feature film by an indigenous Fijian filmmaker to be shown at the prestigious festival that has nurtured cinematic neophytes who have become big names in Hollywood, among them Edward Burns, Ashley Judd, Vin Diesel, Quentin Tarantino and Stanley Tucci.

Hereniko is a prolific playwright with a long string of titles and productions to his credit and has written short
stories and children's books as well as scholarly works for journals, magazines and textbooks.

"The Land Has Eyes," made on a shoestring budget with grants from Pacific Islanders in Communications, was filmed on Rotuma, Fiji, where Hereniko grew up as the youngest of 11 children. It tells the story of a young woman who exposes the secrets of powerful people in her search for justice and to restore her family's name.

Like many film festivals, Sundance, founded by Robert Redford, provides a venue for movies that ordinarily would not receive any attention as the mainstream of blockbusters, titanic epics and action-star vehicles crowd commercial screens. Sundance's Native Forum segment offers viewpoints from other cultures, much as the Hawaii International Film Festival.

We wish Hereniko well as he heads for Utah next year.