Maui has long held serious allure for artists around the world.
Georgia O’Keefe—universally lauded for her paintings of the American Southwest—took to Hana’s verdant shores when she was commissioned to paint two canvases for Dole Pineapple in 1939. Country music icon Willie Nelson calls Spreckelsville one of his homes away home, while Kris Kristofferson savors Maui’s remote eastern coast. Clint Eastwood, Steven Tyler, Owen Wilson, and the master of talk show artistry Oprah Winfrey are familiar faces around the Valley Isle. And who can forget that Maui’s lush North Shore is the long-time home of Poet Laureate and environmental advocate W.S. Merwin? Given the inspiration Maui arouses, it’s no surprise that it’s also home to one of the most exciting film festivals in the country, The Maui Film Festival.
Created by media arts maven Barry Rivers, the Maui Film Festival launched its first celebration in 2000; since then, the annual event has garnered global acclaim for its topnotch celebrity sightings, the island’s sultry setting—and, of course, the outstanding films it showcases.
Much of its appeal is due to the fact that Rivers intentionally focuses on booking films that, like Hawaii itself, extend heartening, even healing messages and insights.
“There’s enough darkness surrounding us all,” the New York native and former director-producer told Variety. “There is acrimony in the culture and among nations, and people are always being confronted with problems but no easy solutions. So we want to show the world as it might be.”
“It’s not a lineup of Candyland films,” Variety is quick to point out. Some “tackle subjects that are challenging and gritty, but the endings are uplifting and transformative. Rivers says they are films ‘at the intersection of smart and heart’”—unsurprising for a veteran Mauian who, with his wife, Stella (who serves as the festival’s co-director) raised three children in a rustic Hawaiian commune.
The integrity of this vision has spurred a number of luminaires to cross the Pacific every June to attend the assortment of events Rivers and his team present. Past honorees have included Breaking Bad’s Bryan Cranston, three-time Academy Award nominee Viola Davis, Claire Danes, Olivia Wilde, Kristen Bell, Dennis Quaid, Felicity Huffman, Beetlejuice director Tim Burton, and Maui’s own Nelson—who, in 2009, took home Maui Film Festival’s Maverick Award for his artistic achievements and political expression.
And it isn’t just the Hollywood A-listers that are given star treatment (privacy, scant paparazzi, and the island’s phenomenal weather are chief among the festival’s draws): Guests are granted 40-plus films to choose from over the five-day event, as well as the chance to watch Q & As with fest’s honored leads. Learning to Drive—starring Patricia Clarkson and Ben Kingsley—Alan Rickman’s A Little Chaos, and the highly praised surfing documentary Highwater are just a few of the films that were exhibited at the fest.
Held in Wailea and at the Maui Arts and Cultural Center, the festival isn’t entirely about cinema—the bigger picture of it all also includes several star-studded, first-rate events:
Taste of Summer
The Taste of Summer event is held at the Grand Wailea
Typically held on the gorgeous grounds of the Grand Wailea, the Maui Film Festival’s Taste of Summer kicks off the fun fete with an exceptional culinary arts celebration.
In 2016, patrons were offered a bevy of stellar eats, including a Hawaiian poke station with ahi and Hamachi; Hamakua mushroom grilled flatbread; roasted local beets with fig balsamic; fresh oysters, and ultra-luxe desserts (such as dark chocolate Namelaka with cherry pearls and creamed coconut with fresh-picked mango).
Hobnobbing with visiting celebs is just as delicious, while live music, exquisite cocktails, and sunset views vie for attention.
Taste of Chocolate
photos from a past Taste of Chocolate event
As if talking story with Zac Efron, Megan Fox, and William H. Macy weren’t enough: One of Maui Film Festival’s most anticipated events is their annual Taste of Chocolate, a luscious affair that highlights Wailea’s pastry chefs’ greatest inventions—primarily in the form of chocolate.
Hosted on the grounds of the Four Seasons, past showstoppers have included milk chocolate panna cotta with tropical fruit, coconut truffles, chocolate cheesecake ganache with Grand Marnier syrup, molten chocolate with salted caramel—even cocoa and Kula coffee-braised short ribs.
With the star-lit sky—and star appearances—this is one of the most decadent evenings of an already extravagant celebration.
Taste of Wailea
By far, our favorite event: The Taste of Wailea
Widely considered Maui Film Festival’s premier event—if not one of the island’s hottest parties of the year—Taste of Wailea brings together the island’s preeminent chefs to create one culinary masterpiece after another.
The setting alone is well-worth the spendy ticket: On Wailea’s Gold and Emerald Golf Courses, which provides spectacular vistas of Haleakala above and the Pacific in the super-close distance.
Past chefs have included Peter Merriman of Merriman’s Kapalua and Monkeypod Kitchen, Cameron Leward of Spago, Bev Gannon of Gannon’s Restaurant and Hali’imaile General Store, and Tylun Pang of the Kea Lani’s Ko.
Dubbed “TOW” and the “Best of the Best of Wailea’s Chefs,” guests can expect dishes that range from mascarpone and lobster risotto with grilled lemon, to ahi crudo with green papaya and coconut. Past desserts have been just as special—like brown butter banana cake and Budino di Cioccolate all Mandorle with tahini butter, raspberry sauce, and Black Sea salt.
With live music and a country club feel (think: bone-white tents, sparkling lights, and rolling green hills), is it any wonder why this event is frequently sold out?
Spago Soiree
Spago is located at the Four Seasons Wailea
Each year, the Valley Isle’s top magazine, Maui No Ka Oi, joins forces with Spago in the Four Seasons Wailea to put on a fashionable event that’s hands-down unforgettable.
Handcrafted specialty cocktails are served alongside Wolfgang Puck’s sumptuous pupus, while guests are given a chance to brush elbows with the likes of Laura Dern or Colin Farrell.
And of course, the films!
Toes-In-The-Sand Cinema
Watch a movie on Wailea Beach!
A favorite among kamaʻaina, the Maui Film Festival’s annual Toes-In-The-Sand-Cinema combines the best of Maui’s beauty and original cinema.
Held on Wailea Beach (an enclave of golden sand christened America’s #1 Beach by “Dr. Beach”), this complimentary, open-to-all event features movies made exclusively by Hawaii-based filmmakers.
Many tend to be culturally important; others are just plain fun. Past gems have included Aina: That Which Feeds Us and Sam Choy’s Poke to Da Max.
Between the crashing waves and rocking resorts (the beach is framed by the Grand Wailea and the Four Seasons), this keiki-friendly bash always brims with aloha.
Celestial Cinema
The laidback film-going experience of Celestial Cinema
Rivers takes full advantage of Maui’s perennially-stunning setting by creating a Celestial Cinema on Wailea’s best golf course, where a 50-foot screen, powered and lit by solar energy, allows guests to get absorbed in films in the lovely outdoor air. (Most guests—including Clint Eastwood—bring along low-back chairs; others carry pillows, towels, and blankets.) Catered by Gannon’s Restaurant, the venue seats up to 2,500 visitors, and is, as the Hollywood Reporter remarks, “the embodiment of relaxed elegance, providing ample opportunity to enjoy stargazing of both the Hollywood and heavenly varieties.” Films at the Celestial Cinema are preceded by a hula show and a tour of the cosmos by the festival’s astronomer, Harriet Witt.
Castle Theater
The Castle Theater at the MACC
Glitzy Wailea isn’t the only venue that features 40 of the 1,000-plus film submissions Rivers receives annually: On the other side of the island (the central side, to be precise) Castle Theater at the Maui Arts and Cultural Center—a multi-tiered performance space complete with an orchestra shell (and pit), superb lighting, and a sprung-wood dance floor—displays several of the festival’s films on its 41’ x 27’ screen (the largest of any 35mm theater in Hawaii). Film showings at this glam spot include live music, dinner, and dessert at the Candlelight Café.
All of the festival’s films, which are produced by filmmakers from around the globe (including Australia, France, and Mexico), have proven to be dramatic and varied, from celebrity-packed features with multi-million-dollar budgets to small, quiet films that underscore Maui Film Festival’s belief in the power of “original cinema:” movies that “allow us to ignite our passion, focus our vision, honor our mission, reveal our character, and soothe our collective souls.”
In 2017, the much-loved festival is launching “Special Showcases,” wherein filmmakers will be honored in four categories: “Mobile Movies” (projects shot entirely with an iPhone or Android mobile device); “Hero Shots” (filmed on GoPro cameras); “Rhythm & Hues” (short or feature-length music videos), “Brands Take Stands!” (content co-created between filmmakers and brands to “educate, celebrate, and generate mandates for changing what is to what might be”), and “It Lives Online!”—series and episodes intentionally created to live on the web.
Sure, the Maui Film Festival may not have the cachet of Sundance or Cannes, but with
“shoes optional” awards ceremonies, Maui Kamikaze Popcorn, and whale sightings in the distance, it is 100% Hawaii—which is, as the Director of Programming at Sundance Trevor Groth writes, “one of the best places in the world to launch a movie.”
