Windsurfing, ice freediving among the Maui Film Festival’s offerings

Event kicks off Wednesday, includes Maui-themed productions

With 90 feature films, documentaries and shorts screening at the 2021 Maui Film Festival Wednesday through Dec. 8, the event’s expansive lineup includes the Hawaii premiere of “Broken Molds,” about the origins of windsurfing.

Screening on the opening night of the Stardust Cinema at 7:10 p.m. at the Maui Arts and Cultural Center’s A&B Amphitheater, “Broken Molds” begins in 1960s California when friends Hoyle Schweitzer and Jim Drake pondered the possibility of combining the sports of surfing and sailing. Receiving the first patent for a sailboard in 1968, they called their design a windsurfer, and Schweitzer began mass-producing sailboards in the early 1970s.

But the problem with the windsurfer patent was that the sailboard had already been invented, and the existence of “prior art,” as it’s called in patent parlance, opened the gates to hoards of copiers, and the lawsuits began.

The documentary features interviews with surfing stars Gerry Lopez, Laird Hamilton, Matt Schweitzer, Kai Lenny, Robby Naish and Jamie O’Brien.

Surfing also highlights some of the films available online at the Virtual Cinema, including “Daughters of the Waves,” which follows Tahitian-born pro surfer Vahine Fierro as she sets her sights on representing France in 2024 at the Paris Olympic Games. Fierro is a regular at Tahiti’s Teahupo’o, one of the most dangerous surf breaks on the planet. Living on the remote island of Huahine-Iti, she has inspired a whole generation of young girls who view her as a role model.

“It’s the best way to live close to nature,” Fierro says in the film of her surfing passion. “It’s a gift from the planet.”

Another waterwoman is at the center of the remarkable documentary “Descent,” which focuses on

Kiki Bosch, one of the world’s only ice freedivers, who enjoys plunging into freezing cold water without wetsuits or oxygen tanks.

“You have to accept the pain of the water,” she says in the film.

Bosch has gone freediving in sub-zero temperatures — including in the Arctic — wearing only a swimsuit. Using the Wim Hof method of cold water tolerance to dive in extreme temperatures, ice freediving became a way for her to heal from trauma, and she shows how others can harness the cold in the same way. It closes the festival at 8:50 p.m. on Nov. 21 at the MACC.

Among the Hawaii-themed shorts screening virtually, “Our Makawao,” by Bob Stone and Matt Yamashita, tells the unique, colorful history of the Upcountry town. The film features interviews with many longtime residents, including Yaemi Yogi and Rachel Shiroma, while Jeff Peterson and Jim Kimo West provide the soundtrack.

Another local production, “Healing Land, Healing People,” explores how the Maui CARES Act was used to employ 70 folks to help regenerate land on Maui and Molokai.

“A Voice For Whales” tells the inspirational story of environmental activists and Pacific Whale Foundation founder,

Greg Kaufman, and his dedication to saving humpback whales from extinction.

“This Is The Way We Rise” follows acclaimed Hawaiian slam poet Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio and her calling to protect sacred sites atop Mauna Kea. “I think about my role as a poet as having power to make people feel,” says Osorio.

Another film features an international figure who visited Maui in recent years — Vandana Shiva, an Indian physicist and activist who has dedicated her life to defending the environment and protecting biodiversity from multinational corporations. Her life’s work, chronicled in the documentary “The Seeds of Vandana Shiva,” has culminated in the creation of seed banks. Called the “Gandhi of grain” and the “rock star” of the antiGMO movement, Shiva spoke at Seabury Hall in 2015.

A delight for world music fans, the fascinating documentary “The Rumba Kings” is dedicated to the golden age of Congolese rumba. In the 1950s, when the Democratic Republic of the Congo was a

Belgian colony, a generation of Congolese musicians fused traditional African rhythms with Afro-Cuban music to create the electrifying beat of Congolese rumba. It was a way of employing music to fight colonial oppression.

One of the musicians featured in the film, guitarist Jhimmy Elenga Zachary, became known amongst his fans as Jhimmy the Hawaiian, as he introduced the Hawaiian guitar style to Congo music. Screening at 7:55 p.m. Friday at the MACC, the film was praised by Afropop Worldwide as “a rich account of the birth and emergence of this quintessential African music genre.”

Primarily shot on Maui, “Aloha Also Means Goodbye” stars actress Stephanie Lyn as a married pharmaceutical rep who attends a conference in Hawaii and embarks on a soul-searching journey. Reconnecting with an old admirer, it becomes a bit of a travelogue as we see her walking around Paia (and viewing Mana Foods’ message board) and visiting Iao Valley, Kaanapali’s Black Rock and La Perouse. The soundtrack includes music by Keali‘i Reichel and Leonard Kwan.

Other films touch on themes of culture and environment that may hit home for local viewers.

In “Firestarter: The Story of Bangarra,” three Aboriginal brothers examine the loss and reclamation of culture and the burden of intergenerational trauma when they transform their young dance company into a world-renowned theater group. A spellbinding visual feast, the UK’s The Guardian praised it as “an exquisite documentary, an engrossing, fast-moving celebration of artistic creation.”

‘I think about my role as a poet as having power to make people feel’

– Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio, acclaimed Hawaiian slam poet

Narrated by Willem Dafoe, “River” is a mesmerizing cinematic and musical odyssey that explores the remarkable relationship between humans and rivers. With music by the Australian Chamber Orchestra and Radiohead, the film spans six continents and draws on contemporary cinematography, including satellite filming, to show rivers on scales and from perspectives never seen before. Collider.com praised: “The ecological dance depicted is both sublime and divine, and through its God’s-eye-view, we gain a new perspective on our world and what we owe to it.” It screens at 5:45 p.m. Wednesday at the MACC.

The 2021 Maui Film festival is presented Wednesday through Nov. 21 at the MACC and virtually online through Dec. 8. Each Stardust Pass at $48 includes all films and festivities on one night plus one complimentary short film from the Virtual Cinema. A vaccination card and mask is required. A Speed of Light Virtual Cinema four-program pass costs $48, and a 10-program pass costs $100. More information is available at www.mauifilmfestival.com.