2008 Maui Film Festival Archive

July of 2005 Zack Weinstein broke his neck while jumping into the Saco River in Maine. He is now a C5-C6 Quadriplegic. In service to other quadriplegic's, we have teamed up with Zack to create 'BACK IN LIFE'. Our hope is that by sharing Zack's powerful experiences in this film, it may provide others with needed strength in an oftentimes daunting struggle.  More...

The personal story of a family's effort to help their son with autism. When the medical establishment has little to offer, they turn to a community of doctors and parents who are experimenting with treatments and helping some children. A Complimentary Screening Open to All.  More...

$10 IN ADVANCE. $12 AT THE DOOR, DAY OF SHOW ONLY
This ticket only includes 10pm showing of Before the Rains.  This film is included on the double feature ticket for The Great Buck Howard.

In this epic period drama with a sharp multicultural perspective, an idealistic British plantation-owner and his Indian right-hand man are caught up in a tragic, violent clash of their peoples.  More...

PLEASE NOTE. No one under the age of 18 years of age will be admitted to this screening.

The iron curtain between gay and straight is crumbling. Recent studies suggest that bisexuality is drastically more widespread than we ever thought. And for young people, dating a girl one week and a guy the next is no big deal. Is the whatever generation ushering in a whole new sexual revolution?  More...

What would you do? Could you forgive? Should you forgive? Life's Big Questions are explored through astonishing acts of forgiveness, courage and will in this insightful documentary. With interviews from spiritual leaders including: Dr. Deepak Chopra, Archbishop Desmund Tutu and His Holiness Sri Ravi Shankar.  More...

Please note change of venue from McCoy Theater to Castle Theater.   Screening time still 4pm.

Phil Donahue and Ellen Spiro’s gripping, award-winning doc, which portrays paralyzed Iraq veteran Tomas Young’s struggle to rise above his wounds by resisting the war that caused them.  More...

This film is ticketed as a double feature program.  It includes the 10pm screening of Young at Heart.

Bill Pullman, Alan Rickman, Chris Pine, Rachael Taylor, Freddy Rodriguez, Eliza Dushku and Dennis Farina co-star in this smart, funny, based-on-a-true story and easy-on-the-eyes dramedy that recreates the early days of California wine industry and the now infamous 1976 Judgment of Paris, a 'blind' wine tasting at which California wines trumped the French and shocked the world.  More...

Semu Fatutoa drives a taxi in Honolulu, Hawaii. Once he was a village Chief in Samoa, but tragedy compelled him to cover his tattoos and flee his home. Now he drives in circles, slowly forgetting his old life. But his old life is looking for him. And a young Hawaiian girl, separated from her family on the eve of a disastrous day, desperately needs his help.  More...

Sam Rockwell, Anjelica Huston, Kelly Macdonald, Brad William Henke and Clark Gregg bring the world of cult idol/author Chuck Palahniuk to life in this dramedy about sexual addiction, friendship, mothers and sons, the possibility of divine ancestry and the daily grind of working at a theme park set in colonial America!  More...

A tribute to one of the last American traveling circuses, its colorful clan, and the animal acts that cause controversy but that the Rosaires treat as part of their family.  More...

The fiery, theatrical, muscular art of glassblowing found one of its greatest practitioners ever in the person of William Morris. This documentary looks with intense interest both at the art form itself and at Morris's peculiar accomplishments.  More...

William H. Macy, Meg Ryan, LL Col J, Jason Ritter and Elliott Gould star in this spoof of Hollywood in this saga about a producer who knows how to play the system, a studio executive that sees right through his scam, an action star with a Cinemascope-sized ego and a neophyte screenwriter dreaming of superstardom.  More...

True story: two teachers from The Vipassana Meditation Center in Shelburne, MA, moved into an Alabama maximum-security prison and offered the experience of a 10-day meditation ritual to the lifers. Three dozen hardened criminals accepted the challenge.  More...

$20 IN ADVANCE. $24 AT THE DOOR, DAY OF SHOW ONLY
Your ticket to this double feature program includes "MAKANA LIVE IN CONCERT" AT 7:00 PM, as well as the 10pm screening of Encounters at the End of the World, and Super High Me.

1/2 price tickets available for children 12 and under.

A globetrotting, spectacular surf epic that sets Kelly Slater’s quest for an eighth world men’s tour title amidst an exploration of the ways surfers seek the bliss of their sport.  More...

In 1977, California musician Jack Miller journeyed to the Caribbean and discovered both Jamaican Reggae and a Rasta Revolution that began a passionate, lifelong pilgrimage into the heart of Reggae that included befriending and/or recording with superstars Sly Dunbar & Robbie Shakespear, the Mighty Diamonds, members of the Wailers and Bob Marley.  More...

$10 IN ADVANCE INCLUDES 10PM SCREENING OF ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD & SPECIAL ENCORE SCREENING OF SUPER HIGH ME AT 11:30PM. $12 AT THE DOOR, DAY OF SHOW ONLY.

These films are included on the double feature ticket for Down the Barrel.

There is a hidden society at the end of the world, Antarctica. One thousand men and women risk their lives and sanity in search of cutting-edge science. Now, for the first time, an outsider, Director Werner Herzog, has been admitted to capture the raw beauty and humanity of the ultimate Down Under.  More...

Kate Churchill is a filmmaker and hard-core yoga practitioner who insists that yoga can transform anyone and she decides to prove it. Her plan: select a subject - a skeptical, 29-year-old journalist living in New York City - immerse him in yoga and follow him around the globe, until he finds a yoga practice that transforms him.  More...

$20 IN ADVANCE. $24 AT THE DOOR, DAY OF SHOW ONLY
This film is ticketed as a double feature program.  It also includes the 10pm screening of The Visitor.

This love letter to cinema from director Tarsem Singh and starring Lee Pace was shot in 24 countries around the world and delivers a spectacularly unforgettable fable for grown ups and children of most all ages - that will leave you mesmerized, hypnotized and deeply moved by its magical and mystical intelligence, humanity and style.  More...

Biodiesel prophet Josh Tickell takes center stage in this lively documentary, recruiting the assistance of Neil Young, Willie Nelson, Woody Harrelson, and former Dallas star Larry Hagman.  More...

Palden Gyatso, a Buddhist monk since childhood, spent the last 33 years in prison for the crimes of peaceful demonstration and refusal to denounce H.H. The 14th Dalai Lama as an Indian spy. Despite all, and having escaped prison, he remains unbroken, keeping the flame of his spirit ablaze.  More...

This one-of-a-kind war documentary is set in an ersatz Iraqi village where soldiers train in simulated battles, and villagers are refugees whose war memories are all too real.  More...

This film is ticketed as a double feature program.  It also includes the 10pm screening of Before the Rains.

Colin Hanks, John Malkovich, Tom Hanks and Emily Blunt star in this dramedy about a law school dropout who becomes a personal assistant to a formerly nationally known mentalist and along the way finds romance with a whip-smart publicist and the path to his future.  More...

The most comprehensive and up-to-date anthology yet of the Hollywood musical, with plenty of dazzling excerpts and interviews with producers, directors, composers, and of course beloved musical stars.  More...

Young men, brothers from Brooklyn, search for meaning in this perfectly sincere and pro-human documentary tale. Laden with their own emotional scars inflicted by an abusive father, they travel to places where human suffering far exceeds their own—among the homeless in Manhattan, at a Peruvian home for lost children, with HIV/AIDS sufferers in Ghana, and in an African leper colony. Without a whiff of preachiness or sentimentality, this extraordinary film reveals the dignity and resilience of the human spirit, the joy of living, and the value of suffering.  More...

Two years of work by the Maui-based Whale Trust Research Team provide the cornerstone for filmmaker Daniel Opitz's breathtaking documentary that unravels some of the mysteries surrounding the mystical songs and social lives of humpback whales on their Hawaiian breeding grounds.
Presented by Baccarat Wailea Resort and Residences, screening on Mokapu Beach in front of the Baccarat.  More...

The remarkable journey of a humpback mother, starting with her arrival at the warm Maui winter grounds to have her calf and their eventual amazing journey to Alaska, the calf's incredible growth and finally, their return to Maui the following year.

Photo Credit: Dr Dan Salden- Hawaii Whale Research Foundation under NMFS/ NOAA Permit # 587-1472  More...

Over the past four decades, artist Isaiah Zagar has covered more than 50,000 square feet of Philadelphia with stunning mosaic murals while raising a family, tiptoeing to the edge of madness and eventually returning to the loves of his life - his wife and his art. A must-see for artists everywhere.  More...

A parody of a ‘how to’ instructional film demonstrating how to replace old light bulbs for new energy efficient ones.  More...

“What do you think of America?” Four ordinary Americans ask that question all over the world, in a beautifully photographed, sometimes disturbing, but deeply affecting portrait of planetary unity.  More...