Enjoy 21 Feature Film Programs and 10 Short Film Programs,
74 Films in all Available to Curate Your Experience.
Speed of Light Virtual Cinema
July 6 - 31, 2022
90+ Virtual Cinema Film Premieres
View over 90 Short & Feature Films, All Maui Premieres from Around the World & Hawaii. Purchase a Virtual Pass or a Single Virtual Ticket and Unlock the Magic to a Feature Film or a Short Film Program. Simply Click on Any Film Poster Below.
Each Film Program Includes One Feature Film or an Entire Short Film Compilation.
Feature Film Premieres.
This year's Virtual Cinema showcase a colorful array of feature film premieres highlighting politically, culturally and socially relevant films from diverse storytellers from around the world.
Short Film Premieres.
Storytelling at it's finest. This year's Short Film Programs showcase over 40 eclectic, powerful and inspiring short film premieres highlighting the diverse views of storytellers from around the world.
Short Film Program #1 (82min)
WALLY WENDA
An unconventional sailor on a solo trip across the Atlantic finds herself on the brink of starvation and must use her wits and resources to figure out her next meal.
YOU CLAPPED DELIGHTED
You Clapped, Delighted offers the experience of being in Hawai'i in an elemental way putting the viewer into the film as its main character and bringing the natural environment to life.
UNDER THE SAME SKY | Foreign
Women around the globe share wisdom in a global pandemic. | English subtitles
THE UNCHOSEN ONE
For child actor Devon Michael, the coveted role of Anakin Skywalker in George Lucas’ hotly anticipated THE PHANTOM MENACE was the part of a lifetime. Chosen as one of George’s final three for the role, Devon recollects the moment that would change his life, forever.
PAULETTE
A short documentary following Paulette Harwood, a 90-year-old former Radio City Music Hall Corps de Ballet soloist, as she teaches the final classes in a school she's run for sixty years.
DADDIO
After the passing of a beloved wife and mother, Saul and his daughter Abby, reckon with each other's peculiar coping mechanisms. Over a weekend visit, they attempt to help each other move through their grief...
A BEACH IN THE SKY
When your beach is high in the sky, the entire world becomes an ocean. No more borders and nothing that divides us.
CONTACT HIGH
A grieving mother meets a recovering addict, and without ever speaking, he brings her back to life.
THE BLACK STONEFLY
Gian Lawrence is a fly fisherman and outdoorsman with a unique origin story.
Short Film Program #2 (111min)
THE DEBATER
A high school debater has extreme anxiety over an upcoming tournament.
MOVING MEDITATION
As a youth growing up in Washington D.C., Eric Johnson found a place of belonging within the skateboarding community, but his identity as a black skateboarder put him into a circumstance that almost cost him his life.
ON THE WAY TO APPROACH
| Foreign
A lonely sculptor finds joy in creating beauty. | English Subtitles.
JOEY SKAGGS: BAD GUYS TALENT MANAGEMENT
Joey tells the hilarious story of his 1984 media performance piece, the Bad Guys Talent Management Agency, in which he helps his friend Verne fulfill his life-long ambition to become an actor. This performance, which started as a prank, actually filled a need within the entertainment industry and resulted in the elevation of numerous other actors’ careers.
2021 SPEED OF LIGHT CINEMA
WICHITA
Sara is in bed with her lover when her husband calls. When he asks for something in his sock drawer, she runs home, stalling for time, asking endless questions about Wichita, Kansas.
NUDE TO ME
In this personal and charming documentary, Director Danny Berish discovers how his grandmother found love at a nudist camp in 1949 and how that chance encounter would change the course of her life. Searching to discover more about his grandparent’s radical lifestyle, he meets and mingles with the members of Van Tan, Canada’s oldest nudist club.
TIKKUN OLAM
A short, narrative, film about an eight year old boy in Washington, D.C. who encounters a homeless veteran.
BECOMING EDDIE
In 1985 suburban America, a Korean American boy named Yong has trouble fitting in with his classmates. In an effort to become popular, Yong makes a wish to become his idol, the world’s most famous foul-mouthed comedian...
Short Film Program #3 (79min)
A SUMMER PLACE | Foreign
Summer is a permanent state of mind in Limassol, a once small seaside town in Cyprus that has transformed into the oligarch paradise of the Mediterranean. Being a player and a victim of this city transformation as a food stylist, Tina is depressed but things change on the day of her birthday | English Subtitles.
GALAPAGOS | Foreign
Experiencing one of the last pristine paradises on earth, a group of young filmmakers discovers how fragile and endangered the unique ecosystem of the Galapagos Islands is.
DON Vs LIGHTING | Foreign
All Don wants is a quiet life in the Scottish Highlands. Unfortunately the universe has other plans | English Subtitles.
MAMA | Foreign
A mother and son struggle to survive in a vast wilderness, exploring the divine connection between motherhood and mother-earth | English Subtitles.
FREEDOM FLOW
A film about the essence of a man who finds freedom and flow in his roller skates and his approach to life.
SUNNY
Sunny, dis-connects from his given environment in order to find his authenticity and fulfilling purpose. Portraying three moments of his transformation, we follow Sunny going through an inner shift that inevitably translates out.
Short Film Program #4 (89min)
HE'E NALU THE PUREST FORM | Hawaii
Director Sam Potter discovers the origins of surf through Bronson Lovell’s creation of the ancient "alaia" boards in Hawai'i.
A VOICE FOR WHALES | Hawaii
In 2018, Pacific Whale Foundation’s founder Greg Kaufman passed away after a hard-fought battle with cancer. 'A Voice for Whales' was created to tell the story of his fight to save humpback whales from extinction.
BENEATH THE SURFACE | Hawaii
Behind the idealized, carefree image of professional surfers often lies a darker past.
THIS IS THE WAY WE RISE | Hawaii
An exploration into the creative process, following Native Hawaiian slam poet Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio as her calling to protect sacred sites atop Maunakea, Hawai`i reinvigorates her art.
GIFT OF A GARDEN | Hawaii
Gardens can give us so much. Not just plants, but wisdom too. Director Sam Potter shares the stories and culture that come to life through the crops in his back yard.
OUR MAKAWAO | Hawaii
The town of Makawao in upcountry Maui has a deeply colorful history. From a flourishing Native Hawaiian presence to early missionaries and immigrant labor; to cattle ranches, plantations, WWII, and rodeos, Makawao’s story is a fascinating reflection of the diversity of culture in Hawaii over the past 150 years.
Short Film Program #5 (103min)
ONLY A CHILD
Only a Child is a visual poem created by over 20 animation directors under the artistic supervision of Simone Giampaolo, which gives shape and color to the original words spoken by Severn Cullis-Suzuki at the UN Summit in Rio in 1992, a child's desperate call to action for the future of our planet.
THE SOUND OF TIME
A Chinese architect, who has time anxiety, takes a VR trip to Belgium. She falls in love with a man in Brussels. The encounter leads her to explore the true meaning of time.
PANT HOOT
Stany Nyandwi, a survivor of the Burundi genocide, overcomes insurmountable odds and risks everything to care for a group of mistreated animals rescued by Jane Goodall’s Chimp Eden Sanctuary in South Africa. He become one of the only humans to master the complicated ‘pant hoot’ chimp language.
GOLDEN AGE OF KARATE
Inducted into the USA Martial Arts Hall of Fame at 10 years old, Jeff Wall is a teenage karate pro. But that’s not even his greatest achievement. Best friends with his grandparents, Jeff wanted to pass along his passion for the dojo to a community he felt needed it most — senior citizens.
RECORDER QUEEN
Virtuoso recorder player Genevieve Lacey takes us on a whimsical journey to the heart of her craft as she forges a path to a more honest form of expression, shaped by the idea that music is boundless and nurtured by the sights, sounds and landscape of her home.
ERIC AND THE BEES
After serving 20 years in the U.S. military and suffering a particularly harrowing flashback, Eric Grandon, was diagnosed with PTSD. This took him to discovered beekeeping, which he had no idea that the bees would give him the power to transform both his own life, and the lives of many others.
Short Film Program #6 (102min)
ARE YOU STILL WATCHING
Jamie is a 20 something year old non-binary person living in Melbourne. Forced into near-isolation during Melbourne’s COVID-19 lock-down. What begins as mere escapism turns sensual when they start having sexual delusions involving their favorite queer characters. Fantasy and reality merge.
ALL THOSE SENSATIONS IN MY BELLY | Foreign
While transitioning from male to female gender, Matia struggles with finding a genuine intimate relationship with a heterosexual man | English Subtitles.
OF HEARTS AND CASTLES
A man struggling emotionally after a breakup meets another man for one night; a few hours together ease their emotions and create a momentum that will stay with them forever.
VALA NORTH
In the far northern atolls of Papua New Guinea, scientist chieftain and visionary John Aini resurrects old secret ways and melds them with what he and his fellow chieftains and their people know of the coral reefs they rely on. Vala North is a story of a thin thread of hope in a changing world, hope for coral reefs around these islands, and hope for the communities that rely on them.
JEFF CAN'T SWIM
Plagued by his desperately funny act-outs when nervous, sweet-hearted Jeff finds himself as a total fool on a much anticipated day.
HEALING LAND. HEALING PEOPLE | Hawaii
In Hawaiian culture, each person has the kuleana (responsibility) to malama (care for) ʻāina (land). As Covid-19 brought Maui County's tourism industry to a halt and many faced the hardships of unemployment, more than 70 residents experienced a unique opportunity to engage in nature-based restoration projects that provided paychecks and job skills training -- and reinvigorated deep and meaningful connections to the ʻāina, the power of kuleana and their own sense of purpose.
SPUN A MUSIC VIDEO
We are all Spun from many things and the lives we live and pass into are a tapestry of many Threads. A Music Video with music from Philip Hunt.
ME AND LEE
Current recluse Theo strikes up a conversation that he didn't realize he needed with his pizza delivery guy.
WANDER
After wandering through the desert a man must realize what are the important things in his life in order to survive the arid desert in moments of deep reflection triggered by his own survival.
Short Film Program #7 (81min)
LOTUS
The Lotus flower is regarded in many cultures as a symbol of rebirth, growth and transformation. This film is an expression of that process. Inspired by Angelika´s near death experience we immersed underwater in the sacred Mayan Cenotes to tell her story of growth from pain, anxiety, fear to surrender, coherence, harmony & flow.
A POEM BY ALBA
An elderly woman living alone in her apartment deals with loneliness and her eventual end.
2020 THROUGH THE EYES OF THE ARTISTS
Artists were asked to give us their perspective on their personal experience. It could be anything... From a view from their window to an expression of their inner-world. They all agreed to work in the same format: first 10"x10" professional Birch wood panels, and later on, for the finale 12"x12" in order to create coherent murals. Over 400 panels were given to over 100 artists...The mural expanded and evolved as time went, throughout the year!
GOD'S PLANT
In Raywick, Kentucky, there is a farm where Father God and Mother Nature work in harmony, and where farmers have a part to play as well. Scott Essex of Bluegrass Organic Hemp considers cannabis “God’s plant.” He believes that cannabis can help humankind, heal the planet,
PLAISIR
A lonely American faces unrequited love on a farm commune in the south of France.
INVISIBLE BEAUTY
This is the story of Romana, who is an Austrian biologist. Her passion are insects and she takes us on a trip to discover the home of many endemic and endangered species that live in the Gesäuse National Park.
Short Film Program #8 (94min)
FROM DURBAN TO TOMORROW
Five frontline health advocates from different parts of the world work through victories and defeats plotting a path toward a meaningful, universal human right to health.
WELCOME TO FOREVER
The brilliant designer of smart houses leaves a posthumous surprise for his widow.
CASHBACK
On her last night of work, a pregnant theater manager discovers a bag of cash under a seat and must decide what to do with it.
JOYFUL
We live in a hectic and chaotic world that relentlessly stresses our planet, humans and animals alike. joyful is a unique audio-visual exploration of finding joy in all the turmoil that surrounds us.
MANGO JAM | Foreign
Navin and Pia, a young couple, have chosen to live an alternate life in Goa, away from the hustle and bustle of big city life. Pia expects Navien to step up from his sedentary life style and join Dancing classes with her. Will Navien follow through? | English Subtitles.
THE CROWN WITH A SHADOW
A mixed-media animated film based on the real-world gender morphing Pink Skunk Fish where said species changes sexes from Male to Female. The story is led by a male fish Prince destined to be Queen & learns from his mother the Queen how bodies are simply shells and that the courage it takes to be oneself is the mark of a true queen.