FRIDAY – SUNDAY
Ulu Hou means “new growth” in Hawaiian, and the three-day Ulu Hou Festival this weekend will feature films, food and panel discussions aimed at inspiring people to live a positive life.
“Happiness, health and a positive mental attitude are key components in one’s growth and development, and (that’s) what Ulu Hou Festival hopes to promote,” said Keo Woolford of Hula Nation Filmworks, one of the festival’s organizers.
The festival opens today with “Finding Joe,” a film about mythology scholar Joseph Campbell and his discovery of “the hero’s journey,” a pattern inherent in every story. Director Patrick Takaya Solomon interviewed Deepak Chopra, Laird Hamilton, Tony Hawk, Mick Fleetwood, Rashida Jones and others about their voyage of self-discovery. Today’s opening reception features healthful cuisine and beer and wine at 5:30 p.m., with the film screening at 7:30 p.m.
On Saturday a free panel discussion on “Ulu Hou — Growing a Positive Hawaii” kicks off at 4 p.m., featuring cultural advisers and local farmers, followed by a 7:30 p.m. screening of “Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon,” a documentary about the overachieving, Dalai Lama-following Maui resident who is credited for launching the celebrity chef craze and who rose to prominence by managing stars such as Luther Vandross, Teddy Pendergrass, Alice Cooper and Pink Floyd.
Sunday’s program begins with free activities for children, including a composting program at 10 a.m. and a screening of “Waltah the Worm,” followed by the 1 p.m. screening of “Happy,” pictured, by Academy Award-nominated director Roko Belic (“Genghis Blues”). The filmmakers traveled the world to examine happiness, what it takes to be happy and whether we live in a world that values and promotes happiness.
Where: Doris Duke Theatre, Honolulu Museum of Art
When: 5:30 p.m. today, opening night
Cost: Opening night $12-$15; general admission $8-$10
Info: honolulumuseum.org or 532-6097
SATURDAY
Stylistics will perform twice in Honolulu
Christmas is coming early for the Stylistics fans this year. The classic Philly soul group — Airrion Love, Herb Murrell, Harold Eban Brown and Jason Sharp — is returning to Honolulu for the third year in row, but with two shows at the Blaisdell Concert Hall instead of one. Both are on Saturday.
The Stylistics have been one of Hawaii’s favorite vocal groups ever since the group’s third single, “You Are Everything,” hit big here — and across the country — in the final months of 1971. It sold over a million copies and earned the group a gold disc. It also marked the start of a longtime partnership with the songwriting team of Thom Bell and Linda Creed.
Hawaii embraced the string of hits that followed — “Betcha by Golly Wow,” “I’m Stone in Love With You” and “Let’s Put It All Together,” to name a few. Hawaii Top 40 radio had a preference for pop ballads, and the Stylistics’ smooth soul sound was a perfect fit.
Hawaii music fans didn’t only enjoy the Stylistics’ singles. “Ebony Eyes,” a song on the group’s debut album, was such a big hit here thanks to local radio play that a local group, the Kasuals, did a remake of it in the 1980s. Many fans on the mainland aren’t familiar with the song, but the Stylistics know that audiences here want to hear it.
“When we come to Hawaii, we take out a couple of things and put other things in the show because we know they will work in Hawaii,” Love said before last year’s show.
Where: Blaisdell Concert Hall
When: 4 and 8 p.m. Saturday
Cost: $37.50-$49.50
Info: 866-448-7849 or ticketmaster.com
SUNDAY
Eclectic compositions to be heard
Ebb and Flow Arts organization returns to Honolulu this week with an eclectic program of 20th-century voice, violin and piano music.
Pianist and composer Robert Pollock heads up the Maui-based organization. He’ll be joined by University of Hawaii-Manoa voice professor Maya Hoover and Hawai‘i Symphony Orchestra concertmaster Iggy Jang, pictured, for the concert.
“We like to bring to light composers that our audiences might not be familiar with,” Pollock said.
One of the composers is Roger Sessions, a Pulitzer Prize winner who is represented by piano pieces in the collection “From My Diary.” One of those pieces was dedicated to student Edward Cone, who later wrote a birthday piece for Sessions called “Page From a Diary.” That also will be performed, Pollock said.
Sessions dedicated another piece to student Vivian Fine, whose works for violin and piano are on the program, too. Pollock called her “a fascinating American composer.”
Pollock will play some of his own compositions, and Hoover will perform songs by German-American composer Ruth Schonthal, whom she has championed for many years. Jang will play French composer Claude Ballif’s “Solfeggietto #3.” Works by Alban Berg, Peter Schat and Morton Feldman are also included.
Where: Studio 909, 909 Kapiolani Blvd.
When: 4 p.m. Sunday
Cost: Free
Info: ebbandflowarts.org
SUNDAY
U.S. debut of Japanese WWII feature film
On this Pearl Harbor Day weekend, it may be interesting to have a look at “The Eternal Zero,” a Japanese feature film about a fighter pilot during World War II who faces a crisis of conscience when he joins a kamikaze squadron.
The film, based on a best-selling novel, won several international awards, including Best Picture from the Japan Academy of Arts and the Golden Mulberry (audience favorite) at the Udine Far East Film Festival in Italy.
The plot revolves around a Zero pilot, Miyabe (Junichi Okada), who struggles between his duty to country and his promise to his wife and daughter. The story is told through the eyes of his grandson (Haruma Miura, pictured), who initially does not know his family’s past and learns that his grandfather had been branded a coward.
The film generated controversy at home and abroad for putting the kamikaze in what some considered to be a positive light. Some top Japanese filmmakers said it had no basis in fact, while a Chinese commentator called it “propaganda for terrorism.” The filmmakers’ response was that there was no intention to glorify war.
Producer Shuji Abe will be on hand for the Sunday screening, which will be the U.S. premiere of the film.
Where: University of Hawaii-Manoa Art Department, Room 132
When: 1:30 p.m. Sunday
Cost: $16
Info: honolulufoundation.org
