{"id":120154,"date":"2020-06-05T12:07:51","date_gmt":"2020-06-05T22:07:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=120154"},"modified":"2024-03-15T14:18:49","modified_gmt":"2024-03-16T00:18:49","slug":"hula-documentary-worldwide-audience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2020\/06\/05\/hula-documentary-worldwide-audience\/","title":{"rendered":"Hula documentary gets worldwide audience"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 3<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/manoa-acm-tokyo-hula.jpg\" alt=\"several people dancing hula\" width=\"676\" height=\"381\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-120164\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/manoa-acm-tokyo-hula.jpg 676w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/manoa-acm-tokyo-hula-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/manoa-acm-tokyo-hula-130x73.jpg 130w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Lisette Marie Flanary<\/strong>\u2019s documentary could be headed for the Oscars. But, the University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at M\u0101noa <a href=\"http:\/\/acm.hawaii.edu\/\">Academy for Creative Media<\/a> (<abbr>ACM<\/abbr>) associate professor is taking it one step at a time.<\/p>\n<p>Flanary\u2019s <em>Tokyo Hula<\/em> follows the daily lives of hula teachers and students in Japan as they overcome struggles and challenges of practicing a cultural art form in a foreign country.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/386909792\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" align=\"right\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>It was selected from thousands of films to be showcased at three festivals this summer, including an Oscar-qualifying film festival in New Zealand. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, instead of an in-person event, the <a href=\"https:\/\/docedge.nz\/\">Doc Edge Film Festival<\/a> will be showcased online from June 5&#8211;July 12. Tickets will be available for purchase by viewers only in New Zealand. The Academy for Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will then select the Oscar nominees from a list of winners from qualifying festivals around the world, including Doc Edge.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I\u2019m just really happy to be screening my film in such a prestigious festival and honestly, I am not hoping to win an award or be shortlisted for the Oscars but am much more excited to be able to screen the film with audiences in Aotearoa,&rdquo; Flanary said.<\/p>\n<p>The film will also be featured virtually at the <a href=\"https:\/\/liftoff.network\/tokyo-lift-off-film-festival-2020\/\">Tokyo Lift-Off Film Festival<\/a> in June and a tentatively scheduled in-person <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mihff.org\/2020awards\">Made In <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Film Festival<\/a> on <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Island in July where the film is nominated for best feature film with winners selected by the <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Film Critics Society.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_120163\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-120163\" style=\"width: 214px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/manoa-acm-lisette-marie-flanary-214x300.jpg\" alt=\"headshot of Lisette Marie Flanary\" width=\"214\" height=\"300\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-120163\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/manoa-acm-lisette-marie-flanary-214x300.jpg 214w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/manoa-acm-lisette-marie-flanary-93x130.jpg 93w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/manoa-acm-lisette-marie-flanary.jpg 250w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 214px) 100vw, 214px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-120163\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lisette Marie Flanary<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><em>Tokyo Hula<\/em> is the third film in a trilogy of documentaries detailing how hula traditions have evolved. Flanary, a lifelong hula dancer, said while producing the film, she was surprised at how many people were practicing hula in Japan.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;When I first started filming in Tokyo, there were estimates of 400,000&#8211;500,000 people dancing hula in Japan,&rdquo; Flanary said. &ldquo;Today, there are between 1&#8211;2 million people dancing hula in Japan and the numbers and interest only seems to continue to grow.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;As a filmmaker, one of the most interesting things that I shot was a woman who teaches workshops on how to do exercises to work on perfecting a great smile for dancing hula. I had never really thought about what goes into a smile before in such detail but it was fascinating to find that one of the cultural challenges for Japanese hula students is working on a natural smile that is not necessarily something that is very common in everyday life in Japan.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<h2>Previous accolades<\/h2>\n<p>Flanary had a whirlwind 2019 and early 2020. <em>Tokyo Hula<\/em> was selected for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yidff.jp\/\">Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival<\/a> in October 2019. However, due to Typhoon Hagibis, all flights were canceled and Flanary conducted Q and A sessions virtually.<\/p>\n<p>Then, the film was featured in the <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> International Film Festival in November 2019 and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fifotahiti.com\/fifo-2019-en\/\">Festival of International Documentary Films from Oceania<\/a> (<abbr>FIFO<\/abbr>) in Tahiti in February 2020. However, due to COVID-19, Flanary never imagined her trip to <abbr>FIFO<\/abbr> was going to be her last in-person screening on the documentary for a while.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Once we all were given stay at home orders and the world began experiencing lockdowns, all film festivals that the film had been accepted into were postponed&#8212;or in some cases canceled,&rdquo; Flanary said. &ldquo;It was really heartbreaking but I am still hopeful that there will be opportunities and new ways to share the film with people.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p><abbr>ACM<\/abbr> M\u0101noa Chair <strong>Christine Acham<\/strong> said &ldquo;The <abbr>ACM<\/abbr> faculty and staff were there to see <em>Tokyo Hula<\/em> premiere at the <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> International Film Festival at two sold out screenings. Therefore, we were very excited, but not surprised to learn of Professor Flanary\u2019s acceptance into the Doc Edge, Made in <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> and Tokyo Lift-Off Film Festivals. Lisette has put in tremendous effort to see her project to fruition and it is wonderful that festivals worldwide are acknowledging her talent. Lisette\u2019s accomplishments are a great reflection on <abbr>ACM<\/abbr>; she is an inspiration to her students.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.uhfoundation.org\/give\/giving-opportunity\/covid-19\">Support the <abbr>UH<\/abbr> Student Relief fund and COVID-19 research<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>&#8212;By Marc Arakaki<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lisette Marie Flanary\u2019s film Tokyo Hula will be showcased at three festivals in summer 2020.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[112,113,1411,549,598,9,1626],"class_list":["post-120154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-academy-for-creative-media","tag-college-of-arts-and-humanities","tag-covid-19","tag-creative-media","tag-faculty-recognition","tag-uh-manoa","tag-women-of-uh","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120154"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120154\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":124501,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120154\/revisions\/124501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}