Maui Film Festival: FirstLight
Maui Film Festival: FirstLight
There are no longer any performances available for this show.
Yokouchi Pavilion and A&B Amphitheater
Maui Film Festival presents FirstLight: Academy Screenings on Maui. Celebrate the season & great cinema.
CLICK HERE for the menu for both nights
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 21
WEED THE PEOPLE (3:00 pm)
This look beyond pot-activist propaganda and politics will challenge everything you thought you knew about medical marijuana. Filmmakers Ricki Lake & Abby Epstein reveal the stories of ordinary people who are caught up in the controversy. There is nothing more inspiring than the stories of these child patients whose symptoms have improved through herbal medicine that their parents illegally obtained. It will give anyone, of whatever age, hope as the benefits of pairing chemotherapy treatments with doses of cannabis oil can, for many people, dramatically shrink their tumors and increase their chances for survival. (NR/97 min. Directed by Abby Epstein. Courtesy of Mangurama Consciousness Films)
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ROMA (5:00 pm)
Yaritza Aparicio stars in the newest feature from Academy Award® winning director and writer, Alfonso Cuarón, who also directed Gravity, Children of Men, and Y Tu Mama Tambien. It follows Cleo, a young domestic worker for a family in the middle-class neighborhood of Roma in Mexico City. Delivering an artful love letter to the women who raised him, Cuarón draws on his own childhood to create a vivid and emotional portrait of domestic strife and social hierarchy amidst political turmoil of the 1970s. His first project since the groundbreaking Gravity in 2013, it is enthralling for Cuarón’s command of his visual craft. Every frame of this masterwork is nothing less than picture perfect.
Rated R/135 min. Written and directed by Alfonso Cuarón. Courtesy of Netflix.
Rated R/135 min. Written and directed by Alfonso Cuarón. Courtesy of Netflix.
CLICK HERE to view the trailer
FREE SOLO (7:30 pm)
From award-winning documentary filmmaker, E. Chai Vasarhelyi, and world-renowned photographer and mountaineer, Jimmy Chin, comes FREE SOLO, a stunning, intimate, and unflinching portrait of free soloist climber, Alex Honnold, as he prepares to achieve his lifelong dream: climbing the face of the world’s most famous rock... the 3,200ft El Capitan in Yosemite National Park… without a rope.
Rated PG-13. Run time: 100 min. Courtesy of National Geographic Films.
Rated PG-13. Run time: 100 min. Courtesy of National Geographic Films.
CLICK HERE to view the trailer
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 22
AT ETERNITY’S GATE (2:00 pm)
Directed by Academy Award nominee Julian Schnabel, Willem DaFoe stars in this journey inside the world and mind of renowned painter, Vincent van Gogh, who, despite skepticism, ridicule, and illness, created some of the world's most beloved and stunning works of art. This is not a forensic biography, but rather scenes based on Vincent van Gogh's letters, common agreement about events in his life that present as facts, hearsay, and moments that are just plain invented.
Rated R/111 min. Directed by Julian Schnabel. Courtesy of CBS Films.
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SHE IS THE OCEAN (4:00 pm)
Nine women. Nine spirits. Nine heroes. Those six words are director Inna Blokhina’s shorthand for the essence of her full-length documentary about great women from all four corners of the globe and who share one thing — their deep love for the ocean. They include big wave surfers, Keala Kennelly and Andrea Moller; pro surfer Coco Ho; surfing prodigy Cinta Hansel; marine biologist Ocean Ramsey; high diver Anna Bader; free diver Rose Molina; soul surfer Jeannie Chesser; and oceanographer Sylvia Earle.
Not Rated /101 min. Directed by Inna Blokhina. Courtesy of InWave Productions.
Not Rated /101 min. Directed by Inna Blokhina. Courtesy of InWave Productions.
CLICK HERE to view the trailer
MOMENTUM GENERATION (6:00 pm)
Executive produced by Robert Redford and including rare and never-before-seen archival footage and contemporary interviews with a legendary crew of the best surfers on Earth, Momentum Generation features surfers Kelly Slater, Rob Machado, Shane Dorian, Kalani Robb, Taylor Steele, and Pat O’Connell, in a heart-pounding, heartwarming story that transports audiences to the moment when this microcosm of a sport catalyzed a seismic shift—the moment when a group of guys, fueled in equal measure by camaraderie and competition, broke records, won world titles, and redefined a sport forever and beyond.
Not Rated/103 min.Written and directed by Jeff Zimbalist and Michael Zimbalist. Courtesy of HBO Sports.
Not Rated/103 min.Written and directed by Jeff Zimbalist and Michael Zimbalist. Courtesy of HBO Sports.
CLICK HERE to view the trailer
VOXLUX (8:00 pm)
Natalie Portman, in one of the most mesmerizing performances of her career, stars alongside Jude Law, Raffey Cassidy, and Stacy Martin in this 21st-century portrait of a young singer who delivers a life-changing performance under trying circumstances. VOX LUX begins in 1999 when teenage sisters Celeste (Cassidy) and Eleanor (Martin) survive a seismic, violent tragedy. The sisters compose and perform a song about their experience, making something lovely and cathartic out of catastrophe — while also catapulting Celeste to stardom. By 2017, the now 31-year-old Celeste (Portman) is mother to a teenage daughter of her own and struggling to navigate a career fraught with scandals when another act of terrifying violence demands her attention. (R/112 min. Directed by Brady Corbet. Courtesy of Neon.)
CLICK HERE to view the trailer