On Sunday, November 1, at 2 p.m., Waimea can watch a documentary about Kahilu Theatre inside Kahilu Theatre and pay whatever it chooses at the door. That screening opens a month that steadily brings the audience closer to the stage.
Over two weeks the November schedule at 67-1186 Lindsey Road runs through three stages. First the theatre tells its own story. Then it shows films about Pacific places and the people who keep them. Then it asks anyone holding an ʻukulele or guitar to come up and play.
November 1: The Theatre Tells Its Own Story
Kahilu – The Gift of Place is a Kahilu.TV original documentary premiering on the Mainstage. A grant from the Hawaiʻi Community Foundation's Richard Smart Fund paid for it. The film uses personal interviews, old photos and video to tell the story of Kahilu, Richard Smart's passion for theatre, and what the theatre has meant to Waimea and beyond.
Admission is pay what you wish. The ticket page offers amounts from $5 to $100, and most of them carry a service fee. A short teaser is up on Vimeo under Lucky Tree Productions for anyone who wants a preview.
The film sets up the rest of the month. A documentary about why a ranch town has a world-class stage comes just before a week when that stage carries some of the year's most closely watched Pacific films.
November 7 and 8: HIFF Reaches Waimea Before Hilo
The Hawaiʻi International Film Festival is in its 46th edition this year. It runs October 21 through November 5 on Oʻahu, then continues on Maui, Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi and Hawaiʻi Island through November 15. HIFF's venue guide lists two Hawaiʻi Island stops: Kahilu on November 7 and 8, then The Palace Theater in Hilo from November 12 to 15. Waimea gets the island's first weekend.
Six films play over the two days at Kahilu. Almost all of them are about holding on to a place or finding your way back to one.
| Date | Time | Film | What it follows |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sat., Nov. 7 | 3:30 p.m. | GUIDED BY HORSES | Aboriginal teenagers in Australia's Kimberley finding healing and belonging through horses and a sanctuary |
| Sat., Nov. 7 | 5:30 p.m. | EA (SOVEREIGN) | Keʻeaumoku Kapu and family working to reclaim ancestral land in Maui's Kauaʻula Valley |
| Sat., Nov. 7 | 7:30 p.m. | THE NAVIGATOR | Nainoa Thompson's final 2,400-mile Hawaiʻi–Tahiti voyage with student navigators |
| Sun., Nov. 8 | 3:00 p.m. | PROTECTING KAHOʻOLAWE | 50 years since the Kahoʻolawe Nine's 1976 landing |
| Sun., Nov. 8 | 5:30 p.m. | Pacific Showcase Shorts: Tracing Home | Four shorts on family history, roots and lei-making |
| Sun., Nov. 8 | 7:30 p.m. | MAKING THE LINE | Competitive hula through two master kumu, Keano and Lono |
Saturday night is the main event. THE NAVIGATOR, directed by Jordan Manley, is HIFF's Opening Night world premiere. The film draws on ancestral wayfinding and on master navigator Mau Piailug. A Waimea audience sees it a little over two weeks after the festival opens in Honolulu, without making the flight.
Two more directors are worth knowing before you go. Noah Keone Viernes and Sancia Miala Shiba Nash directed EA (SOVEREIGN), and Sean O'Reilly directed GUIDED BY HORSES. The Kahoʻolawe program, directed by Mark Carpenter and Corbin Gregory, comes with a short about musicians who visited Kahoʻolawe and wrote music there. That short leads straight into the following week.
Single screenings are listed at $13, which includes a $3 service charge. The ticket page also shows a $10 subscriber-web price. Bought one at a time, all six films come to $78. The HIFF All Access Pass covers every Kahilu screening for less than that. Check the price at checkout, because the listing shows two different figures.
November 13 and 14: The Audience Picks Up Instruments
The 24th Annual ʻUkulele & Slack Key Guitar Festival takes up the next weekend, and on Saturday afternoon it invites the audience onto the stage.
Friday's Hoʻolauleʻa starts at 7 p.m. on the Mainstage. The lineup is Ledward Kaapana, Jerry Santos, Kamuela Kimokeo, Jeff Peterson, Brittni Paiva and Sonny Lim, with seats listed at $30, $50 and $75. Saturday's schedule is fuller:
- 10 a.m. Slack Key Essentials in G and C Tunings with Jeff Peterson in the Mike Luce Studio. It covers Taro Patch and Drop C tunings, vamps and foundational patterns. $28.
- 10 a.m. Jam Without a Plan with Brittni Paiva on the Mainstage, on improvising and playing without charts. $28.
- Noon All Things Bb with Sonny Lim in the Mike Luce Studio. It covers B♭ tunings and "Hiʻilawe" in Gabby Pahinui's style. $28.
- 2 p.m. Kanikapila on the Mainstage. Bring an instrument and join Jeff Peterson, Sonny Lim, Brittni Paiva, Sean Parks and Ledward Kaapana onstage.
- 7 p.m. Hana Hou with Jeff Peterson, Sonny Lim and Brittni Paiva, headlined by Taimane. $30, $50 and $75.
The Kanikapila is a jam session, and anyone who brought an instrument can play with Ledward Kaapana on the same stage that showed THE NAVIGATOR a week earlier. The event page lists it at $25, $35 and $45. The ticket page lists $25 to $55, depending on seat section and whether you are bringing an instrument.
Two pricing details help if you are planning the weekend. Each $28 morning workshop comes with a complimentary Kanikapila ticket request, so one class gets you a lesson and then a seat or a place in the afternoon jam. The 2-Day Pass covers all three concerts for $54, $94.50 or $147. At the lowest listed prices, buying the Hoʻolauleʻa, Kanikapila and Hana Hou separately comes to $85, so the cheapest pass costs $31 less. The pass page does not say the workshops are included.
All of these events are listed for the Mainstage or the Mike Luce Studio, so the weather up the hill won't change anything.
Before and After the Big Three
Kahilu's calendar is already busy the week this post comes out. Dark Side of the Beach plays on Saturday, October 24. The Land Has Spoken: Tales of Indigenous Horror follows on Friday, October 30. That Friday, the Waimea Community Association calendar also lists a Food Truck Friday. October 31 brings Halloween at Lualae and a Halloween celebration at the Waimea Town Market. Check the association's flyers for times and locations.
After the slack key weekend the theatre turns to the holidays. The Celebration of Laughs Tour with Augie T, Andy Bumatai and Frank DeLima plays November 20. The Waimea Community Chorus brings its Christmas program, built around music from the movies, on November 29.
Here is the whole month at a glance:
- Nov. 1, 2 p.m. Kahilu – The Gift of Place, pay what you wish
- Nov. 7–8 HIFF, six screenings, $13 each
- Nov. 13, 7 p.m. Hoʻolauleʻa
- Nov. 14, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Workshops, Kanikapila, Hana Hou
- Nov. 20 Celebration of Laughs Tour
- Nov. 29 Waimea Community Chorus Christmas program
Event dates, times and prices come from Kahilu's own listings and can change, so check each event page before you buy.
Kekoa Akana lives and works on Hawaiʻi Island. Places like Kahilu, where a town tells its own story in its own way, are part of what he talks about when clients ask what daily life is like in Waimea. If you have questions about the town or about a property near Lindsey Road, Kekoa Akana is happy to talk story. Schedule a Private Consultation.
