VIDEO REVIEW : AFI Festival Continues With Reports From Hawaii, Germany

The theme of the forgotten, which dominates this year’s American Film Institute National Video Festival (continuing through Sunday at various locations on the AFI campus, 2021 N. Western Ave., Hollywood; free admission) is acutely felt in the program of Hawaiian videomakers (12:15 p.m. today), which shows trouble in “paradise.”

Pahipau’s and Joan Lander’s “Kahoolawe: Aloha Aina” reports on the valiant effort to save the island of Kahoolawe, just south of Maui, from ecological destruction, while the shameful history of leprosy in the islands receives a comprehensive airing in the public television-produced “Simple Courage: A Historical Portrait for the Age of AIDS.”

Two notable works about women in society’s margins get deserved revivals here: Anne Lewis Johnson’s strong report, “Fast Food Women” (in the Women’s Voices program, 4:45 p.m. today; 2:30 p.m. Sunday), which aired last year on PBS; and “Daughters of the Dust” (7 p.m. today), the widely admired feature by Julie Dash, who, with Pat O’Neill and Bruce and Norman Yonemoto form an odd grouping as the festival’s Maya Deren career achievement award winners.

The crowded festival makes room for Los Angeles’ performance artists, including the Los Angeles Poverty Department in “The Problem With Reality” (10 a.m. today), and, in the Performers program (4:45 p.m. today; 2:30 p.m. Sunday), Tim Miller (shown in a weaker works, “My Queer Body”) and Henry Rollins (performing at the Henry Fonda Theatre).

Performance of the live kind pops up in the festival as well with Dana Atchley’s “Next Exit” (7 p.m. today), which reportedly will blend daguerreotypes, digital TV devices and spoken word.

A work from Germany shows that video is capable of cinema-like spectacle. Knut Gerwers’ “Slaves of Inheritance Part 2” (the highlight of Videos From Latin America and Europe, 7 p.m. today; 12:15 p.m. Sunday) suggests that the 27-year-old Gerwers has some of painter and fellow German Anselm Kiefer’s grand grasp of mythic history redefined by art.