A good seat on the isle

All sorts of strange conversations are overheard at film festivals, but rarely anything like the quick exchange between two moviegoers at the opening of the Maui Film Festival: “You’re sure we’re not going to fall into the sand trap if we sit here?”

Such are the perils of watching films with more than 2,200 patrons scattered across an enormous outdoor cinema on a Hawaiian golf course in this hotel-crammed Maui resort town. In its fourth year, the fast-growing Maui festival certainly lacks the prestige, programming and A-list films and filmmakers that distinguish the world’s top festivals. But Maui’s spectacular film venues -- another festival theater is set on the sand, where audiences watch silent films just feet from crashing waves -- shame the conventional cinemas of Cannes, Sundance, Berlin and Toronto.

“I haven’t seen that many people sitting in one place outside since Woodstock,” said director Rob Reiner, whose “Alex & Emma” opened the festival. “People ask me how I compare this to other film festivals, and I say, ‘Well, this one is in Maui. What’s to compare?’ ” said Reiner, who brought his family to the festival for a quick Hawaiian vacation.

Such singular locations are slowly putting Maui on the movie map. To be sure, there’s still a long way to go. Stars Kate Hudson and Luke Wilson did not attend the opening screening of “Alex & Emma” -- the cast was instead represented by an actor named Chino XL, who plays the bit part of Tony. Several of the short films shown before features were more than 2 years old. And a packed busload of cineastes heading to one screening got in the moviegoing mood not by debating the works of Jean-Luc Godard and Preston Sturges but by daring one another to strip off their bathing suits (ultimately, none accepted the challenge).

Like so many of the scores of film festivals that are held on any given day of any given month, the Maui festival was born to generate tourism and promote artistic achievement, the latter not a tall task in a region where a tiki torch luau is a sure-fire winner with the tour bus crowd.

“We just want to be a place where great films are shown,” says Barry Rivers, the festival’s founder and director.

A hugely popular festival such as Park City, Utah’s, annual Sundance gathering pumps more than $10 million into the local economy. Yet that festival also has helped launch the filmmaking careers of everybody from Steven Soderbergh to Bryan Singer to Darren Aronofsky. Maui, for its part, has a sand sculpting contest and the Tommy Bahama Taste of Chocolate.

The organizers of the Maui festival, which was scheduled to conclude Sunday with a Father’s Day concert of Hawaiian music, insist its success should not be measured by the number of world premieres and Creative Artist Agency clients in attendance. “I don’t get caught up in the nomenclature of premieres,” Rivers says. “It just doesn’t matter to me if we’re showing a movie first. I just want the best films that I can get.”

Growing numbers

It is possible to have a fantastic time at this film festival and attend no more than one movie. Attendance has soared. The opening-night film of the 2002 festival found about 700 people clambering up the hill to watch last year’s “Tadpole” in the outdoor theater at the Wailea Gold & Emerald Golf Course. Presales of festival packages and admission to special events such as gourmet dinners featuring octopus carpaccio, hibiscus soup and Tahitian vanilla bean ice cream sold out four times faster than a year ago, according to festival officials.

Equally important, the festival is beginning to attract free-spending movie enthusiasts from California, the state that Hawaiian tourism officials depend upon more than any other.

Before the festival was launched in 2000 with the animated “Chicken Run,” early June was part of the tourist doldrums in Hawaii.

Early summer occupancy is no longer a problem here. All 450 suites at the Fairmont Kea Lani are booked, including 37 oceanfront villas that go for as much as $2,500 a night. Occupancy “has picked up dramatically” during the festival’s dates, says Chris Luedi, the hotel’s general manager. The hotel now offers film festival packages. “Now it’s very busy everywhere in the area,” Luedi says.

The hope is that the big show-business spenders who can drop a couple of grand a night on a hotel room will become ambassadors for both the hotels and the festival. “The more movie stars that come and see our villas, the more the word travels around,” Luedi says.

Attracting a huge contingent of movie stars has proved difficult.

At last year’s festival, the top names in attendance included Rosanna Arquette, the director of the documentary “Searching for Debra Winger,” and John Corbett of “My Big Fat Greek Wedding.” Among those receiving special tributes at this year’s event were Geena Davis and Greg Kinnear. An awards ceremony for Anthony Hopkins was derailed when the actor was unable to attend.

Which leaves the venues -- and the 55 feature and short films. In programming the lineup, Rivers gravitates toward two particular types of films: narratives and documentaries that feature positive messages about human values, and -- what else? -- the occasional movie about surfing (Rivers’ two sons are serious surfers).

In the former category, the festival schedule featured “Whale Rider” and “Camp.” In the latter, the outdoor cinema was packed for the surfing documentary “Step Into Liquid,” which Artisan will release this summer.

“I’m just trying to create a forum for films that are life-affirming,” Rivers says.

Rivers, who with his wife and festival partner, Stella, raised a family in a rustic Hawaii commune, is hopeful about the festival’s prospects. “Changing diapers for three babies without running water -- that was easy compared to getting this festival started,” says Rivers, who personally had to carry $80,000 in credit card debt to mount this year’s event. “I believe that what we are trying to start requires a ‘whatever it takes, however long’ mentality.”

Sitting on the golf course in 70-degree weather as a film is about to start and the festival’s astronomer points out constellations, it’s easy to share Rivers’ enthusiasm. As long as you don’t fall into the sand trap.