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Do It: Honolulu Festival, First Friday, more

FRIDAY-SUNDAY, MARCH 1-3

The Honolulu Festival returns to Waikiki for three days

The return of fabulous fireworks and the debut of a long-distance relay race highlight this year’s Honolulu Festival.

As always, the big public event happens on the final day, Sunday. Starting at noon and for the first time, invited teams of three to five runners will compete in the Ekiden, or long-distance relay road race, at a distance of 6 kilometers down Kalakaua Avenue. The Ekiden has been a Japanese tradition for more than 90 years and has since been adopted worldwide.

The race will be followed by the Waikiki Grand Parade starting at 4:30 p.m. For the equally grand finale, a spectacular fireworks show from Nagaoka City, Japan, will blast off along Waikiki Beach at 8:30 p.m.

From 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday, there will be free multicultural and arts performances at the Hawai’i Convention Center, DFS Galleria Waikiki at 330 Royal Hawaiian Ave. and Waikiki Beach Walk at 226 Lewers St. The demonstrations will feature artists from here, Japan, China, Taiwan, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Tahiti, Canada and Alaska.

The convention center will feature an all-day craft fair both days, ennichi (children’s) and anime corners from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., and free film screenings. Saturday will include a band and orchestra festival from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and a bon dance workshop from 11:45 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

According to the Hawaii Tourism Authority, upward of 15,000 residents and visitors are expected to attend the festival, annually held in the spirit of “Pacific harmony.”

Where: Hawai’i Convention Center, DFS Galleria Waikiki, Waikiki Beach Walk and along Kalakaua Avenue
When: Various times today through Sunday
Cost: Free
Info: honolulufestival.com, 833-3378
Note: Friendship Gala benefit 6:30-8:30 p.m. today with food and entertainment at the convention center, with a cost of $90, $70 under 21

–Gary Chun

FRIDAY, MARCH 1

Bali, art and fashion will star at First Friday

First Friday goes Bali-istic with “Balinese Night,” a presentation on the culture of the exotic Indonesian island at the Hawai’i State Art Museum.

Starting at 6 p.m., the museum hosts the Gamelan Segara Madu Gender Wayang Ensemble and Gamelan Segara Madu dancers from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. The museum also will screen the documentary “Where Heaven Meets Hell,” which depicts Indonesian workers harvesting sulfur in the active volcanoes of eastern Java.

Indonesian arts and crafts as well as food and sweets will be for sale, and educational materials for children will be available.

Other First Friday activities of note include:

» “Print Bigger: Grow Your Own,” a live printmaking demonstration. A large-scale work will be created using experimental materials such as fruits and vegetables and a street steamroller as press, 7-10 p.m. on Hotel Street between Smith and Maunakea streets.

»The Lemuria Project, by photographer James Anshutz, in which children with terminal illnesses are allowed to become the characters of their imagination, 7 p.m. at the Chinatown Artists Lofts, Loft 210, Mendonca Building at the corner of Maunakea and Hotel streets.

» Hawai’i Watercolor Society sale of original works, 5 p.m. at The ARTS at Marks Garage, 1159 Nuuanu Ave.

» T-shirt sale featuring hundreds of custom designs. Until 9 p.m. at Blank Canvas, 1145 Bethel St.

Where: Hawai’i State Art Museum, 250 S. Hotel St., and other Chinatown sites
When: 5 p.m. today
Cost: Free
Info: firstfridayhawaii.com, hawaii.gov/sfca, 586-0900

SATURDAY, MARCH 2-THURSDAY, MARCH 14

Jewish Film Festival is rich with diversity

A coming-of-age film that combines aspects of bullying and family dysfunction, a documentary about dolphin therapy and a Holocaust-related biodrama are among the highlights of the Temple Emanu-El Kirk Cashmere Jewish Film Festival, which opens this weekend at the Doris Duke Theatre.

Starting Saturday and running every day except Mondays for the next two weeks, the festival will screen seven documentaries and feature films, all making their Hawaii premiere. At several screenings, speakers with knowledge of topics addressed in the films will speak. Check honolulumuseum.org for details.

The festival opens Saturday with a 7:30 p.m. screening of “Mabul: The Flood,” a drama about Yoni, a 12-year-old boy preparing for his bar mitzvah whose tumultuous life is in thrown into further disarray when his autistic brother is forced to move back into his family. The film, which screens again at 4 p.m. March 10, won awards at film festivals in Germany, Greece and Israel in a variety of categories, from acting to cinematography. As part of the opening-night reception at 6 p.m., Rachel Ahuvia and the Israeli folk dance group HORA will perform.

Another intriguing film is “Dolphin Boy,” pictured, screening at 7:30 p.m. March 7 and 1 p.m. March 10, about a boy who disconnects from the world after being severely beaten but then becomes communicative again after dolphin therapy. The film follows the youth’s development over a four-year period.

“Remembrance,” screening at 1 p.m. Tuesday and March 8 and at 7:30 p.m. March 9 and 13, is a love story that begins in a concentration camp for Jews in Poland during World War II and leads, 30 years later, to a search for lost love in New York. It is based on a true story.

Where: Doris Duke Theatre, Honolulu Museum of Art, 900 S. Beretania St.
When: Various times, starting 6 p.m. Saturday, through March 14
Cost: $12-$15 for reception; $8-$10 per film; flash pass, valid for all seven films except March 2 opening reception, $50-$60.
Info: honolulumuseum.org, 532-8700

THURSDAY, MARCH 7-FRIDAY, MARCH 15

UH-Manoa brings updated ‘Vagina Monologues’ to stage

“The Vagina Monologues” began as a series of casual conversations among friends of writer Eve Ensler, who in 1996 turned them into a series of monologues on women’s sexuality, relationships and violence.

That has turned into a worldwide phenomenon, with the work translated into more than 40 languages and performed in more than 140 countries. University of Hawaii-Manoa students, clockwise from top right, Brookie Hedrick, Sierra Chisholm, Jessica Ciufo, Erin Price, Stephanie Jones, Aubree Minakami, Ayisha Osborne and Pualani Armstrong, will give three performances of “The Vagina Monologues” starting Friday.

“It discusses issues that women have, can or will experience in their lifetime such as feeling comfortable with their sexuality, experiencing abuse, giving birth and so on,” said Kelsey De Avila, a producer of the show.

The performances coincide with presentations worldwide between Feb. 14 and April in celebration of what is known as V-Day. Although the work was performed at UH last year, it features something new: Ensler added two monologues, “Over It” and “(One Billion) Rising.”

“‘Rising’ is about women coming together all over the world and standing up to violence,” De Avila said, while “Over It” is Ensler’s response to incidents like politicians’ comments about “legitimate rape” and assaults that have been minimized in India. “She’s ‘over’ how society has accepted rape culture,” De Avila said.

Where: UH-Manoa Art Auditorium
When: 7 p.m. Thursday, March 8 and 15
Cost: $5-10
Info: email now4uhm@gmail.com

– Steven Mark