As a filmmaker and a hula dancer, Lisette Marie Flanary creates documentary films about the hula dance that celebrate a renaissance of Hawaiian culture. She is the writer, producer and director of Lehua Films and recently completed Nā Kamalei: The Men of Hula which focuses on the revival of men dancing the hula by following legendary master teacher and entertainer, Robert Cazimero, and the only all-male hula school in Hawai’i. The film premiered at the Hawai’i International Film Festival’s Sunset on the Beach screening in October 2006 and was awarded the Audience Award for Best Documentary and the Hawai’i Filmmaker Award.
In 2007, Nā Kamalei screened in numerous film festivals and received the Audience Award at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, the Special Jury Award for Best Non-Fiction Feature at the VCFILMFEST in Los Angeles, the Emerging Director Award at the New York Asian American International Film Festival, and Best Documentary at the San Diego Asian American Film Festival. Nā Kamalei was also selected to participate in Tribeca Film Festival’s All Access in 2005 and the IFP’s “Spotlight on Documentaries” at the Independent Feature Film Market in New York City in 2006. The film will broadcast on the 2007-2008 Independent Lens series on PBS in May 2008.
Lisette’s first feature, AMERICAN ALOHA: Hula Beyond Hawai’i, was an hour-long documentary that broadcast nationally on the award winning non-fiction showcase P.O.V. on PBS in 2003 and received an encore broadcast in 2004. The film focused on the hula dance and the Hawaiian community living on the mainland in California. Winner of the CINE Golden Eagle Award for excellence in cultural documentary, the film screened in numerous film festivals and is now available on NetFlix.com. American Aloha broadcast internationally on ITVS’ TRUE STORIES series in 2007.
Since graduating from NYU’s film school in 1995, Lisette has worked on many independent productions both in the US and abroad, as well as well as her own 16mm short film entitled Kill Kimono about mixed-race Japanese women in New York City. She received her MFA in creative writing at the New School in 2000 and continued her traditional hula studies under master hula teacher, Patrick Makuakāne, in San Francisco, California. In 2006, she formally graduated as an ‘ōlapa (dancer) in the Papa ‘Ūniki Lehua class. Under the blessing and guidance of her teacher, Lisette formed a hui, or a group, called Nā Lehua Melemele and continues to teach classes that perpetuate the art of the hula in New York City.
Director’s head shot and production still:
