Huliau Youth Environmental Film Festival

Be Reel Film Festival

This year Maui Huliau is excited to participate in Imua’s new Be Reel Film Festival on Memorial Day weekend, with a showing of our 2025-26 student films on Sunday night!  Join us for an inspiring evening celebrating the creativity and storytelling of Maui’s next generation of filmmakers.

Where: ʻĪao Theater
When: Sunday, May 24th
Time: 6-7:30pm (including Puʻu Kukui film showing)

Thia year’s showing highlights a diverse collection of original short films created by youth this past school year in Maui Huliau Foundation programs, along with a spring lab collaboration with Hisako Film Lab. The showcase features three films created during Maui Huliau’s in-school and after-school programs: a short documentary in which students reflect on preserving culture and strengthening connections to ʻāina as young Hawaiians; a film following coral researchers studying coral survival in warming oceans; and a creative ASMR parody exploring changing eating habits and the rise of processed foods.

The program also includes four narrative films created during the spring lab collaboration with Hisako Film Lab, each centered on issues impacting our Maui community. These films follow a young girl navigating language and cultural barriers at a quinceañera, an older stranger offering hope to a young person struggling with addiction after a destructive crash, two young cousins adjusting to life together after being displaced by the Maui fires, and a young developer’s son trying to convince a childhood friend to sell family land for development. Together, the films reflect the range of youth voices across Maui, blending documentary, experimental, and narrative storytelling to explore identity, resilience, and the challenges shaping their communities.

Our showing will follow a short film about Puʻu Kukui Watershed!

Tickets for this showing and festival passes can be purchased on the Be Reel Film Festival website!