My better half and I are gonna check out these films at the 2002 Hawaii International Film Festival. I'll try and post mini-reviews after seeing each of them.

This is my first year as a festival member, forking over $100 for a premium membership. I first started going to the festival in 1993, when I was a reporter for my college newspaper, Ka Leo O Hawaii. Since I was a member of the press, I could've seen any of the screenings for free, but I only went to a handful, mostly due to my lack of preparation and ignorance.

So I took the plunge this year and got myself a membership, a practical choice since the tickets are cheaper for members. And it's for a good cause, no? The "Ohana Premium" membership gets you 12 tickets (essentially six movies for me and my fiancee), 2 tickets to the Spring Film Festival and 2 tickets to the October Sneak Preview (but that was earlier in the month, so I got 2 free vouchers to compensate).

Another perk for HIFF Ohana members is the one-week period where tickets go on sale only for members. That's a nice head start to get tickets for the primo showings before they get snapped up by the rest of the non-HIFF-member moviegoing public. This year however, the movie listings (via the HIFF website and program guide) didn't get released to the public until late Wednesday night, October 23. No one-week jump on tickets for HIFF members this year. Instead, they had a little over 36 hours before tickets were available to the general public. So much for that perk.

But that's not gonna deter me from enjoying this year's lot. It's a great chance for people to see films that otherwise might get lost in the shuffle of multiplexes and Blockbuster Guaranteed In-stock Rentals. 

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