Posted on: Tuesday, June 22, 2004

Record 20,000 saw screenings at fifth Maui Film Festival

Advertiser Staff

WAILEA, Maui — The fifth-annual Maui Film Festival at Wailea set attendance records and honored its top films with audience awards presented Sunday, the final night of the five-day event.

Best Feature Film went to "Garden State," the directorial debut of Zach Braff, who accepted the award in person. Braff, who stars in the NBC series "Scrubs," also wrote the screenplay and stars in the Fox Searchlight film about one man's road to self-discovery.

Best Documentary Feature went to "Festival Express," director Bob Smeaton's chronicle of the monumental rock n' roll event that starred music legends Janis Joplin, The Grateful Dead and The Band. THINKFilm will release it this summer.

Best Short Film went to David Brown's "Of Wind and Waves: The Life of Woody Brown" that tells the story of the now 92-year-old inventor of the catamaran, former Waikiki beach boy and protege of Duke Kahanamoku.

A Special Audience Award was presented to "What the #$*! Do We Know," directed by Mark Vicente, Betsy Chasse and William Arntz. The film stars Academy Award-winner Marlee Matlin in a unique "cosmic fable" that combines traditional storytelling techniques with special effects and interviews with scientists and mystics.

Organizers said the festival broke attendance records with more that 20,000 total admissions. Opening night at the outdoor Celestial Cinema also set an attendance record of 3,854 for the screening of Universal Pictures "Two Brothers."