honoluluadvertiser.com

Sponsored by:

Comment, blog & share photos

Log in | Become a member
The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted on: Monday, May 16, 2005

Hotel Street venue gets makeover for movies

By Michael Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer

A bit of bad luck may prove to be a turning point for the Cinema Paradise film festival.

Sergio Goes and organizers of the Cinema Paradise film festival are renovating a Hotel Street space for film and arts events.

Photo courtesy Sergio Goes

Festival organizers were left scrambling a couple of months ago when they found out that Consolidated's Varsity Theatre was no longer available to be their primary venue. Rather than pack it up, Sergio Goes, Chris Kahunahana and new partner Miguel Innis secured a 15-year lease with a property at 43 North Hotel St.

The former peep-show space is a fixer-upper of major proportions, but with its red brick walls and cavernous interior, its potential as a New York/San Francisco-style warehouse film lounge and live performance venue is there for the realizing.

"We decided to just go for it," Goes said. "Now that we have our own venue, we draw the rules."

For the last several weeks, Goes and company have been hard at work readying the space for the Cinema Paradise, which runs from June 24 to June 30.

Dubbed "Next Door," the space will remain open for art and film events through the summer, then close for a few weeks for the completion of a mezzanine level and the installation of a state-of-the-art sound system. When completed, the two-story venue will include a screening area, projection room (featuring digital and 35mm projectors), floating concrete bar, soundproof lounge and a VIP room facing the street.

Goes and his partners opened up the space for a low-key preview — a lone guitarist playing next to a light box displaying construction plans — at the last First Friday event on May 6. He hopes the new venue will help rekindle the Chinatown arts renaissance that started a decade ago.

"I think Hawai'i needs a venue like this," Goes said. "Along with Kaimuki, (Chinatown) is one of the only districts here that has a pedestrian feel like cities on the Mainland where you can park, walk and experience a lot of different arts and culture venues, restaurants and that sort of thing."

With all of the activity going on (Goes is also getting ready to be one of the featured artists at the Contemporary Museum's Biennial Exhibition of Hawai'i Artists), this year's film festival will be a scaled-down event, with 20 to 25 full-length feature films and 25-30 short films — about half the usual offerings.

Each of this year's selections relate to the "metropolis" theme.

"The idea also ties in with what we're doing with Next Door," Goes said. "Having the festival here helps us to get away from that stereotype of Hawai'i as a tropical Disneyland. I'd like to see us get to the point where people see Hawai'i as a cultural destination not just a tropical destination. It's a realistic opportunity for us to be seen as a 'real' city."