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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Sunday, October 11, 2009

For viewers, an encore of 'Damien'


Advertiser Staff

DAMIEN-RELATED FILMS

Damien feature films, documentaries and television broadcasts:

"The Father Damien Story — An Uncommon Kindness" (2006): Documentary narrated by actor/comedian Robin Williams.

"Molokai: The Story Of Father Damien," also known as "Molokai: The Forbidden Island" (1999): Starring David Wenham as Father Damien, Kate Ceberano as Princess Lili'uokalani, Alice Krige as Mother Marianne Cope and Tom Wilkinson as Brother Joseph Dutton; Cast includes Kris Kristofferson, Sam Neill and Peter O'Toole.

"Father Damien: Simple Courage, An Historical Portrait for the Age of AIDS" (1993): Includes newsreel footage and interviews with Hansen's disease patients.

"Molokai, la isla maldita" (1959): Starring Javier Escrivá, Roberto Camardiel and Gérard Tichy.

"The Great Heart" (1938); Narrated by Carey Wilson; Nominated for an Oscar.

Television:

"Damiaan" (1986): Starring Alex Wilequet

" Father Damien: The Leper Priest" (1980): Starring Ken Howard

"Damien" (1978): Starring Terence Knapp.

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Beginning today, PBS Hawaii will broadcast 4 1/2 hours of original, locally produced television programming:

  • 7 p.m. today and 9 p.m. Thursday: PBS Hawaii will encore the Peabody award-winning television drama "Damien," produced by the station in 1977 and broadcast on PBS stations across the country in January 1978. PBS Hawaii and Pacific Islanders in Communications will co-present the program for national broadcast on PBS member stations.

    First presented as a stage play at the University of Hawai'i Theatre in 1976, the teledrama "Damien" — with actor/professor Terence Knapp — is a monologue, delivered by Father Damien as a spirit watching his own funeral procession 50 years after his death.

    Playwright Aldyth Morris said, "I was in Honolulu at the time his body was brought from Molokai. ... I saw the white ship in the harbor waiting to receive the koa casket into her hold. Then I went back in my reading to find out who Father Damien was. ... In a sense, the play is my route to confrontation with a saint."

  • At 7:30 p.m., tomorrow through Thursday "Long Story Short" with Leslie Wilcox. Wilcox spends four consecutive nights profiling Hansen's disease patients who think of Father Damien as a continuing presence in their prayers, conversations and lives:

    Tomorrow: Elroy Kenneth Makia Malo was banished to Kalaupapa at the age of 12. He speaks of his fury when he hears others use the word "leper." Blind since age 30 as a result of the disease, Malo became a well-traveled, award-winning storyteller. He is 74 years old and resides in Honolulu and Kalaupapa.

    Tuesday: Norbert Palea says an undiagnosed red area of his skin ("like a mosquito bite") got him banished to the settlement at age 5. After drugs were developed to control the disease, Palea went to college and became a fashion designer. Today at the age of 68 he is the youngest of the remaining Kalaupapa patients.

    Wednesday: Clarence "Boogie" Kahilihiwa also landed in the settlement as a child and has been married for 30 years to Ivy, another Kalaupapa patient. Kahilihiwa says that — because people have just taken what they need — fishing off Kalaupapa is as good as it was many years ago.

    Thursday: Meli Watanuki, 74, keeps an image of Damien on the dashboard of her pick-up truck. Today she is married to a government worker at Kalaupapa who has never had Hansen's disease. Watanuki speaks of abandonment and loss when she was diagnosed as a young mother.

    • 8 p.m. Thursday: Immediately following “Long Story Short” from Kalaupapa, “Insights” on PBS Hawaii will explore the future of Kalaupapa. When the last patients pass away, will Kalaupapa become a national park? How will the village change? How would the National Park Service honor Father Damien? Should Kalaupapa be turned over to Hawaiian Homelands as proposed by some of the patients? Viewers will be able to participate in the live broadcast via Twitter, a live blog forum and by e-mail and phone calls.