I saw Barbarian Princess tonight at the Hawai'i Theatre presented by the Hawaii Film Festival. It tells the story of Princess Kai'ulani who is played by Q'orianka Kilcher. It's not a perfect film but I liked it. It's slow in places but it was nice to see a period piece about America's colonization of Hawai'i. You could pretty much tell right off that it wasn't made by American filmmakers, the U.S. is not portrayed in a very positive light. The cinematography is stellar in places. I'm not sure that it will get a very wide release from here. But if you get a chance to see it, rent it, it's worth a gander. The director (Marc Forby) and Kilcher were there at the screening with the local actors who played roles in the film. The Q&A session afterward was interesting. Most discussed was the title (which I wasn't fond of at first but after seeing the film, I get it) and the controversy it's been causing here in the islands.
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