A Palace Tale

by Peter Serafin

The Palace in Hilo, the Aloha in Kainaliu and the People's in Honoka'a are local theaters that regularly screen independent films that are more controversial and thought-provoking than the usual formulaic Hollywood dreck. Although our tropical art houses try to slip us the occasional clunker (fear not, we'll let you know when they do), most of the time they present solid fare for the sophisticated, intelligent filmgoer-i.e., our readers.
But as 19th century huckster P.T. Barnum famously observed, nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people. Ergo, rural art houses don't pull in the megabucks, so our local indie theaters scramble.
The Palace Theatre's Karen Moore says they need an average of 70 customers each show to break even. The struggle, but every once in a while they hit a box office home run, so it evens out over time.
The Palace was in line to show Michael Moore's just-released Sicko next month. This expose of the health care industry is the closest thing the indie film market has to a summer blockbuster this year. But as the deal was about to close, the mainstream Hollwood Theatres, Inc. (which recently took over management of the Prince Kuhio multiplex) tried to elbow out the Palace.
"This is a dog-eat-dog business and we cannot do 5-6 shows every day like the multiplexes," said Karen Moore (no relation to the filmmaker), who suspects Hollywood wanted Sicko because it "wasn't as controversial as some of Michael Moore's other films."
But, an hour before our press deadline, Hollywood Theatres dropped out and Sicko will show where it should-at the Palace.
Hey Hollywood Theatres: At Prince Kuhio you offer primarily mainstream fare for under 25s. You can show some aloha here by leaving the indie films to the Palace. We're all in this island economy together; in the long run aloha makes it mo' bettah for everyone-including you.
Go green
Shades of Local Guy's recent column. God bless the cameraman-and the cop, too:
youtube.com/ watch?v=3IDQ4V_iQyA
(Send us any interesting Web links. If we print 'em we'll send you something from the HIJ sack o' stuff).

Award- winning HIJ
The Society of Professional Journalists, Hawai'i Branch, gave first place honors to two longtime HIJ writers at its annual Excellence in Journalism award ceremony in Honolulu June 29, which recognized the best journalism in the state for 2006. HIJ won two of the four categories it was eligible for, and was the only Hawai'i Island newspaper (daily or otherwise) to take any top prizes.
Alan D. McNarie, HIJ's Senior Contributing Editor, won first place in SPJ's Community Reporting category for his 4-part series The Future of the Ka'u Coast.
"The reporting on the terrain and landscape made this a good story, but examining the people and personalities involved really elevated the package," said the judges.
Ana Currie (fka Gretchen Kelly), ex-HIJ editor and current contributing writer, took top honors in Feature Writing for Spin Zone: Inside the Dolphin Encounter Industry.
"I really liked the approach of taking an icon of the tourist industry and examining its actual impact on the creatures involved," noted one judge.
(Read the stories online: hawaiiislandjournal.com).
And congrats to the other local honoree: West Hawaii Today was a finalist for two Internet reports: "Community Earthquake Coverage" (online spot news category) and "Violence in Schools" (online general news).

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