The documentary “Cane Fire” begins with a reference to a lost silent film of the same name, made by director Lois Weber in 1934. Her pre-Hays-Code melodrama followed a doomed romance between a plantation owner and one of his workers, and ended with his rejected heroine burning the fields of her former lover. In the new documentary, director Anthony Banua-Simon explains in voiceover that the original film was shot on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, and that his great-grandfather was one of the Filipino plantation workers hired as an extra.
In the spirit of this opening statement, Banua-Simon’s version of “Cane Fire” uses his own family history to demonstrate Kauai’s legacy of plantation colonialism. Woven into this record, archival footage shows Hollywood beckoning tourists with its romantic vision of Bali Hai — a paradise where visitors are kings and locals dress.
Banua-Simon interviews relatives who still live in Kauai, along with their neighbors and co-workers. Through these conversations, he describes exploitation that spans generations. In the film, locals explain that while sugar plantation workers once unionized, their descendants are now breaking their backs to fuel Kauai’s tourist and real estate industries.
The cinematography is often gritty and at times Banua-Simon’s choice of interview topics feels unfocused or repetitive. But his overview of Kauai’s history has tremendous educational and moral value. He has a great understanding of how industries mutate and mimic their exploitative practices like a cancerous tumor. The context he provides in voiceover and through archival footage gives strength to his interviews, suggesting the generations of exhaustion that underlie simple statements of frustration and sadness.
reed fire
Not judged. Running time: 1 hour 30 minutes. In theatres.
