‘Cane Fire’: Cinema Guild Acquires Award-Winning Doc Directed By Anthony Banua-Simon

Matt Grobar
·2 min read

Cinema Guild has acquired U.S. rights to Cane Fire, an award-winning documentary from director Anthony Banua-Simon, with plans to release it in theaters across the U.S., beginning with a New York theatrical premiere at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on May 20.

The filmmaker’s deal with Cinema Guild also encompassed his short films Third Shift and Pure Flix and Chill: The David A.R. White Story, which will be released on the educational market.

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Cane Fire examines the past and present of the Hawaiian island of Kaua’i, interweaving four generations of family history with accounts of numerous Hollywood productions shot there, along with troves of found footage to create a kaleidoscopic portrait of the economic and cultural forces that have cast indigenous and working-class residents as “extras” in their own story.

The film premiered at Hot Docs in 2020, subsequently going on to screen at the Indie Memphis Film Festival, where it won Best Documentary Feature. It also screened at the Hawaii Film Festival and MoMA Doc Fortnight, among other festivals. Banua-Simon wrote and produced it with Michael Vass. Steve Holmgren served as its exec producer, with Sam Schild as associate producer.

“Cinema Guild has showcased some of my favorite films in recent memory,” said Banua-Simon, “so it’s an enormous honor to be included in their collection.”

“We’re so excited to be helping Cane Fire find a wider audience,” added Cinema Guild President Peter Kelly. “Anthony Banua-Simon is an incredibly talented filmmaker who brings a personal angle to an aspect of the visualization of Hawai’i that is not dealt with nearly enough.”

Other upcoming releases from Cinema Guild, a premier distributor of world cinema, independent films and documentaries, include Fern Silva’s Rock Bottom Riser, Payal Kapadia’s A Night of Knowing Nothing and Ramon and Silvan Zürcher’s The Girl and the Spider. Recent releases include Ernst Karel and Veronika Kusumaryati’s Expedition Content, Hong Sangsoo’s Introduction and Joshua Bonnetta’s The Two Sights.

Kelly negotiated the Cane Fire acquisition deal on behalf of Cinema Guild with attorney Steve Holmgrenon behalf of the filmmakers.

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