Film & Cinema · Saturday, November 14, 2026

The Navigator

About

The Navigator is the Hawaiʻi International Film Festival's opening night documentary, directed by Jordan Manley, and this showing is part of the festival's neighbor island encore. It is not on Oʻahu: the screening is at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center, 1 Cameron Way, Kahului, on Maui. In 1980 Nainoa Thompson became the first Native Hawaiian in roughly six centuries to navigate a voyaging canoe from Hawaiʻi to Tahiti without modern instruments. The film follows him nearly fifty years later on one last 2,400-mile crossing with a small crew of student navigators, steering by the stars and natural signs and carrying the lessons of master navigator Mau Piailug. It runs 95 minutes, in English and Hawaiian, and no rating is printed. It suits families with older children, history lovers and anyone interested in Pacific voyaging. The screening is on November 14 at 6:00 PM. HIFF says tickets for most neighbor island screenings are sold through the venue's own site, mauiarts.org, and no price appears on HIFF's page. On the same day, the calendar also lists Ea (Sovereign) at the same venue at 3:30 PM and Protecting Kahoʻolawe at 1:00 PM. This is the last of seven Navigator screenings, following the October 21 premiere at Hawaiʻi Theatre Center in Honolulu.

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