I fell in love with "Chasing Shakespeare" more than once during the 2013 Big Island Film Festival at The Fairmont Orchid, Hawai'i. Director Norry Niven flew in from Cannes where he'd just won an AFI Award, and added to it BIFF's Best Feature and Audience Choice.
It's an interracial love story of Venus and William, a Native American woman of the lightning clan and an African American man destined to run his father's farm. But to stop there would be a disservice.
The film tells of many kinds of love - love of family, of tradition and culture, of Shakespeare and horses and laughter, as well as romantic love between the two. It crosses boundaries of time and race, even spirit.
At times it speaks in symbols we call "ho'ailona" in Hawai'i - natural phenomenon that communicate to us in very special moments - a sudden gust of wind, a butterfly that lands on your hand. Venus' affinity with the lightning, which charges important points through the story, is a great example.
One night after an outdoor screening of CS, I was driving home to a breathtaking lightning display over the mountain. I had to email Norry right away, and he said something to the effect, that it happens pretty often. I would love to know if other viewers experience something similar!
