Cinema Italiano - CHE BELLO!
When Margherita Balbo Parrent isn’t working in the engineering department at Pearl Harbor, she’s putting on Cinema Italiano in Hawaii, an Italian film festival that honors the land of her birth. Here, she’s pictured in a Lamborghini wearing $150,000 worth of Damiani diamonds. Once upon a time, there was a Hawaii girl
By Alice Keesing
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Margherita Balbo Parrent’s Search For A Film To Cheer Her Up When She Was Fighting Cancer Grew Into An Italian Film Fest
Once upon a time, there was a Hawaii girl (well, part-Italian, part-American Indian), who spent her days working for the Navy, organizing contractors and projects and other gritty sorts of things. But once a year, stardust fell on her life and she transformed into the director of an Italian film festival, forging a cultural mix of aloha and la dolce vita.
It was five years ago that Margherita Balbo Parrent launched Cinema Italiano in Hawaii. Yet even with the most recent festival successfully under her wings last month, she still appears somewhat startled that it is all happening. Are those really the Italian film directors coming here to talk story with Hawaii students? Are those really Hawaii’s stars coming out to support the effort? Is that really her - dressed to kill with $150,000 worth of Damiani diamonds (loaned!) - at the glitzy festival reception?
It’s no easy feat to pull together a film festival, yet Balbo Parrent has single-handedly managed it - in her spare time - with a skill package that includes some impressive organization and a delightful way of asking for things.
“I think she has an incredible ability to gather people, to inspire them to work on a project where there is no monetary return,” says local filmmaker Edgy Lee, who is among the ranks who work pro bono. “It’s all done in spirit, and the result is even greater because of that.”
Adds Lee: “I can only imagine what Margherita could accomplish if this were her day job.”
The story begins when Balbo Parrent was born in Livorno, Italy, to her Italian mom and American Army dad. She grew up in the rich cultures of Italy and Germany, immersed in the museums, villas and castles, and attending exhibits, opera and concerts.
When she was 14 her family moved to Hawaii, and Balbo Parrent began classes at Leileihua High. She was a ferocious tennis player (at a time, she says, when women weren’t supposed to be quite so aggressive with the ball) and she ended up getting a partial tennis scholarship to the University of Hawaii, where she earned a double major in public administration and business administration.
Balbo Parrent then became a civil servant in the Navy. Initially she ran the tennis program, which won national awards during her tenure. These days she’s a facility and project manager in the engineering department at Pearl Harbor, which means she facilitates the repair and building needs at the various commands.
Balbo Parrent always thought she’d return to Italy to live, but the years went by and her job kept advancing and Hawaii kept working its magic on her.
As with many a tale, this one has hard times. In 2001, Balbo Parrent discovered she had breast cancer. Some time later, she found herself in bed at home, bald and totally wiped out by the radiation and chemotherapy. She had no energy to read or watch TV or engage in life. Flipping idly through the pages of a magazine, her attention was caught by an advertisement for an Italian film festival. She began reading the synopsis of one of the films, Santa Maradona, directed by Marco Ponti. It made her laugh.
“And I said, ‘Oh, I need more laughter in my life, I need more joy.’”
Balbo Parrent decided to try to bring the film to Hawaii so she and others could watch it.
“I figured we all need to laugh,” she says. “So it was the search for humor that started this festival. Humor is our common
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