AllMovie

The numbers themselves are so staggering that they make a sickening emotional impact: by the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the Earth's rainforests - one of the planet's most precious natural resources - were being destroyed at an average of 1 1/2 acres per second, or 129,600 acres per day (some estimates as high as 214,000). Many may not realize that the Hawaii constitutes one of the greatest rainforest repositories, which makes the need for preservation particularly pressing in that rich and beautiful state. Filmmaker-cum-musician Eddie Kamae brings this need home in the 1991 documentary Listen to the Forest. This highly meditative documentary begins with the preservation issue, then moves into explorations of the Hawaiian Islands per se and the Hawaiian way of feeling, used as a window into the connection between the state's cultural heritage and its cultural life.