These days, anyone can make a movie.

And anyone is.

Evolving technology has paved the way for aspiring filmmakers with limited equipment, little or no budget and, in some cases, little or no formal film schooling to make movies. Now, a digital video camera plus good editing software plus a good eye equals filmmaking — at least at a very basic level.

And here in Honolulu, independent filmmaking is experiencing a bit of a boom, thanks to digital technology.

"There's great potential for the Honolulu independent film scene because it's much easier to make film now," said Anderson Le, film curator for the annual Hawaii International Film Festival. "I've seen a great flood of great films recently."

Le is currently screening locally made film submissions for this year's HIFF. He plans to include about 20 local independent films in the October festival.

But there's more to being a filmmaker than just the actual making of movies.

Chris Lee, film producer and director of the University of Hawai'i's Academy for Creative Media, said that making movies now isn't as difficult as it once was, but the big remaining hurdle for independent filmmakers lies in film distribution.

"It's not difficult to make a film anymore. Anyone can make a film. The economic barriers are all but gone," Lee said.

"But this is the good and bad of the digital revolution: There are lots of films being made, but how many of them are going to find distribution and an audience? The odds are definitely against getting a film distributed, and that's the larger question today."

A question that has no easy answer. It's the filmic version of the tree-falling-in-the-forest analogy: Is a good movie still good if there's no one around to see it?

Local independent filmmaker Brett Wagner, whose short film "Chief" received a number of international film fest awards last year, and is still screening at various film festivals, said getting a film made, though easier now than ever, is still just one small part of the bigger challenge.

"Yes, the advent of technology has made it easier, but that's just one sliver of the expense and the challenge of the filmmaking process," he said.

Apart from the expense, indie filmmakers have to hustle — and hustle hard — to get their films seen by audiences outside of Hawai'i, or even in Hawai'i.

But that's every filmmaker's challenge, Wagner said. "When you're anywhere other than L.A., you have less access to the people who pay to distribute movies. But if you're going out there to do it yourself, and you're not spending anyone's else's money, then I think being in Hawai'i is advantageous.

"The place isn't crawling with filmmakers the way L.A. is, there are amazing locations and there are opportunities to boost your production value that don't cost anything by being here. It's as easy here as anywhere to actually go out and make films."