The Healer Stones of Kapaemahu

Category: News

It’s Raining Hawai‘i Films in Hollywood

It’s Raining Hawai‘i Films in Hollywood

Local Oscar-listed animated short “Kapaemahu” is just one of more than a dozen recent films to spring from our filmmaking community into the spotlight—and it’s no Baywatch Hanauma Bay.
by Don Wallace – Honolulu Magazine – April 23, 2021:

Hollywood’s recent rediscovery of Hawai‘i as more than just a tropical backdrop for dinosaurs and squabbling reality show lolos actually feels rather breathtaking—or maybe breathless. Because in one month in early 2021 we got The Goonies remake, Finding ‘Ohana, with ‘ōlelo subtitles; the debut of Dwayne Johnson’s school days series, Young Rock; and near-simultaneous announcements of reboots Doogie Kameāloha, M.D., and NCIS: Hawai‘i.
Much of the action is stimulated by a global story-buying frenzy prompted by pandemic streaming habits, which coincided with the handiness of Hawai‘i as a relatively COVID-free set.
But the bigger news in the local filmmaking community isn’t reboots but real roots. More than a dozen local films were selected and screened on the prestigious Criterion Channel in recent mini-festivals. “Local and Native Hawaiian cinema has had exponential growth in the last decade, particularly in the last five years and especially in the last two,” says Taylour Chang, curator of film and performance at the Honolulu Museum of Art, who created the slate for Criterion.
One of the films received Oscar consideration in March—the animated short Kapaemahu. “I think of this moment as a real filmmaking renaissance,” says Dean Hamer, a co-producer-director with Joe Wilson and lead director Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu, perhaps better known as Kumu Hina, the title of her own Hamer-Wilson biopic.
Kapaemahu did win best short at the Atlanta and Foyle film festivals, and the grand prize at the Animayo Film Festival. Using a flattened visual style and colors that evoke tapa cloth designs—and told in ōlelo Ni‘ihau, the only Native Hawaiian dialect to be spoken continuously since before Western contact—it tells the story of how the healing arts of Polynesia were brought to Hawai‘i by four māhū, or third gender, practitioners, who charged four stones with their spirit and wisdom.
“When we started making this film about a Hawaiian legend in a language only spoken by a hundred people in the world, we had no idea that out of 3,000 short films made and 100 that qualified for the Oscars, ours would be one of 10 on the short list,” Hamer says. He credits nonprofit organization Pacific Islanders in Communications in particular for backing the film and many before it, but also cites the continuum of filmmaking support provided by the Hawai‘i International Film Festival; ‘Ohina Short Film Showcase; PBS Hawai‘i; Creative Lab Hawai‘i; Ō‘iwi TV; and a new effort, Good Pitch Local Hawai‘i, “which brings filmmakers with brilliant ideas together with the people who have money, resources and distribution. It’s just a big fancy pitch session!”
Chang cites the same network, adding the Academy for Creative Media at the University of Hawai‘i (but modestly omitting her own influential curatorship of the Doris Duke Theatre at HoMA, which Criterion singles out). “What makes our local film system special is how supportive the community is. You have filmmakers working on each other’s projects, giving each other feedback. Over time, over these years, this has accumulated momentum and it just fuels more and more work.”
Kapaemahu can be viewed on the Criterion Channel and at kapaemahu.com along with Q&As with the filmmakers and another short, The Making of Kapaemahu.

April 23, 2021
Meet Native Hawaiian Māhū Activist Hinaleimoana Kwai Kong Wong-Kalu

Meet Native Hawaiian Māhū Activist Hinaleimoana Kwai Kong Wong-Kalu

by Alexis Cheung – Atmos – April 15, 2021:

Hinaleimoana Kwai Kong Wong-Kalu has always occupied spaces in the middle: between male and female; between Indigenous and Western cultures; between her Chinese and Hawaiian heritages.
“My entire life has always been in the middle,” she explains. The Native Hawaiian educator, activist, and director became Hinaleimoana—meaning Hina, the goddess of the moon, and “the child of Moana,” her mother’s name—after transitioning in her early twenties. She is one of the most visible māhū, the Hawaiian third-gender identity, women in the Islands and the United States today.
Her life’s work is devoted to exploring the interstices of identity and culture, specifically through a Kanaka Maoli, or Native Hawaiian, lens. Most recently, she narrated, directed, and produced the short animated film Kapaemahu, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and was shortlisted for an Oscar. Narrated entirely in Olelo Niihau, a form of Hawaiian spoken since before the arrival of foreigners, it recounts the legend of four stones in Honolulu’s Waikiki—and the third-gender māhū healers for whom they were erected.
Below, Wong-Kalu speaks to Atmos on the history of Kapaemahu, her personal journey to becoming Hinaleimoana, what she hopes audiences will take away from the story, and why Native peoples shouldn’t equate their ideas and understandings of the self and world in a Western framework.
ALEXIS CHEUNG
What is the mo‘olelo (story, myth, legend or history in Hawaiian) of Kapaemahu, your recent short film?
HINALEIMOANA KWAI KONG WONG-KALU
The story of Kapaemahu speaks to four legendary healers who came from Kahiki. In the context of Hawaiian history, Kahiki could mean Tahiti proper, as Tahiti is one of the ancestral homelands of our people, or any foreign lands outside of Hawaii. So it’s a very Hawaii centric way of looking at our world. These four legendary healers bring with them the knowledge and skills of healing. Their time here was so appreciated and they became so beloved that four great stones were erected in their honor. One of the unique elements about the healers is that they were actually recorded as having many elements about them that were female, although they were physically male. When we refer to people like this, the term ‘māhū’ is used.
ALEXIS
And māhū are defined in Hawaiian culture as someone ‘in between,’ is that correct?
HINA
That’s how I like to speak about it. When you look for historical writings speaking towards the topic of māhū, there are very limited examples. And it’s not because we didn’t exist, but it’s because we’re a part of society. We know this because we have the term, and it’s an adjective to describe the individual. Clearly within our language, too, the pronoun for he, she, and it is one word: either ‘oia or koia. The fact that we have a pronoun that does not acknowledge a male or female should give you some insight as to how our people felt about fluidity between the sexes.
ALEXIS
So in the Hawaiian conception of gender pronouns, there really was no need for distinction, which leads to my next question: How is māhū similar or different from our Western conception of transgender?
HINA
The understanding of māhū is not necessarily something that you can just easily transpose a Western understanding upon. It’s easier for the native view of it to find itself in a Western articulation, but it’s very difficult to try to transfer it from a Western understanding over to native one. Māhū is understood in a LGBTQIA+ context in the Western world. However, it’s far more inclusive and encompassing and complex than that, and I find that using a Western conception of māhū to be very compartmentalized and restricted.

ALEXIS CHEUNG
What is the mo‘olelo (story, myth, legend or history in Hawaiian) of Kapaemahu, your recent short film?
HINALEIMOANA KWAI KONG WONG-KALU
The story of Kapaemahu speaks to four legendary healers who came from Kahiki. In the context of Hawaiian history, Kahiki could mean Tahiti proper, as Tahiti is one of the ancestral homelands of our people, or any foreign lands outside of Hawaii. So it’s a very Hawaii centric way of looking at our world. These four legendary healers bring with them the knowledge and skills of healing. Their time here was so appreciated and they became so beloved that four great stones were erected in their honor. One of the unique elements about the healers is that they were actually recorded as having many elements about them that were female, although they were physically male. When we refer to people like this, the term ‘māhū’ is used.
ALEXIS
And māhū are defined in Hawaiian culture as someone ‘in between,’ is that correct?
HINA
That’s how I like to speak about it. When you look for historical writings speaking towards the topic of māhū, there are very limited examples. And it’s not because we didn’t exist, but it’s because we’re a part of society. We know this because we have the term, and it’s an adjective to describe the individual. Clearly within our language, too, the pronoun for he, she, and it is one word: either ‘oia or koia. The fact that we have a pronoun that does not acknowledge a male or female should give you some insight as to how our people felt about fluidity between the sexes.
ALEXIS
So in the Hawaiian conception of gender pronouns, there really was no need for distinction, which leads to my next question: How is māhū similar or different from our Western conception of transgender?
HINA
The understanding of māhū is not necessarily something that you can just easily transpose a Western understanding upon. It’s easier for the native view of it to find itself in a Western articulation, but it’s very difficult to try to transfer it from a Western understanding over to native one. Māhū is understood in a LGBTQIA+ context in the Western world. However, it’s far more inclusive and encompassing and complex than that, and I find that using a Western conception of māhū to be very compartmentalized and restricted.
ALEXIS
In what ways?
HINA
When I say I identify as male and female, that’s mentally and emotionally. Perhaps spiritually, as well. That’s what I’m referring to for me. Western culture doesn’t necessarily speak to the mental, emotional, and spiritual aspects of people.
I would also say that Westerners tend to have the need to identify by genitalia, sexuality, and individuality. There seems to be a fixation on it, because by default, Western culture does not account for fluidity nor flexibility. And only in recent years has there been an effort to really try to address that. Nowadays, it’s practice to ask someone their pronouns.
In Hawaiian culture, we’re identified by our genealogy and our land. So we don’t necessarily introduce ourselves as individuals or compartmentalize ourselves from solely [a gender or sexuality] perspective. There’s almost a disdain around trying to identify yourself as what makes you stand out because we come from a collective culture where the we is far more valuable than the me. In Hawaii, we often ask, “What school did you go to?” Which means we’re also asking, “What area are you from?” And then we ask, “Oh, who’s your family?” So that’s a far different cry from asking someone about their gender identification and their sexual orientation, which, until this day, I struggle to engage with because it’s not anybody’s business.
ALEXIS
In some interviews I’ve read, you prefer being known as a Native Hawaiian advocate versus a transgender advocate, is that right?
HINA
Yeah, I’m not a transgender advocate. I mean, by default, by being considered transgender in the Western world, yeah. And obviously, when necessary, having to stand up for others like myself [who are māhū], then you might view me as a transgender advocate. But that’s not something that I immediately avail myself to because my work over the years has really kept me focused on advocating for issues that impact my people—my fellow Kanaka, my fellow Hawaiians. It’s always been my first and foremost priority. When I have to stand up and advocate for the element of cultural understanding that covers the topic of māhū, that’s how I approach it. The work I do has been done for others on the behalf of others. And yes, those said others could be from amongst the māhū members in the community, but most of the time, it’s for Hawaiian or Pacific Islander issues.
ALEXIS
What Hawaiian and Pacific Islander issues do you specifically advocate for?
HINA
I’m always an advocate for language, and the usage of our language to reinforce our identity, our relationships to ourselves and to others. I prioritize my people, the issues that affect my people, and because of that, my people have been very loving and giving to me as a result.
In that way, I can actually engage in different circles that other people like me don’t have access to. I can sit at any business or political table here in Hawaii and be an active part of the conversation. Because I’m very keenly aware of the duality within, I consciously engage and exercise my knowledge of the difference—between communication, expression, movement, and engagement, between men and women or the same sexes, in both Island and Western settings—because it often helps me to achieve what I need or what I’d like to see on behalf of my people.
ALEXIS
That sounds like a freeing and expansive way of being and relating to others.
HINA
There are subtle differences when I’m with women and likewise when I’m with men. You know, it’s just a different way of engaging. I use all that I understand about both to walk me through my days.
ALEXIS
Why was it important to tell the story of Kapaemahu, and in Olelo Niihau? Was it mainly for the record of Hawaiian culture or to broaden the understanding of māhū in Hawaiian culture?
HINA
My desire to bring this story forward is to help bring greater depth and greater understanding to the concept of māhū. This particular segment of my work [Editor’s note: Hina was also featured in a documentary called Kumu Hina, which traces her personal story and experience leading an all male hula troop] best speaks to the fact that māhū are different in terms of the traditional Hawaiian understanding of it. We cannot and should not be assessed or evaluated according to modern Western definitions. This film really tries to show who we were, how we were treated, and what were the views of our people before the coming of foreign Westerners to Hawaii.
ALEXIS
What do you hope people will keep in mind as they’re watching?
HINA
I hope that they will look at Hawaii and Hawaiian culture as separate and distinct. We are not American, for one. Number two, we come from a larger family of people across the Pacific Ocean. We have a distinct perspective and understanding that we don’t necessarily have to try to equate to somebody else’s. We can acknowledge commonalities with other Native peoples. We can acknowledge commonalities even with our Western colonizer, foreigner people, but we shouldn’t necessarily have to or always try to reconcile ourselves in a culture and in language that’s foreign to us. I hope that the film will serve as a stepping stone and a conversation piece to explore: What does our culture really hold for people like me [and other māhū]? What do these understandings tell us? What can we learn? Hopefully because it’s in animation those learnings are accessible to everyone.
ALEXIS CHEUNG
What is the mo‘olelo (story, myth, legend or history in Hawaiian) of Kapaemahu, your recent short film?
HINALEIMOANA KWAI KONG WONG-KALU
The story of Kapaemahu speaks to four legendary healers who came from Kahiki. In the context of Hawaiian history, Kahiki could mean Tahiti proper, as Tahiti is one of the ancestral homelands of our people, or any foreign lands outside of Hawaii. So it’s a very Hawaii centric way of looking at our world. These four legendary healers bring with them the knowledge and skills of healing. Their time here was so appreciated and they became so beloved that four great stones were erected in their honor. One of the unique elements about the healers is that they were actually recorded as having many elements about them that were female, although they were physically male. When we refer to people like this, the term ‘māhū’ is used.
ALEXIS
And māhū are defined in Hawaiian culture as someone ‘in between,’ is that correct?
HINA
That’s how I like to speak about it. When you look for historical writings speaking towards the topic of māhū, there are very limited examples. And it’s not because we didn’t exist, but it’s because we’re a part of society. We know this because we have the term, and it’s an adjective to describe the individual. Clearly within our language, too, the pronoun for he, she, and it is one word: either ‘oia or koia. The fact that we have a pronoun that does not acknowledge a male or female should give you some insight as to how our people felt about fluidity between the sexes.
ALEXIS
So in the Hawaiian conception of gender pronouns, there really was no need for distinction, which leads to my next question: How is māhū similar or different from our Western conception of transgender?
HINA
The understanding of māhū is not necessarily something that you can just easily transpose a Western understanding upon. It’s easier for the native view of it to find itself in a Western articulation, but it’s very difficult to try to transfer it from a Western understanding over to native one. Māhū is understood in a LGBTQIA+ context in the Western world. However, it’s far more inclusive and encompassing and complex than that, and I find that using a Western conception of māhū to be very compartmentalized and restricted.
ALEXIS
In what ways?
HINA
When I say I identify as male and female, that’s mentally and emotionally. Perhaps spiritually, as well. That’s what I’m referring to for me. Western culture doesn’t necessarily speak to the mental, emotional, and spiritual aspects of people.

I would also say that Westerners tend to have the need to identify by genitalia, sexuality, and individuality. There seems to be a fixation on it, because by default, Western culture does not account for fluidity nor flexibility. And only in recent years has there been an effort to really try to address that. Nowadays, it’s practice to ask someone their pronouns.

In Hawaiian culture, we’re identified by our genealogy and our land. So we don’t necessarily introduce ourselves as individuals or compartmentalize ourselves from solely [a gender or sexuality] perspective. There’s almost a disdain around trying to identify yourself as what makes you stand out because we come from a collective culture where the we is far more valuable than the me. In Hawaii, we often ask, “What school did you go to?” Which means we’re also asking, “What area are you from?” And then we ask, “Oh, who’s your family?” So that’s a far different cry from asking someone about their gender identification and their sexual orientation, which, until this day, I struggle to engage with because it’s not anybody’s business.
ALEXIS
In some interviews I’ve read, you prefer being known as a Native Hawaiian advocate versus a transgender advocate, is that right?
HINA
Yeah, I’m not a transgender advocate. I mean, by default, by being considered transgender in the Western world, yeah. And obviously, when necessary, having to stand up for others like myself [who are māhū], then you might view me as a transgender advocate. But that’s not something that I immediately avail myself to because my work over the years has really kept me focused on advocating for issues that impact my people—my fellow Kanaka, my fellow Hawaiians. It’s always been my first and foremost priority. When I have to stand up and advocate for the element of cultural understanding that covers the topic of māhū, that’s how I approach it. The work I do has been done for others on the behalf of others. And yes, those said others could be from amongst the māhū members in the community, but most of the time, it’s for Hawaiian or Pacific Islander issues.
ALEXIS
What Hawaiian and Pacific Islander issues do you specifically advocate for?
HINA
I’m always an advocate for language, and the usage of our language to reinforce our identity, our relationships to ourselves and to others. I prioritize my people, the issues that affect my people, and because of that, my people have been very loving and giving to me as a result.

In that way, I can actually engage in different circles that other people like me don’t have access to. I can sit at any business or political table here in Hawaii and be an active part of the conversation. Because I’m very keenly aware of the duality within, I consciously engage and exercise my knowledge of the difference—between communication, expression, movement, and engagement, between men and women or the same sexes, in both Island and Western settings—because it often helps me to achieve what I need or what I’d like to see on behalf of my people.
ALEXIS
That sounds like a freeing and expansive way of being and relating to others.
HINA
There are subtle differences when I’m with women and likewise when I’m with men. You know, it’s just a different way of engaging. I use all that I understand about both to walk me through my days.
ALEXIS
Why was it important to tell the story of Kapaemahu, and in Olelo Niihau? Was it mainly for the record of Hawaiian culture or to broaden the understanding of māhū in Hawaiian culture?
HINA
My desire to bring this story forward is to help bring greater depth and greater understanding to the concept of māhū. This particular segment of my work [Editor’s note: Hina was also featured in a documentary called Kumu Hina, which traces her personal story and experience leading an all male hula troop] best speaks to the fact that māhū are different in terms of the traditional Hawaiian understanding of it. We cannot and should not be assessed or evaluated according to modern Western definitions. This film really tries to show who we were, how we were treated, and what were the views of our people before the coming of foreign Westerners to Hawaii.
ALEXIS
What do you hope people will keep in mind as they’re watching?
HINA
I hope that they will look at Hawaii and Hawaiian culture as separate and distinct. We are not American, for one. Number two, we come from a larger family of people across the Pacific Ocean. We have a distinct perspective and understanding that we don’t necessarily have to try to equate to somebody else’s. We can acknowledge commonalities with other Native peoples. We can acknowledge commonalities even with our Western colonizer, foreigner people, but we shouldn’t necessarily have to or always try to reconcile ourselves in a culture and in language that’s foreign to us. I hope that the film will serve as a stepping stone and a conversation piece to explore: What does our culture really hold for people like me [and other māhū]? What do these understandings tell us? What can we learn? Hopefully because it’s in animation those learnings are accessible to everyone.
Hinaleimoana Kwai Kong Wong-Kalu at the “Stones of Life” (four stones) monument in Waikiki.
ALEXIS
What was your own journey identifying as both male and female?
HINA
When I was younger, I only clearly knew that I wanted to be like my mother. I wanted to be beautiful like her. And up until this day, much to her dismay, she insists that I look nothing like her. [Laughs] Even now, she gets compliments from people telling her how beautiful she is, and I wanted people to look at me like that. That was just my earliest feeling. It wasn’t something that came easy for me because I was not in an environment where it was okay to be distinguished outside of the gender binary, male and female, [or in Hawaiian] kāne or wahine. So I did what I could to try to divert attention and overt situations that would talk about it. I struggled with it. It wasn’t until I was 18 that I was actually able to engage it.
ALEXIS
How did your heritage play a role in your transition?
HINA
In both my Asian and Polynesian heritage, the most important thing in assessing or evaluating someone is to ask: Well, what do you do? What do you do to earn somebody’s respect? In order for my father to respect and support me, I had to honor him and what he needed me to do. My father said: “I only have two things I want from you: I want you to finish school. I want you to take care of your grandmother.” That became my given task. And I did that. By prioritizing my grandmother, my father cut me a lot of slack. He provided for me without question.

As I transitioned, with every passing day, week, month, year, and every family engagement, my appearance changed, my attire changed, and my family watched it. But, you know, what were they going to say? I was the caregiver for the matriarch of the family. Thanks to that situation, I was under her grace. I don’t think I would have been given as much leeway if I was from one of the other siblings down the line. But, you know, on the Chinese side of the house [my father’s side], I was always the Hawaiian one. And then on the Hawaiian side of the house [my mother’s side], I was always the Chinese one. So I was always in the middle and never really fit anywhere.
ALEXIS
For anyone who’s either in between ethnicities and cultures or potentially between gender identities, is there anything you want to say to them or want them to know?
HINA
To anybody who’s a Native person, especially Pacific Island people, we should continue to look within rather than look to the outside world to help articulate and reaffirm who we are and who we can and should be. Rather than always taking everybody else’s example, we can help set an example by following and honoring our cultural identities. So let’s not be so quick to devalue or disavow ourselves from those cultural identities, and that’s inclusive of gender and sexual diversity. The whole concept of having a conversation about gender expression, sexual identity, and sexual preference—that is a matter of Western construction. In my culture, that’s not the basis of evaluating or assessing someone, so I hope that people will not keep trying to pull us into the American construct of looking at the world. I think it does us a great disservice. It’s great for money and getting funding to someone’s program. But it doesn’t really reinforce our traditional attitudes and behaviors and ideology about us in relation to our world.

April 15, 2021
‘Kapaemahu’ Wins Santa Barbara Film Festival Bruce Corwin Award for Best Animated Short

‘Kapaemahu’ Wins Santa Barbara Film Festival Bruce Corwin Award for Best Animated Short

Deadline – April 10, 2021:

The 36th annual festival, which ran a hybrid in-person/virtual event that began March 31, wraps today with the unveiling of its juried awards. Jury members this year included Tony Anselmo, Antwone Fisher, David Freid, Li Cheng, Geoffrey Cowper, Patricia Rosema, Siqi Song, Mark Stafford, Rita Taggart, Paul Walter Hauser, Anthony and Arnette Zerbe.
Bruce Corwin Award – Animated Short Film
Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu, Dean Hamer, and Joe Wilson’s KAPAEMAHU
Statement from the Filmmakers of KAPAEMAHU
Mahalo a nui loa to the Santa Barbara International Film Festival for this tremendous honor. Our goal in making Kapaemahu was to help shine light on an aspect of Hawaiian culture that has been hidden from history for far too long and that, if better known, might help bring healing to a troubled world. Receiving the Bruce Corwin Award for Best Animated Short Film is an extraordinary boost to the journey yet ahead in this project. With gratitude and warmest aloha to all.

Here’s the full list of other winners:
Audience Choice Award sponsored by The Santa Barbara Independent
Jeff Harasimowicz’s ALASKAN NETS
Documentary Short Film Award
Richard Reens’s PANT HOOT
Bruce Corwin Award – Live-Action Short Film
Christopher Oroza-Nostas’s SAVIOR
Documentary Award sponsored by SEE International
Nina Stefanka’s MIRAGE (MIRAGGIO)
Jeffrey C. Barbakow Award – International Feature Film
Nisan Dağ’s WHEN I’M DONE DYING
Panavision Spirit Award for Independent Cinema
Alanna Brown’s TREES OF PEACE
Nueva Vision Award for Spain/Latin America Cinema
Eduardo Crespo’s WE WILL NEVER DIE
Valhalla Award for Best Nordic Film
Henrik Ruben Genz’s ERNA AT WAR (ERNA I KRIG)
Social Justice Award for Documentary Film
Michael Webber’s THE CONSERVATION GAME
The ADL Stand Up Award sponsored by ADL Santa Barbara/Tri-Counties, the Skinner Social Impact Fund, and Steve and Cindy Lyons
Alanna Brown’s TREES OF PEACE

April 10, 2021
Representation on Screen: Indigenous Filmmakers are Gaining Prominence

Representation on Screen: Indigenous Filmmakers are Gaining Prominence

The Economist – March 29, 2021:

WHEN THE Maoriland Film Festival opened on March 24th in Otaki, New Zealand, citizens of many countries could only look on with envy. Thousands of people crowded together in cinemas to watch a total of 120 films. The return of the festival of indigenous film after its cancellation last year also reflects the dramatic growth in movies made by native peoples. It has been a dizzying ride from the day in 2013 when Libby Hakaraia, a Maori film-maker, stood on stage at the imagineNATIVE Festival in Toronto and invited the world to the new event she was organising in a town of 6,000 people with two motels and not a single cinema.
Taika Waititi, who was born in Raukokore in New Zealand, may be the world’s best-known native film-maker. In 2020 he became the first indigenous person to win an Oscar for a screenplay, adapting the novel “Caging Skies” into “Jojo Rabbit”. (Buffy Sainte-Marie was the first indigenous person to win any Oscar, for Best Song, in 1983.) But the international profile of native-made films has been building for the past 20 years. This is largely thanks to indigenous film festivals in Canada, America and Latin America. In Maoriland’s first year, it showed 50 films; eight years later the roster has more than doubled. The hugely influential indigenous programme of the Sundance Film Festival, meanwhile, has supported more than 350 indigenous film-makers since it began in 1994. All have played a critical role as incubators for a new generation.
“Cousins” (pictured), the film which headlined the festival in Otaki, and was voted best feature drama, is a prime example of the network. It is a visually stunning, deftly woven story of three girl cousins separated by colonialism and culture, and their attempts to reconnect over a span of 50 years. Ainsley Gardiner, who co-directed the film with Briar Grace-Smith, produced several of Mr Waititi’s early efforts, and participated in the Sundance indigenous programme 15 years ago. Like many directors showing films at Maoriland, her goal is not simply to entertain, but, in the words of her mentor, the late Maori director Merata Mita, to “decolonise the screen”.
Women film-makers are well represented at the festival and in native movie-making in general, partly due to the example of Mita, who first tried to make “Cousins”, from a novel of the same name, 30 years ago. Her efforts were thwarted by racism and funders’ resistance to a different style of film-making, Ms Gardiner says. Yet in recent years things have started to change. Native- and female-focused stories have caught the world’s attention, due in part to the #MeToo movement and protests against the Dakota Access pipeline at Standing Rock in South Dakota. Ms Gardiner says that the demonstrations for racial justice last summer have only added to this “massive groundswell in terms of representation and diversity”. Ms Hakaraia agrees: “We are really on the radar now.”
Maoriland attracts the most prominent native storytellers working today. This year the programme included “Monkey Beach”, a haunting feature from Loretta Todd, a celebrated Métis-Cree film-maker from Canada, and documentaries by both lauded and emerging directors such as Sterlin Harjo (“Love and Fury”) and Brooke Pepion Swaney (“Daughter of a Lost Bird”). Viewers also saw “Kapaemahu”, about the stones on Waikiki Beach in Hawaii, which is nominated for next month’s Academy Awards, the first indigenous animated short to be so.
Indigenous films wrest control of native stories from white film-makers. They follow a century of demonisation of Native Americans in Hollywood Westerns, and more recent, well-intentioned efforts such as “Dances with Wolves” and “The Revenant” that nonetheless foreground white characters. Most observers date the rise of indigenous cinema to the mid-to-late 1990s, with groundbreaking films such as “Atanarjuat”, an Inuktitut tale from Canada, and “Smoke Signals” and “Once Were Warriors”, set in the contemporary Native American and Maori worlds respectively.
These films help preserve indigenous culture while giving native peoples a chance to see themselves on screen. Beyond this, audiences of all kinds have proven eager to hear stories from communities they know little about. “That’s why indigenous film is so exciting,” says Ms Hakaraia. “People see faces very rarely seen before, different environments and humour and ways of doing things.” Ms Todd, an experienced maker of documentaries and children’s television, believes that indigenous storytelling gives non-native viewers a new way to experience the world. Indigenous philosophy and politics have always been embedded in art, music, theatre and dance, she says: “It’s all these rich, rich ways in which our stories are told.”
Drawing on ancient and distinct storytelling traditions, indigenous cinema can feel strikingly different from Hollywood’s pace and plots. Ms Gardiner, after taking a storytelling workshop in Los Angeles, says that the experience showed her that “a key point of difference is that the Hollywood model of storytelling is conflict-based, and indigenous storytelling is connection-based. The idea that you look for conflict as a way to drive a story forward, and create a journey for your central character, is a fundamental difference.” Indeed, the characters in both “Cousins” and “Monkey Beach” mainly seek reconnection and reconciliation with their communities and pasts.
This approach is appealing to audiences. “Cousins” was New Zealand’s top-grossing film on its opening weekend in March, beating a Disney release, “Raya and the Last Dragon”. That success may help to overcome one large remaining hurdle for film-makers: the lack of indigenous films on multiplex screens and major streaming services. Ms Gardiner hopes that good box-office receipts, and the popularity of festivals such as Maoriland, will encourage more distributors to recognise the value of these stories.
Some films in the programme of the Maoriland Film Festival are available to stream via video-on-demand services

March 30, 2021
Watch Kapaemahu: One of the Best Films of the Year

Watch Kapaemahu: One of the Best Films of the Year

by Chris Perkins – Animation for Adults – March 25, 2021:

One of the best animated short films we saw in 2020 was Kapaemahu. Shown at many festivals including Annecy, Ottowa International Animation Festival, Manchester Animation Festival and Tribeca, the film made the 2021 Oscar shortlist for Best Animated Short, although ultimately it missed out on the nomination
Kapaemahu is a film that is firmly rooted in Pacific Island culture and is designed to spread awareness about the history, culture and mythology of the native people of the region. It’s co-produced by Kanika Pakipika with Pacific Islanders in Communications, with funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and written, directed and produced by Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu, Dean Hamer and Joe Wilson. The animation director was Daniel Sousa.
Narrated entirely in a native Hawaiian dialect, it recounts the legend behind four monumental stones that can be found on Waikiki Beach. The mythology says that the stones were imbued with the power of four travellers who brought the healing arts to Hawaii from Tahiti.
The four healers were “of dual male and female spirits” an indigenous transgender identity that according to Wong-Kalu “was once respected but now more often a target of hatred and discrimination.
This makes Kapaemahu a film that is very relevant to two issues that are very much at the forefront of current popular discourse: racial/cultural and LGBTQ+ equality. The film has been nominated for 35 awards so far and won 22 of them- including several at LGBTQ+ focused events.
The short boasts an absolutely gorgeous animation style, with a brilliantly simple style that is influenced by ancient indigenous art, combined with more modern influences. A mix of hand-drawn and computer-generated 2D animation is utilised to create a seamless whole. Along with the narration and the music (which incorporates native chanting) it creates a wonderful sense of immersion in the culture that will transport you to another time and place.
If Moana made you curious about Pacific Island culture and history then Kapaemahu will give you a much more authentic window into this world.
Watch the full film on its website, here

March 26, 2021
Theatrical & Virtual Release Dates For 2021’s Oscar-Nominated & Honorable Mention Short Films

Theatrical & Virtual Release Dates For 2021’s Oscar-Nominated & Honorable Mention Short Films

by Matt Grobar – Deadline – March 23, 2021:

Every year, ShortsTV brings the best in short film to the big screen, with a presentation of Oscar nominated shorts in the Animated, Live-Action and Documentary arenas. While movie theaters only recently reopened in Los Angeles and Orange County—with Covid cases, hospitalizations and fatalities on the descent—the distributor has already set theatrical and virtual premiere dates in both counties, for the Oscar Nominated Shorts of 2021.
ShortsTV’s live-action and animated short film programs will be released theatrically and virtually on Friday, April 2. Its documentary program, meanwhile, will become available virtually on April 2, with a theatrical opening scheduled for April 9.
Nominees in the category of Best Live-Action Short Film that will screen for LA audiences include Feeling Through (directed by Doug Roland), Oscar Isaac-starrer The Letter Room (Elvira Lind), The Present (Farah Nabulsi), Two Distant Strangers (Travon Free and Martin Desmond Roe) and White Eye (Tomer Sushan).
Doc nominees to be presented by ShortsTV include Anthony Giacchino’s Colette, Kris Bowers and Ben Proudfoot’s A Concerto Is A Conversation, Anders Hammer’s Do Not Split, Skye Fitzgerald’s Hunger Ward and Sophia Nahli Allison’s A Love Long For Latasha.
In comparison to Live-Action and Doc, the Animated Program presented by ShortsTV stands out, in that it features all five nominated films, as well as a few that didn’t make the Oscars cut, but stood out nonetheless. Nominated shorts here include Pixar’s Burrow (directed by Madeline Sharafian), the French-language Genius Loci (Adrien Merigeau), Opera (Erick Oh), Iceland’s Yes-People (Gísli Darri Halldórsson) and Netflix phenomenon If Anything Happens I Love You, from directors Michael Govier and Will McCormack.
Animated shorts screening soon as Honorable Mentions include Kapaemahu (Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu), The Snail and the Whale, from Max Lang and Daniel Snaddon, and Taylor Meacham’s To Gerard.
Theaters playing the Live-Action and Animated Shorts program include Block 30 @ Orange, Burbank 16, Citywalk Stadium 19, Covina 17, Santa Clara’s Mercado 20, the Ontario Mills 30, Woodland Hills’ Promenade 16 and Palm Springs’ Camelot Theatre 3, along with Los Angeles’ Laemmle, Landmark and Nuart theaters. In-person screenings for Documentary are also taking place at Laemmle.
On the virtual side, Landmark will host all three programs, while L.A.’s Laemmle Theaters will only be showing docs. Other theaters participating in ShortsTV’s Virtual Engagement include The Frida Cinema in Santa Ana, and the Art Theater of Long Beach, both of which will show three programs.

March 24, 2021
‘Moana’ Director John Musker Talks Story with the ‘Kapaemahu’ Team

‘Moana’ Director John Musker Talks Story with the ‘Kapaemahu’ Team

Watch Disney’s legendary Oscar-nominated director as he and the Oscar-shortlisted film’s producers discuss bringing Pacific stories alive through animation.
By Dan Sarto – Animation World Network – March 8, 2021:

Hinaleimona Wong-Kalu, Daniel Sousa, and Joe Wilson, who directed, animated, and produced the beautifully animated short, Kapaemahu, that tells the story of the long-hidden history of four healing stones on Waikiki Beach, have shared with AWN their conversation with legendary Moana director John Musker about the power of animation to elevate the oral traditions of Oceania.
Musker’s interest in the Pacific began many years ago, when he and his long-time animation partner Ron Clements decided to make a feature based on the Polynesian demi-god Maui. The response from then Disney Animation chief John Lasseter was: “Go research.”
The directors and their team did just that, making several trips to the islands and forming an Oceanic Trust of anthropologists, cultural practitioners, historians, linguists, and elders who helped shape every detail of Moana, from character design to the type of pit used to cook food.
“John really did his homework,” said Wong-Kalu, who is Native Hawaiian and fluent in multiple Polynesian languages. “That came through in his blockbuster film, and I think it’s why he responded so positively to Kapaemahu. He gets what sharing these stories is all about on a deeper level. It was such a pleasure to engage with him.”
Kapaemahu also required substantial research, including the unearthing of a century-old handwritten manuscript and a trip to Raiatea, the original home of the four healers of dual male and spirit, known as mahu, who are the focus of the story. Although the four giant stones in which the visitors imbued their powers still stand on Waikiki Beach, the full story behind them has been hidden in plain view.
The talk focuses on the challenge of bringing this ancient story alive through 2D animation. Musker relates a conversation with a Samoan artist who told him that Polynesia has a stronger tradition of sculpting than of drawing, which is reflected in animation director Daniel Sousa’s visual approach. “Capturing light means ignoring linework” Sousa says, “and carving out space through mid-tones and color.”
Spend a few minutes and enjoy the the discussion as well as some behind-the-scenes info about the story of Kapaemahu, and then check out AWN’s intimate look at the film, Kapaemahu’ Helps Revive Hidden Hawaiian History of Healing and Aloha, where you can watch the short in its entirety.
The Polynesian approach to storytelling is beutifully captured in the film’s palette, a rich mixture of oranges and yellows that reflect the colors of tapa cloth and lauhala weaving.
Unusual in today’s world of large studio projects, often involving teams of 20 or more, Sousa was the sole artist on Kapaemahu, responsible for the storyboard, animatic, character design, and digital painting of every frame in the 8-minute short. His tools were Photoshop for painting, Flash for motion, and After Effects for compositing, along with Blender for the 3D elements. For Musker, who is retired from Disney but working on his own short, TVPaint is the preferred tool.
At an opening ceremony for Moana in Tahiti, an elder posed a challenge to Musker: “For years we have been swallowed by your culture. This one time can you be swallowed by ours?”
“This is the same challenge I posed to my team at the beginning of this journey,” says Wong-Kalu. “I hope we have succeeded.

March 8, 2021
‘Kapaemahu’: This Animated Short Oscar Contender Is a Transgender, Hawaiian Breakthrough

‘Kapaemahu’: This Animated Short Oscar Contender Is a Transgender, Hawaiian Breakthrough

The film could make history as the first Native Hawaiian animated short to be nominated in the category.

by Bill Desowitz – IndieWire – March 8, 2021

“Kapaemahu” would make history as the first Native Hawaiian animated short to be nominated for the Oscar. But it’s an important transgender breakthrough as well. The eight-minute 2D short tells the long-forgotten story about the four stones on Waikiki Beach placed as tribute to four legendary mahu (third gender individuals), who brought the healing arts from Tahiti to Hawaii in the 15th century.
“Kapaemahu,” directed by Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu, a Native Hawaiian teacher and mahu, along with Dean Hamer and Joe Wilson (“Kumu Hina,” the award-winning 2014 documentary about Wong-Kalu), couldn’t be timelier with this indigenous transgender tribute, bolstered by an exquisite hand-drawn aesthetic from animation director Daniel Sousa (the Oscar-nominated short “Feral”). The story demonstrates the healing powers of the Kapaemahu, the suppression and burial of their monuments, their recovery at the end of the 20th century, and the renewed interest in their legacy today. The short is available on The Criterion Channel and also for free on Vimeo.
“It took a decade of research, but our animation brings to light those points in history about people who occupy a space that encompasses two spirits or more,” said Wong-Kalu. “On so many levels, my experience was rewarding and eye-opening. In the case of bringing Kapaemahu forward, it’s not just a legend — it’s part of our history.”
The moment Wong-Kalu told Hamer and Wilson about the legendary mahu, they invited her to join them on a follow-up project, making her lead director and driving the story from her unique perspective. “The fact that it’s coming out now, with a story of healing during this pandemic, through the [animation] of Daniel, is important,” Wilson said.
But after a decade of research, it took a couple of catalysts to finally make the short. The first was the recent discovery of an original manuscript from 1908. “There were a lot of alternations to the story,” Wilson added, “especially in the last 50 years. At first, we weren’t sure what was really right. But this is as far back as we can go in history [with clarification].”
The other catalyst was that they realized after making “Kumu Hina” the popularity of a brief animated sequence. That provided the story and the format. “I personally have enjoyed the animation,” added Wong-Kalu. “It has opened my eyes to harnessing the power of this format. And, as someone who grew up on animated cartoons, I clearly knew about it, but in actually utilizing animation as a tool to teach was just great.”
Design and animation, meanwhile, occupied Sousa for more than a year, but he benefited from indigenous research supplied by his colleagues. “We gave Daniel a lot of tapa cloth for the palette and the textures, lauhala weaving, but there is not a lot of 2D drawn art in Polynesian history,” Hemer said. ” It just wasn’t that much of a form. But there is a history of sculpture, and the Tikis are very famous examples, so that was informative and quite detailed. It gave the characters a style that really reflects that monumental presence of Tikis.”
But there were two other essential pieces of reference: the actual stones, which determined the weight, physicality, and texture of the rock, and the physical presence of Wong-Kalu, who served as a model for the characters in look and performance. “I locked down the shape language for the characters and world building before animation,” Sousa said, “but I wanted the animation to appear alive.” It’s predicated on tableaux he soaked with lighting and atmosphere, particularly a boiling texture, in combination with a constantly moving camera, which provided the breath of life.
Sousa animated in Flash (renamed Animate), then painted over it and added landscapes in Photoshop, and then layered in textures, and composited in After Effects. A very warm palette of rich earth tones taken from the tapa cloth inform most of the short, with the present-day coda being informed by cooler blues, and greens. “One of the design challenges was devising a visual language with parallels in different parts,” he said.
“For instance, the depiction of the dual spirits of the mahu as intertwining bands of light and dark color,” added Sousa. “They still retained their identity even though they were braided together. This kind of motif originally was just going to be used when we introduce the idea of the mahu, but then we found we could use the motif for other parts of the film. We realized that these intertwining, wavy lines could actually morph into the waves of the ocean at the beginning, or as rising smoke inside the huts, or in the background in the very last scene when we’re reintroducing the characters again.”
For Wong-Kalu, the short represents a testament to the legacy of the four mahu heroes and its significance to the transgender community. “I think what’s important about that is Americans suddenly decided that transgender people existed four years ago and started talking about it. And then there was the question of: Should they be tolerated? No, they should be accepted. But I think this monument says people of dual birth should not only be respected but admired because they bring qualities and abilities that are extraordinary, and have always been there and will remain there for a long time.”

March 8, 2021
Hawaii 2 Hollywood: Kapaemahu makes history in the race for an Academy Award

Hawaii 2 Hollywood: Kapaemahu makes history in the race for an Academy Award

by Kristy Tamashiro – KHON2 News – March 3, 2021:

HONOLULU (KHON2) – The composing, animation, and powerful storyline of Kapaemahu has earned the film a spot in the race for an Academy Award.
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“To know that it would make it as far as the Oscar Awards is just absolutely fantastic and phenomenal for us,” said Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu, the director, producer, and narrator of Kapaemahu.
The movie is breaking into the Oscars scene, making history as the first Hawaiian film to clear the shortlist for best animated short film.
“It speaks about four legendary healers. They were real people that became legendary, because of the healing knowledge and skill they brought with them. They just so happened to be four individuals who are known to be mahu. They were embraced and loved by the people. So what it tells us is the kanaka culture has room and a place of understanding.”
Kapaemahu is narrated by Kumu Hina, a Na Hoku Hanohano Award winning cultural leader.
“It was critical to me to ensure that the voice was going to reflect a voice, not the voice, but a voice of kanaka and who best to help narrate the story of four legendary mahu then someone who is also mahu?”
Next up, another round of voting by the Academy for an official Oscar nomination. But there’s something more meaningful to the Kapaemahu filmmakers than any award.
“The honor and the dignity and the name of my people, the kanaka, my fellow Hawaiians, and the respect of our islands is uplifted. Perhaps maybe just one person at a time would be helped or supported or would enrich somebody else’s life. That to me means more than any award that we could ever receive.”
Film critics are already calling Kapaemahu a front runner for the Oscars. The 93rd Academy Awards is slated for April 25.
For a link to watch Kapaemahu, click here.

March 3, 2021
Animated Short ‘Kapaemahu’ Could Make History at the Oscars

Animated Short ‘Kapaemahu’ Could Make History at the Oscars

by Monica Whitepigeon – Native News Online – March 3, 2021:

HALEIWA, Hawaii — Societies have been shaped through their legends and myths, which reflect worldviews, define human relations and teach life-long lessons. As a result of colonization, many Indigenous stories from all over the world were suppressed and consequently lost to history. But some traditional storytellers are utilizing contemporary techniques, such as filmmaking, to help secure these oral histories and ensure the survival of their messages.
For Native Hawaiian teacher and cultural practitioner, Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu, this is a task she does not take on lightly. Her recent animated short film, “Kapaemahu,” reveals the hidden history of four monumental stones on Waikiki Beach, and the legendary transgender healing spirits within them.
“The work I do is largely based on being able to (convey) Hawaiian history, language and culture. As a filmmaker, it is an added facet that enables me to further uplift my people and the causes part of who we are,” Wong-Kalu said.
Last year, the short premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and has screened at various festivals around the world. Currently, “Kapaemahu” is under review for the Academy Awards Shortlist and if selected, would be the first Native Hawaiian animated short to be nominated.
The film recounts that centuries ago Kapaemahu and three mahu (both male and female spirit) travelers journeyed from Tahiti to the shores of present-day Waikiki Beach. Greeted by the locals, the healers went to work caring for the sick and invalid. The grateful villagers commemorated their compassion with four large boulders, which they imbued with their powers. The stones are still on the beach today but are overlooked and misrepresented in the public eye.
The origin story became obscured during the 19th and 20th Centuries largely due to political, religious and other cultural influences that suppressed the traditional Polynesian perspective towards non-gendered people. As the years progressed, the stones were moved and neglected, but resurfaced in the 1960s. When the stones were restored in 1997, the non-binary identity behind the healers was omitted.
“Growing up here in Hawaii, most youth that go through a mainstream education don’t learn enough about Hawaiians,” Wong-Kalu said of how white-American curriculums never resonated with her but learned the correlations between Hawaiian and Native experiences.
“It was important to know what the white settlers did to our Native brothers and sisters. To be a Native in a western-dominated world, you have to be wise, judicious and conscious of what you do.”
In 2014, Wong-Kalu teamed up with GLAAD Media and Emmy award-winning filmmakers, Dean Hamer and Joe Wilson, to produce “Kumu Hina” (2014), a documentary of her life. Since then, the crew has worked collaboratively to teach and share diverse and inclusive stories of Polynesian culture. Through intense research and procurement of an early manuscript, they were able to bring new life to the Kapaemahu story and uplift mahu identity.
“I am also mahu, which like many Indigenous third-gender identities was once respected but is now more often a target for hatred and discrimination. I want our young people to understand that the ability to embrace both the male and female aspects of their spirit is not a weakness but a strength, a reason to rejoice not to fear,” said Wong-Kalu.
The stunning, stylized imagery throughout the film was created by art director and Oscar-nominated animator Dan Sousa, who recently worked on PBS’s five-episode series “Native America: Sacred Stories” (2018). Sousa single-handedly combined hand drawn and 2D animation at 24 frames per second, which took approximately nine months to complete both before and during the pandemic. Wong-Kalu narrates the eight-minute film in Olelo Niihau with English subtitles and features chant composer Kaumakaiwa Kanakaole. All these elements enhanced the overall aesthetic of the film to create a warmth and depth that can speak to all audiences.
While an Oscar nomination would be a tremendous achievement and honor, it is not a priority for Wong-Kalu and her team.
“I’m involved in filmmaking to reflect my home,” she said. “That has been my only goal. We will catapult (the film) rightfully in the place it needs to go.”
Click here to view “Kapaemahu” and learn more about the filmmakers.

March 3, 2021