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shareRepresenting a diverse selection of cultures through an eclectic array of styles and mediums, these films by Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander filmmakers explore what it means to come home: whether by returning to one’s roots through reconnecting with a heritage, gaining a deeper understanding of home through its protection, or physically returning to a place and people.
Program curated by Sunny Huang
Pre-recorded Q&A available with rental.
In this program
A Journey Home
Directed by Catherine Killough
An animated short honoring the many meanings of home: as Arkansas, as the Marshall Islands, and as Earth that needs to be protected for the next generation.
Tapa: The Cloth That Binds Us
Directed by Nancy Thompson
A journey through the life of a young Pasifika woman as she learns the traditional practice of making tapa cloth, passed down through generations. She incorporates the core values of this process into her existences in the modern world.
Kåntan Hereru – A Blacksmith’s Song
Directed by Sean Aguon Lizama
Guam’s only living master blacksmith shares the importance of his craft to daily life in the past and tries to find a place for it in a modern landscape.
Ke Kahea: An Invitation into Sacred Space
Directed by Justyn Ah Chong
After receiving a kahea (calling) from ancestral lineages to create kapa for unearthed iwi kūpuna (skeletal remains), Aʻiaʻi Bello extends the calling to women in the community. Those that step forth learn to transform the wauke plant into sacred kapa and find themselves changed in the process.
Raids
Directed by Jade Jackson
Based on the treatment of Pacific Island families during the New Zealand Dawn Raids of the 1970’s, this short takes an intimate look into a police raid, as told through the eyes of a young girl Losa and her father Lupematasila.
Pili Ka Moʻo
Directed by Justyn Ah Chong
The Fukumitsu ʻOhana (family) of Hakipuʻu are native Hawaiian taro farmers whose land remains a kīpuka (oasis) of traditional knowledge. They are tossed into a world of complex judicial proceedings when a large settler-owned corporation destroys their familial burials to make way for development.
Ka Hoʻi – The Return
Directed by Mitchel Merrick
An aging Hawaiian war veteran grapples with the nightmares of his past and fears of being forgotten as the world around him changes. One night, he hears a familiar voice calling him from the beach, and what he encounters is beyond anything he could have imagined.
