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The Honolulu Star-Bulletin
Friday, March 17, 2006
DOCUMENTARY
'Emotional wallop' on film
A documentary aims to bring the Hawaiian cause to a far wider audience
By Gary C.W. Chun
gchun@starbulletin.com
Documentary filmmaker Meleanna Aluli Meyer hopes
that her project "Ku'u Aina Aloha: My Beloved
Country" will be "thought-provoking -- my
offering to the sovereignty movement."
In this she has some high-powered help: Alice
Walker, author of "The Color Purple," will serve
as executive producer, along with Maori filmmaker
Merata Mita, a faculty member at the University
of Hawaii Academy for Creative Media.
Filming has been progressing, despite recent
inclement weather that "has been chasing us," New
Zealander and director of photography Alun
Bollinger said. He and Meyer were scampering all
over the islands with his 16-mm film camera.
"The landscape we wanted to capture has not
always been present," he said. But Meyer is
confident that "the elements gathered on film
will present the story."
Of all the Hawaiian documentaries she has worked
on -- including "Puamana," "Onipa'a" and
"Ho'oku'ikahi" -- this is the first with the
expressed aim of reaching out to an audience
outside of the islands.
It certainly has an impressive production team
behind it. Besides cinematographer Bollinger, it
includes local co-writer, co-producer and fellow
documentarian Stephanie Castillo.
"The film will give voice to Queen Liliuokalani
and the native Hawaiians who lived in the days of
the overthrow and annexation of the kingdom of
Hawaii," Meyer said. "I believe that the spirit
of Liliuokalani speaks to us today through the
vehicle of her mele (songs) and, as with other
ancestors, admonish us to listen well, to hear
what is deepest within us.
"It's about finding a voice for native Hawaiians
in a viable and constructive sense, honoring the
place they call home, their country, the oni
hana, the place they were born."
While the kupuna will be given on-camera time,
the strength of the documentary will also depend
on a blend of landscape cinematography, archival
photos, dramatic readings and the music created
by Aaron Mahi. "It should carry an emotional
wallop," Meyer said.
After some pickup shots and post-production work
with editor Vivien Hilgrove in Santa Rosa,
Calif., "Ku'u Aina Aloha" will be released next
year, Meyer hopes, on or around the queen's
birthday, Sept. 2, along with a scheduled
broadcast on PBS.
Walker joined the project after Meyer asked for
her help, although the filmmaker thought it would
be a long shot to expect a response. "On a wing
and a prayer, I sent her a copy of my last film.
And then I got that extraordinary phone call from
her saying, 'I love your work. What can I do?'"
Walker has made a financial contribution to the
film and has become a mentor to Meyer. "She's
helped me to use a poetic framework to present
things in the documentary. Alice's involvement
helps gives an incredible affirmation of the
work."
In a statement, Walker said the native Hawaiian
experience shares much with that of other native
people who have suffered. "What is our task, as
people of color, whose Way has been dishonored
and frequently destroyed? How are we to reconnect
to our ancestors, without shame or blame, so that
we may move forward? ...
"I believe this film has the power to center us
in a new direction. By demonstrating integrity in
the pursuit of our real ancestral selves, in the
past, and addressing and re-imaging those
behaviors that went wrong, it provides a map of
the Way, reclaimed, that we may, with all the
aloha we can muster, find ahead."
Meyer found inspiration for "Ku'u Aina Aloha" in
2000, when she discovered letters her aunt Emma
A'ima Nawahi wrote from 1895 to 1897. She and her
husband, Joseph, were royalists and supporters of
the queen, and ran a Hawaiian-language newspaper
in Hilo, Ke Aloha Aina, from 1897 to 1935.
"We are giving voice to the resistance," Meyer
said, "to show that we are not victims, but
instead, we are victors. Native Hawaiians have a
different relationship to the land. It's not a
commodity to us. And our conversation with world
issues is important as well."
ANOTHER integral part of Meyer's vision is
Bollinger, who has worked on activist
documentaries and features back home including
"Vigil," "The Piano" and the recent "River
Queen," which screened at last fall's Louis
Vuitton Hawaii International Film Festival.
"I love this man's work," Meyer said. "He has an
extraordinary sensitivity of place, and it aligns
with my own."
"I've done documentaries in other Pacific islands
as well," Bollinger added. "I've dealt with real
people and real issues, so working on something
like this gives me more of a sense of purpose. I
sympathize with the subject, since there's a
similar conflict with the Maoris back home. These
are issues that need ongoing attention. We need
to approach this subject quite gently and with
aloha."
He admits that it's sometimes tough going lugging
around 50 pounds of equipment, a film camera with
a wide-angle 6-mm lens and a 12-foot ladder, "but
it's worth going that extra mile to make a piece
of poetry."
"We're not interested in creating a sense of
agitation," Meyer said. "It's meant to celebrate
all native Hawaiians, with Liliuokalani as our
fearless leader.
"My generation came of age in the '70s, and now
we're in our 50s and 60s. This is our legacy, and
we will not repeat this historical tragedy. Alice
has been a great mentor, so it's important to put
our best effort out."
'Olena Media
www.olenamedia.com
© 1996-2006 The Honolulu Star-Bulletin | www.starbulletin.com
The Honolulu Star-Bulletin
Friday, March 17, 2006
DOCUMENTARY
'Emotional wallop' on film
A documentary aims to bring the Hawaiian cause to a far wider audience
By Gary C.W. Chun
gchun@starbulletin.com
Documentary filmmaker Meleanna Aluli Meyer hopes
that her project "Ku'u Aina Aloha: My Beloved
Country" will be "thought-provoking -- my
offering to the sovereignty movement."
In this she has some high-powered help: Alice
Walker, author of "The Color Purple," will serve
as executive producer, along with Maori filmmaker
Merata Mita, a faculty member at the University
of Hawaii Academy for Creative Media.
Filming has been progressing, despite recent
inclement weather that "has been chasing us," New
Zealander and director of photography Alun
Bollinger said. He and Meyer were scampering all
over the islands with his 16-mm film camera.
"The landscape we wanted to capture has not
always been present," he said. But Meyer is
confident that "the elements gathered on film
will present the story."
Of all the Hawaiian documentaries she has worked
on -- including "Puamana," "Onipa'a" and
"Ho'oku'ikahi" -- this is the first with the
expressed aim of reaching out to an audience
outside of the islands.
It certainly has an impressive production team
behind it. Besides cinematographer Bollinger, it
includes local co-writer, co-producer and fellow
documentarian Stephanie Castillo.
"The film will give voice to Queen Liliuokalani
and the native Hawaiians who lived in the days of
the overthrow and annexation of the kingdom of
Hawaii," Meyer said. "I believe that the spirit
of Liliuokalani speaks to us today through the
vehicle of her mele (songs) and, as with other
ancestors, admonish us to listen well, to hear
what is deepest within us.
"It's about finding a voice for native Hawaiians
in a viable and constructive sense, honoring the
place they call home, their country, the oni
hana, the place they were born."
While the kupuna will be given on-camera time,
the strength of the documentary will also depend
on a blend of landscape cinematography, archival
photos, dramatic readings and the music created
by Aaron Mahi. "It should carry an emotional
wallop," Meyer said.
After some pickup shots and post-production work
with editor Vivien Hilgrove in Santa Rosa,
Calif., "Ku'u Aina Aloha" will be released next
year, Meyer hopes, on or around the queen's
birthday, Sept. 2, along with a scheduled
broadcast on PBS.
Walker joined the project after Meyer asked for
her help, although the filmmaker thought it would
be a long shot to expect a response. "On a wing
and a prayer, I sent her a copy of my last film.
And then I got that extraordinary phone call from
her saying, 'I love your work. What can I do?'"
Walker has made a financial contribution to the
film and has become a mentor to Meyer. "She's
helped me to use a poetic framework to present
things in the documentary. Alice's involvement
helps gives an incredible affirmation of the
work."
In a statement, Walker said the native Hawaiian
experience shares much with that of other native
people who have suffered. "What is our task, as
people of color, whose Way has been dishonored
and frequently destroyed? How are we to reconnect
to our ancestors, without shame or blame, so that
we may move forward? ...
"I believe this film has the power to center us
in a new direction. By demonstrating integrity in
the pursuit of our real ancestral selves, in the
past, and addressing and re-imaging those
behaviors that went wrong, it provides a map of
the Way, reclaimed, that we may, with all the
aloha we can muster, find ahead."
Meyer found inspiration for "Ku'u Aina Aloha" in
2000, when she discovered letters her aunt Emma
A'ima Nawahi wrote from 1895 to 1897. She and her
husband, Joseph, were royalists and supporters of
the queen, and ran a Hawaiian-language newspaper
in Hilo, Ke Aloha Aina, from 1897 to 1935.
"We are giving voice to the resistance," Meyer
said, "to show that we are not victims, but
instead, we are victors. Native Hawaiians have a
different relationship to the land. It's not a
commodity to us. And our conversation with world
issues is important as well."
ANOTHER integral part of Meyer's vision is
Bollinger, who has worked on activist
documentaries and features back home including
"Vigil," "The Piano" and the recent "River
Queen," which screened at last fall's Louis
Vuitton Hawaii International Film Festival.
"I love this man's work," Meyer said. "He has an
extraordinary sensitivity of place, and it aligns
with my own."
"I've done documentaries in other Pacific islands
as well," Bollinger added. "I've dealt with real
people and real issues, so working on something
like this gives me more of a sense of purpose. I
sympathize with the subject, since there's a
similar conflict with the Maoris back home. These
are issues that need ongoing attention. We need
to approach this subject quite gently and with
aloha."
He admits that it's sometimes tough going lugging
around 50 pounds of equipment, a film camera with
a wide-angle 6-mm lens and a 12-foot ladder, "but
it's worth going that extra mile to make a piece
of poetry."
"We're not interested in creating a sense of
agitation," Meyer said. "It's meant to celebrate
all native Hawaiians, with Liliuokalani as our
fearless leader.
"My generation came of age in the '70s, and now
we're in our 50s and 60s. This is our legacy, and
we will not repeat this historical tragedy. Alice
has been a great mentor, so it's important to put
our best effort out."
'Olena Media
www.olenamedia.com
© 1996-2006 The Honolulu Star-Bulletin | www.starbulletin.com
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