SHAKA, A STORY OF ALOHA

SHAKA, A STORY OF ALOHA investigates the origins, history, and meanings of the iconic Shaka gesture. The film begins with surfers throwing Shakas and questioning where it came from, leading to a Green Room scene at a Shaka Contest that frames the challenges of using it authentically. The story then traces the Shaka backwards in time, from its use by Miss Universe Brook Lee and Ken Hara’s Shaka Battalion in Iraq, through its progression in surfing, extreme sports, journalism, politics, entertainment including Elvis Presley, and Japanese Buddhism. Intriguing origin theories are also examined, including possible connections to Shaka Zulu, marbles players, Portuguese drinking, a leprosy colony on Moloka’i Island, a 1906 schoolboy photograph, and the story of Hamana Kalili and North Shore train jumpers. The film concludes back at the Shaka Contest, illustrating a myriad of Shakas for various contexts and delivers how the Shaka is the secret to creating and maintaining paradise anywhere in the world. The La’ie community figures large in this documentary that tries to find the origins of the state’s “Swiss army knife” of good-natured gestures.