WOVEN

Based on an actual incident that happened to the director who also plays the lead, this story is about an indigenous artist from Fiji who tries to revive the ancestral tradition of basket weaving with coconut leaves in an urban park by the Pacific Ocean in Honolulu, Hawai''i. His cultural practice involves washing the leaves in the Ala Moana lagoon to remove dust and debris as well as cure the leaves with the mana of salt water. He then finds a shady spot in Ala Moana Park where it takes hours to weave an elaborate basket that draws from his cultural roots but has a new and original style and flair. When the rain falls he tries to find shelter and crosses the road to Kaka''ako, a rapidly developing urban part of Honolulu peppered with high rises and buildings made of steel and concrete. While seated cross-legged and weaving on concrete underneath an awning of an abandoned restaurant that had closed because of covid, a security guard on patrol finds him and orders him to leave, telling him that he does not belong there. But the weaver protests, saying that he is not homeless but a resident in one of the high rises. Unable to imagine how a coconut basket weaver can possibly afford to live in one of the most expensive areas in Honolulu, the security guard calls for reinforcements. When his supervisor arrives, both men force the protesting weaver and his unfinished basket into the rain and back into the park where he finds himself weaving near a young homeless couple by a tree. When the couple approach him he is wary about their intentions. But when they throw something into his finished basket and the young woman caresses its rim in acknowledgement of his efforts in creating such a beautiful work of art, he is visibly moved. When he peers into the basket to see what has been thrown inside, he sees a vision of Honolulu that reminds him of the importance of nature in a big city and that his challenge is to weave both worlds artfully, much like his completed woven coconut leaf basket.