Early morning on January 13th, 1903, a steamship named SS Gaelic, carrying about 100 Koreans, docked in Honolulu Harbor. They were the first Korean immigrants to Hawaii and wanted to start new lives. Between 1903 and August in 1905, approximately 7,400 immigrants, most of them male, arrived in Hawaii to also start new lives. Finding …
Syngman Rhee, the founding president of the Republic of Korea spent a total of thirty years in Hawaii. The first 25 years occurred before he was elected the founding president and five years were after he resigned from the presidency. What is the significance of 30 years in one’s life span? What does Syngman Rhee’s …
Plays With : THE LAST RODEO + KE KAHEA: AN INVITATION INTO SACRED SPACE Hawaiians in space! PAST FUTURE FORWARD: THE MAKING OF A HAWAIIAN VIDEOGAME follows a workshop designed to teach Kānaka Maoli youth how to draw upon their storytelling traditions to make a videogame. The multilayered interplay between language, cultural practices, and new …
PAST. FUTURE. FORWARD. with THE LAST RODEO + KE KAHEA Read More »
Over twenty years ago, a native Hawaiian named Keoni Kealoha Alvarez found his calling when he stumbled upon a secret cave in the woods near his ancestral home of Puna on Hawai‘i Island. Inside this cave were iwi, the sacred bones of Kānaka maoli from generations past. At only eight years old, Keoni could not …
Pity those who chose a walk-in shower over a soaking tub as you float through YUDO: THE WAY OF THE BATH. Two estranged brothers inherit Marukin Hot Springs, a small-town bathhouse. One sees it as an homage to their late father; the other – a struggling architect – as lucrative real estate for condos. Their …
Three decades ago, there were no waka hourua (Māori watercraft), no ocean going waka/canoes and no surviving knowledge of celestial navigation in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Oral history and carved artifacts were all that remained of the ancestral Pacific voyagers. Sir Hekenukumai ‘Hek’ Puhipi Busby has helmed this renaissance in Aotearoa/New Zealand. He reached out across the …
Conceived as a cinematic response to the 250th anniversary of James Cook’s arrival in this region, WE ARE STILL HERE is a poetic and powerful statement of resistance and survival. Through eight heroic protagonists, the film traverses 1000 years exploring stories of kinship, loss, grief and resilience. It begins with a stunning animation set in …
At this critical moment in our history, stopping the climate crisis is a question of political courage, and the clock is ticking. A sequel to 2019’s KNOCK DOWN THE HOUSE, TO THE END follows the intersecting stories of four women of color who are key players in the rise of the Green New Deal—an ambitious …
THE STORY OF EVERYTHING, a theater performance written and conceived by Hawai’i Poet Laureate Kealoha, and now a film produced and directed by Engaging the Senses Foundation, illuminates the intersection between science, the environment, the arts, and mindfulness. The film explores humanity’s rich and diverse explanations for the origins of life, and presents powerful solutions …
With unprecedented access, SURF NATION tells a story beginning in Hainan, China’s southernmost province where hundreds of athletes as young as 9-years-old train as part of the Chinese National Surf team. These young recruits have left their families around the country and are paid to become surfers with Olympic aspirations. Shot in a tropical paradise …
With aloha, HIFF acknowledges its occupation of ancestral, traditional and contemporary lands of the Native Hawaiian people, the Kānaka Maoli.
With gratitude, we honor the ʻāina itself and the generations who steward it.