Tuesday, October 28, 2008

About my favorite Kauai videographer and bookwriter:

http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20081026/COLUMNISTS02/81026033...
Sunday, October 26, 2008
"Powerful tale told in Hawaiian"
By Lee Cataluna Advertiser Columnist

"Haunani Seward has seen the movie countless times but it still makes her cry.

The students in the little school where Seward is principal, Ke Kula Ni'ihau O Kekaha Learning Center, spent two years working on "The True Story of Kaluaikoolau." The result is a film entirely in the Hawaiian language — specifically in the Ni'ihau dialect — with English subtitles. It is the language in which the story was first told of the family that would not let anything or anyone tear them apart.

In 1892, after realizing that he had Hansen's disease, Koolau fled with his wife and young son into the wilderness of Kaua'i's Kalalau Valley rather than be arrested by soldiers and sent alone to Kalaupapa on Moloka'i. The child, Kaleimanu, succumbed first to the disease, and Piilani had to bury her boy and then her husband. Through it all, she held tight to her faith in God. After three years of living as an outlaw, Piilani returned to her family in Kekaha. She later told her story to a reporter, and it was first published in the Hawaiian language in 1906.

The story is beautiful and tear-jerking, and the high school students who portray Koolau and Piilani give an amazing emotional performance, but Seward says that's not what brings her to tears:

"I think I'm crying because it was so hard to do."

The two-year project provided the vehicle for many lessons for the students. They studied with botanists to learn about plants the family would have used for food and medicine during their exile. They went on hikes in Koke'e and studied old maps to try to track the family's travels. They discussed the historical context of the story, which happened in the era after the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy.

The idea for a film started with a phone call out of the blue. Filmmaker Koohan "Camera" Paik called the school and offered her services as a teacher and mentor.

"I was just saying 10 minutes before she called that I needed a film teacher," Seward said.

Paik came with heavy credentials and a deep love for the story. She spent her childhood on Guam, went to USC Film School and then NYU graduate school, where she studied screenwriting and playwriting. She had a special interest in making films in indigenous languages. She fell in love with Piilani's story and thought it was a perfect learning tool for the students.

"Through the process, I kept deferring to Piilani," Paik said. The script is faithful to Piilani's account of what the family went through. "I would pray to her at night. I wanted to make it exactly the way she would have wanted it."

Ke Kula Ni'ihau O Kekaha is the smallest charter school in the state, with only 45 students in classes from preschool to grade 12. Students learn exclusively in the Hawaiian language, specifically the Ni'ihau dialect, until fourth grade, when English is introduced. Graduates are fluent in both languages.

The story of Koolau held deep meaning for the students. It happened right there in their community. It was first told in their native language. Some of the kids are relatives of the people named in the tale.

The film premiered two years ago in Kalaupapa, Moloka'i, the Hansen's disease settlement. Only the students older than 16 could attend, as children are not allowed to visit Kalaupapa.

"That's when it all came together," Seward said. "There wasn't a dry eye in the house."

Paik said the toughest, most skeptical girl in the school came up to her after the Kalaupapa premiere and said, "It came out good," which she took as effusive praise.

The principal actors in the production have since graduated. The narrator has gone off to college.
But the film has taken on a life of its own.

Seward and Paik still travel to different islands to attend screenings and answer questions. The project was never intended to be a moneymaker or a star vehicle, though it is good enough to be both. Seward wanted her students to go through the long learning journey of finishing such a complicated project. She also wanted to create a DVD in the Ni'ihau dialect. Her school is not an immersion school. The students all speak Hawaiian at home as their first language. It is an indigenous language school, and part of the mission is to perpetuate the Ni'ihau Hawaiian dialect. The film project does just that.

Still, it is film-festival quality work. The care with which historical accuracy was attended to is amazing, and the leads, Oliwa Kanahele, Kaehu Kanahele and Keoki Strickland, are so sincere and raw in their portrayals. The "bonus features" on the DVD include a precious interview with the woman who did the original translation, Frances Frazier, who is now in her 90s.

"The True Story of Kaluaikoolau" presented by Ke Kula Ni'ihau O Kekaha Learning Center is available on DVD at the Koke'e Museum and at Native Books at Ward Warehouse and on its Web site, www.nativebookshawaii.com."

http://www.themolokaidispatch.com/node/2499
The True Story of Kaluaikoolau
Wednesday 9-17-08
"Film of Hawaiian heroism presented to Molokai community"
By Catherine Cluett

"This is a true story of Kaluaikoolau , known as Koolau, who lived in Waimea, Kauai with his wife Piilani and their son Kaleimanu in the late 1800’s. After learning he had contracted leprosy in 1892, Koolau was forced by the government to relocate to Molokai.

Families were not allowed to accompany patients, however, and Koolau refused to leave his family. After shooting a sheriff and two Provisional Government officers who tried to arrest him, Koolau and his family escaped together to the remote Kalalau Valley. There they lived peacefully until first Kaleimanu, then Koolau died of the disease. Piilani, after three and a half years of wandering in the wilderness, finally returned to civilization and lived until 1960.

Last Saturday night, members of the Molokai community gathered after a dinner hosted by Pacific American Foundation to watch a movie about Koolau entitled “The True Story of Kaluaikoolau.”

Hiwa Kanahele, now a freshman in college, sang a Hawaiian chant. Haunani Seward, director of the Ke Kula Ni`ihau O Kekaha Learning Center in Kauai, gave an introduction to the movie. It was then the audience learned that Hiwa was the narrator of the film, which was made during her freshman and sophomore years at the school.

The story of Kaluaikoolau as narrated by Piilani was first published in Hawaiian in 1906. In 2001, Frances Frazier translated the story into English, and the book is now widely available in book stores.

In 2004, Seward began making a film of the story. Three students at Ke Kula Ni`ihau O Kekaha acted in the main roles of the film: Cousins Oliwa Kanahele and Kaehu Kanahele play Kalauilooau and Piilani, respectively.

Keoki Strickland acts the part of their son, Kaleimanu. Hiwa Kanahele is the film’s narrator. The film is presented in three languages: the narration is in Standard Hawaiian with English subtitles, and the dialogue is in Ni`ihau dialect, in which all the students are fluent.

The movie was expertly crafted on a shoestring budget of $35,000 with the help of videographer Camera Paik. Funding for the project came primarily from private donors, as well as some grants. The film premiered in 2006 in Kalaupapa, honoring patients of the disease living there.

Ke Kula Ni`ihau O Kekaha Learning Center is a K-12 charter school, and its mission is to strengthen and perpetuate the Ni`ihau dialect, says Seward. Ke Kula Ni`ihau O Kekaha is a native language school, not an immersion program, explains Seward, but its goal is fluency in both languages. Making this film, she adds, was a learning project in which many high school students took part, as well as a way to fulfill the school’s mission."

http://www.nativebookshawaii.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&m...
DVD The True Story of Kaluaikoolau As Told By His Wife, Piilani - $15.00

Ke Kula Niihau O Kekaha Learning CenterKe Kula Niihau O Kekaha Learning Center dvd, 30min.

"In 1892, after learning that he and his young son had contracted leprosy, Ko`olau fled with his family deep into Kalalau Valley. After the government tried unsuccesfully to bring him back and arrest him, he vowed never to be taken alive and became a powerful symbol of resistance for many Hawaiians in the years following the overthrow of Queen Lili`uokalani. Published in Hawaiian in 1906, this is one of only a handful of historical accounts by a native Hawaiian. Presented in the same language and dialect which were spoken in west Kaua`i during the annexation, this DVD is a rare record of authentic Hawaiian fluency. This is also a student production- students helped to script, act and produce- and proceeds from the film go back to this charter school to benefit the students."

Aloha, Brad