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Kaho'olawe
HAWAII - U.S.A. / 1997 / Hawaiian, English/ Color / Video /58 min

Director, Script, Editing: David H. Kalama Jr.
Photography, Music, Sound: various
Narration: Kaipo Frias, Kekuhi K. Kanahele Frias
Producer: David H. Kalama Jr.
Production Company, Source: Kalama Productions, Inc.
76 North King Street, Suite202, Honolulu, Hawaii 96817
Phone: 808-536-5050 / Fax: 808 -536-5088
E-mail: mgis@aloha.net


David H. Kalama, Jr.

Has worked in almost every aspect of television production and filmmaking in a career that spans nearly 25 years. Has deep ties to Japan. For the past five years has focused on Hawaiian cultural and historical themes. He is currently at work on a four - part documentary series based on the legendary Polynesian hero memorialized in songs and traditional tales, Maui.

Kaho'olawe focuses on the ' sacred ground' of the island of Kaho'olawe, locus of the twenty - year social - political movement which came to be known as the Hawaiian Renaissance. This island, known as the dwelling - place of oceanic gods, was turned into a field target range for exercises for the American navy in the postwar era. In 1976, a group of youths went to the ' mainland' of Hawaii and initiated the first protests against the military exercises being conducted on Kaho'olawe. As a result, a politically and spiritually - inflected movement to stop the military exercises and assume political self - determination took root in the state of Hawaii as a whole. Reflecting that movement, the narration and interviews in the film are conducted mostly in the Hawaiian language. The activists' efforts extended not only to demonstrations and legal actions, but also inspired archeological fieldwork on the island and the entry in 1981 of the entire island in the US National Register of Historic Places. In 1994, the island was returned to the people of Hawaii. The film, beginning with early scenes of the purification ceremony which took place on Kaho'olawe, is distinguished by the vividness of its digital mode of production. It succeeds at relaying the distinctiveness of this deep, rich traditional culture and the spirituality of its subject. [Fukushima Yukio]
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