RECLAIM centers young Native Hawaiian resilience and cultural reclamation, in the face of the generations of systemic erasure that came before them. Our aesthetic choices offer a lens into young people’s experience of the world around them, immerse the audience in the cultural practices of our protagonists, and instill awe for the natural environment of Hawai’i — the place so central to our protagonists’ tradition.
Hula is an immersive practice in a deeply rich culture — it’s a language, a relationship, a set of values, a way of connecting to spirit, as well as a dance. The film’s audience includes Hawaiian and non-Hawaiian communities with varying degrees of knowledge of Hawaiian culture. We wanted to represent this living tradition with deep care — since the practice has been flattened due to misrepresentation, tourism, and colonization. With our editor Rabab Haj Yahya, we made deliberate decisions around what to subtitle and what to allow audiences to experience — we chose nor to translate the “mele ” or chants performed by the halau, or to give long explanations for cultural practices featured.
Written and produced by Emmy-winning, Native Hawaiian filmmaker Justyn Ah Chong, directed by Independent Spirit- and NAACP Award-winning Geeta Gandbhir, and produced by Multitude Films’ LGBTQ- and women-led team, we all share a commitment to stories by and about underrepresented communities. With multiple intersecting points of connection to this story across the core team, we also hired a majority local crew — from rich, vibrant camera work by DP Abraham Williams to a moving score by cultural practitioner TJ Keanu Tario.
While Justyn wasn’t raised speaking the Hawaiian language due to centuries of discrimination and erasure, he elected to take a Hawaiian language course when he was in just seventh grade. He now carries a richness of understanding; an attunement to the specific nuances and politics of Hawaiian culture; and a deep identification with our characters and their families — his community is their community.
In RECLAIM, we see how practicing hula creates a stronger sense of identity, self-confidence, and oneness with community — all rooted in a deepened connection to culture and home. Family, or ʻohana, is a core theme, as the film explores the ways in which ‘ohana supports and nurtures keiki (young ones), the ways that ‘ohana is not just the nuclear family but is found and made within the cultural practice, and the way ‘ohana inspires and pushes one another — as the older brother Hanalei pushes his younger brother, Honor. The mission to bring hula to the world is a strategic survival tactic aligned with the Hawaiian Sovereignty movement — a grassroots renaissance to re-establish an independent nation of Hawaiʻi out of a desire for justice and self-determination. For much of the world, Hawaiʻi is imagined to be nothing more than a paradise vacation destination. THROUGH OUR EYES: RECLAIM gives a deeper glimpse into the lived experience of Native peoples of this land, and the living culture they fortify and pass down.
