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American Aloha
About the Filmmakers:

Lisette Marie FlanaryLisette Marie Flanary, Producer/ Co-Director
As a filmmaker and a hula dancer, Lisette Marie Flanary creates documentary films about the hula dance that celebrate a renaissance of Hawaiian culture. She is the writer, producer and director of Lehua Films. Her film Nā Kamalei: The Men of Hula will be broadcast on the Independent Lens series on PBS in May 2008. Flanary received her bachelor of fine arts degree in film and television from New York University in 1995 and an MFA in creative writing from the New School in 2000. She is a co-founder of bluestocking films, inc. She continues to teach classes that perpetuate the art of the hula in New York City.

Lisette Marie FlanaryEvann Siebens, Director/ Co-Producer
A former dancer with the National Ballet of Canada and the Bonn Ballet in Germany, Evann Siebens has filmed dancers such as Mikhail Baryshnikov, Bill T. Jones, and Lucinda Childs. She has been the videographer for numerous documentaries on dance including State of Darkness and From the Horses Mouth. Her short films POTHEAD and do not call it fixity... have screened at film festivals and on arts networks worldwide. Evann co-directed The Breach, a dance film series for DV Republic, and was commissioned to direct a documentary on the José Limón Dance Company in 2000. She recently completed a net.dance project entitled Portal and a dance media installation with Ballet Frankfurt in Germany. She is also a graduate of New York University and co-founder of bluestocking films, inc.

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American Aloha by Lisette Marie Flanary and Evann Siebens

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Few American icons are as well-known for their popular kitsch as the hula dance. From old Hollywood movies to entertainment for tourists, the hip-swaying girls in grass skirts and colorful lei have long masked an ancient cultural tradition. Now, after years of being shadowed by stereotypes, the hula is experiencing a rebirth that celebrates Hawaiian culture. As revealed in American Aloha: Hula Beyond Hawai'i, an award-winning documentary airing on the True Lives series, Hawaiians — wherever they live — are challenging misconceptions to redefine the evocative storytelling art of the hula dance across the American mainland.

Lisette Marie Flanary and Evann Siebens' American Aloha: Hula Beyond Hawai'i airs on public television stations as part of True Lives, a series presented by American Documentary, Inc. and the National Educational Telecommunications Association (NETA). True Lives is a new programming initiative from the producers of POV American Aloha is a Diverse Voices Project co-production, made possible through major funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

For Hawaiians, the hula is a way of life. Since ancient times, hula has preserved history through oral tradition and expressed the soul of Hawaiian spirituality. The sacred chants communicated with the gods, recorded genealogy, honored the chiefs, exalted nature, and celebrated humanity. Yet by the early 20th century, many of the unique cultural traditions of Hawai'i were in danger of disappearing — especially the hula. Denounced as a "heathen" practice with the arrival of American missionaries, the hula was soon outlawed and forced underground. Hawaiians were discouraged from being proud of their ancestry and soon even the language was banned. Nearly lost after decades of assimilation following the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy, the hula emerged as a symbol of fierce ethnic pride during the Hawaiian renaissance that swept the islands in the 1970s.

American Aloha shows that the hula continues to grow beyond the islands. With the cost of living in Hawai'i estimated at 27 percent higher than the continental United States, large numbers of Hawaiians have left the islands to pursue professional and educational opportunities. Today, with more Native Hawaiians living on the mainland than in the state of Hawai'i, the hula has traveled with them. From the suburbs of Los Angeles to the San Francisco Bay Area, the largest Hawaiian communities have settled in California, and the hula continues to connect communities to their heritage on distant shores.

Sounding a universal note of cultural adaptation and renewal, American Aloha takes us on a tour through the practices and philosophies of some of those at the forefront of hula's renaissance on the mainland. The film focuses on the work of three kumu hula, or master teachers of hula, in the largest Hawaiian communities in California. The three teachers, who have all resided on the mainland for over 20 years, represent very different — and sometimes controversial — approaches to preserving the integrity of ancient hula while carrying the art form into the future.

Sissy Kaio, who lives in Carson, a working-class suburb of Los Angeles, has been teaching hula for over two decades. She is the most traditional of the three and is the center of a halau, or school of dance, that runs like a large family of over 100 men, women and children ranging in age from four to 75. Her students seek to rediscover their connection to their roots, their bond to the 'aina or land of their ancestors. Struggling to perpetuate the ancient kahiko traditions in a very different modern world, Sissy says, "We make wherever we live our own Hawai'i. So, we may be in California, but we make it our Hawai'i."

In contrast, Mark Ho'omalu, an Oakland resident, is a hula teacher who is both acclaimed and criticized for bringing innovations to hula traditions. Rebellious and confrontational, Mark's cutting-edge chant style and unique rhythms in his music have challenged traditionalists back home in Hawai'i to question the boundaries of the time-honored dance. "Here in California, it's not the blood quantum that will be passed on," says Mark, "but the culture that will be carried into the future."

Patrick Makuakāne, just across the bay from Mark in San Francisco, has stirred even more controversy in the Hawaiian community. In addition to teaching hula, Patrick is a DJ and has braved new waters by setting traditional hula movement to non-Hawaiian music. In shows such as "The Natives Are Restless," he uses his progressive approach to address political issues such as the arrival of Christian missionaries and the overthrow of Hawai'i's last sovereign ruler, Queen Lili'uokalani, by American businessmen. Blending the contemporary and the traditional, Patrick's work shows the hula is a living and evolving art form. "I do everything with hula," he says. "Hula in Hawai'i is sort of the last bastion of tradition. You don't touch hula."

With the disappearance of pure Native Hawaiians predicted within a generation, today's revival of the ancient art of hula is a creative response to the challenges of cultural survival. A powerful testament to the vibrant community of Hawaiians living far from home, American Aloha is a wonderfully entertaining celebration of Hawaiian culture as well as a proud tribute to those who will carry traditions into the future.

(2003, 1 hour)

American Aloha: Hula Beyond Hawai'i is a production of bluestocking films, inc.

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Note: Click on an image to open the full size version in a new window. Use File > Save As... to save the image to your hard drive. Photos are for press and private use only. All rights reserved. All uses of the photos must be credited as indicated below. For additional information on rights and clearance isssues, contact communications@pov.org.

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Caption:
Kumu Hula Patrick Makuakane chants beside the Golden Gate Bridge
Credit:
Julie Mau

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Caption:
Mark Ho'omalu rehearses the dancers of Na Mele Hula 'Ohana
Credit:
Evann Siebens

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Caption:
Dancers representing the Hawaiian court open the performance celebration (Ho'olaulea) in Southern California
Credit:
Lisette Marie Flanary

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Caption:
Kawena Kaio-De'Ocampo and Nicole Riveira of Hula Halau 'O Lilinoe
Credit:
Mark Eby

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Caption:
Filmmakers Evann Siebens (left) and Lisette Marie Flanary (right)
Credit:
Tom LeGoff

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True Lives is presented by American Documentary, Inc. and the National Education Telecommunications Assocation.

National Education Telecommunicationns Association

Download the 2008 True Lives Press Release: PDF | DOC
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