“Noho Hewa: The Wrongful Occupation of Hawai‘i,” winner of the Hawai‘i International Film Festival 2008 award for best documentary will show from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. tomorrow at Kaua‘i Community College Performing Arts Center. Filmmaker Anne Keala Kelly will
“Noho Hewa: The Wrongful Occupation of Hawai‘i,” winner of the Hawai‘i International Film Festival 2008 award for best documentary will show from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. tomorrow at Kaua‘i Community College Performing Arts Center. Filmmaker Anne Keala Kelly will be available after the show for questions.
This documentary is a contemporary look at Hawaiian people, politics and resistance in the face of their systematic erasure under U.S. laws, economy, militarism and real estate speculation.
It is a raw, unscripted story and makes links between the military occupation of Hawai‘i, the fraudulence of statehood, the Akaka Bill, homelessness, desecration and more. There will be interviews with Haunani-Kay Trask, Kaleikoa Ka‘eo, Noenoe Silva, Keanu Sai and Kehaulani Kauanui. It is co-sponsored by KCC Hawaiian Studies Department, Malama Kaua‘i and Koani Foundation. There is a suggested donation of $10 at the door.
When KCC Hawaiian Studies instructor Pua Rossi received calls from the community to bring the film to Kaua‘i, it only took a couple phone calls to get the ball rolling.
“It all came together in two days,” Rossi said. “Tony Kilbert set us up in the theatre and support came from Sabra Kauka’s organization, Koani Foundation, Malama Kaua‘i and all the faculty and students.”
According to filmmaker Kelly, “Noho Hewa” can and should be used to further collective causes in the islands. It’s not often that a feature-length film represents actual Hawaiian matters or has the opportunity to be seen by a worldwide audience.
In the Hawaiian language, hewa means “wrong” and noho means “to occupy.” Noho Hewa is Kelly’s first feature length film. She directed, shot and edited the film over the course of five years. Kelly’s news footage has been featured on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer and Democracy Now!
According to the Honolulu Star-Bulletin: “For those uneducated about the issues ‘Noho Hewa’ addresses, Hawaiian activists can appear to be unduly angry, their causes ridiculously unrealistic. But in taking a stand on the side of the Hawaiian cause, the film does an excellent job of providing context to their perspectives. And it even goes one step further: It conveys knowledge that resonates in the heart as well as the mind.”
KCC Hawaiian Club will be selling refreshments prior to the showing as a fundraiser for a cultural exchange to the Big Island.
Facts about the
military in Hawai‘i
Courtesy of Noho
Hewa Website
•Hawai‘i is one of the most militarized groups of islands in the world.
•The military controls over 20 percent of all land in the Hawaiian Island chain.
• The military population makes up over 11 percent of the state of Hawai‘i, as opposed to less than 1 percent of the U.S. population.
• Allegedly, the U.S. Army secretly tested chemical, biological and deadly nerve gas agents in Hawai‘i watershed/forest reserve areas, facts denied but later confirmed.
• Currently 7.1 million live rounds of various weapons are fired annually on sacred Hawaiian lands at the Pohakuloa Training Area (PTA) on the Big Island of Hawai‘i.
• More than 400 square miles (250,000 acres) on Hawai‘i Island may contain live arms and other military toxins and should be considered military hazard areas.
• In 1995, there were 405 toxic sites in 122 military facilities statewide.
