Pasfika Art: Reflection, Revival, (R)evolution Gallery

Film Screenings Available: February 24th - March 4th

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Film Screenings | Commissioned Artists | Art Contest


Film Screenings

Available: February 24th - March 4th

Out of State | 2017

Director-Producer Ciara Lacy

Shipped thousands of miles away from the tropical islands of Hawaii to a private prison in the Arizona desert, two Native Hawaiians discover their culture from a fellow inmate serving a life sentence. Eager to prove themselves forever changed for the better, they return home to the struggle of life post-incarceration, asking the question: can you really go home again?

This award winning film has won best feature documentary at several film festivals as well as a special Jury Prize for Artistic Vision at the Portland Film Festival. It has screened at over 40 festivals around the world, including the estimated Berlinale. The filmed aired on PBS’ Independent Lens in 2018, where it won the audience award for the series that season. In April of 2021, the film was part of a Hawaii State house bill that was ratified giving the Hawaii Paroling Authority permission to consider native Hawaiian cultural practice as part of an individual’s rehabilitation efforts.

Trailer: Out of State

Distribution: 

Independent Lens broadcast, GoodDOCS educational 

Collaborators:

Ciara Lacy (Director + Producer)
Beau Bassett (Producer)
Terry Leonard (Executive Producer)
Jeff Consiglio (Co-Producer)
Chapin Hall (Cinematography)
Jeff Consiglio, Sara Booth, Jason Zeldes (Editors)
Tyler Strickland (Music)

Notable Film Festivals:

Berlinale, Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival, Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, Portland Film Festival, Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival, Hawaii International Film Festival, Thin Line Festival, Maoriland Film Festival, Vision Maker Film Festival, Smithsonian Mother Tongue Film Festival, Wairoa Maori Film Festival, and CAAMFest.

 

The Land Has Eyes | 2004

Writer-Director Vilsoni Hereniko

The Land Has Eyes, produced by Jeannette Paulson Hereniko, tells the story of a young South Pacific island girl, Viki, played by first-time actress, 17-year-old Sapeta Taito. She must fight for justice after being shamed by her village for being poor and the daughter of a convicted thief. Her father reminds her that despite injustice, the land is vigilant and will eventually avenge any wrongdoing. The Rotuman mythological character "Warrior Woman," played by Maori actress Rena Owen of Once Were Warriors, both haunts and inspires Viki to endure through her trials. More information about the film can be found at www.thelandhaseyes.org

Trailer: The Land Has Eyes

Notable Film Festivals/Awards:

Sundance Film Festival, Film Festival Rotterdam, est Overall Entry at the inaugural Wairoa Maori Film Festival (New Zealand), Best Dramatic Feature Film at the Imaginative Film and Media Arts Festival (Canada), official selection at more than thirty international and indigenous film festivals, Hawai'i International Spring Film Festival, Moscow International Film Festival, Brisbane International Film Festival, Montreal World Film Festival,Cinema Paradise Film Festival, Hale Ki’i’oni’oni Award, Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, Toronto Canada - ImagineNATIVE Film & Media Arts Festival, Ashland, Oregon Film Festival, Singapore International Film Festival, The Commonwealth Film Festival,Freiburger Film Forum, Museum of Modern Art, Maui Film Festival, and Shanghai International Film Festival.

Collaborators:

Vilsoni Hereniko (Writer-Director)
Jeannette Paulson Hereniko (Producer) Corey Tong, Vilsoni Hereniko (Producers)
Merata Mita (Executive Producer)
Paul Atkins (Director of Photography)
Clive Cockburn, Audy Kimura (Music Composers)
Jonathan Woodford-Robinson (Editor)
Geoff Murphy (Post-Production Supervisor)

 

Commissioned Artists

A Safe Place to Heal | 2022

Tiare Lefotu

I chose to make Black PI the center of my piece as we are the most disrespected and disregarded in Oceania to this day. Also, to remind y’all of our humanity. I took inspiration from Raja Ampat in West Papua for the terrain. The three women represent Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia. I’ve also added a foliage indigenous to Oceania. Most importantly I wanted to put on display how we really are blessed to be people of the ocean.

I don’t want to over explain the several meanings behind every detail. I would like for whom ever views it, to explore what speaks to them in this illustration and why.

I just want to end with this, We have forgotten how much we actually respected and depended on each other. We worked with and held each other accountable. We raised our villages. We had everything we needed and had our talents to survive. We traded amongst each other and we’re in deep relationship with one another. We knew each other we saw each other. 


Seiseiwei - Paddle Onward | 2022

Carol Ann Carl

Inspired by movement and influential men in my life, Seiseiwei is a humble reminder that, whether at home or in the diaspora, we exist today because of the relentless efforts of the black, indigeous, people of color communities who came before us and the ongoing efforts of those among us today. We keep us safe. We can and we will continue to do so.

 
  • ­Seiseiwei – Paddle Onward

    in my mother tongue

    is a proverb worth channeling.

    tuhkehn wahr tipwitipw wahr seisei

    canoe trees falling, canoes paddling [CAC1]

    the ancestral intonation

    of an existential need to be in constant moving

    consciousness our inner ocean

    move or be moved, rise or risk drowning [CAC2]

    in a world where ignorance is bliss

    and profit beats human life on the priority list

    where complacency comfortable,

    and power defined by material

    canoe trees are felled

    and canoes must be paddled [CAC3] [CAC4]

    tuhkehn wahr tipwitipw wahr seisei

    As canoe trees fall canoes paddle

    canoe trees felled:

    climate change, environmental degradation, and overexploitation

    canoes paddling:

    ahi mour ahi pwukoah and prutehi litekyan

    canoe trees felled:

    racism, genocide, and poorly justified militarized/police violence

    canoes paddling:

    black lives matter and West Papuan independence

    canoe trees felled:

    Imperialist white supremacist heteropatriarchal ill will

    canoes paddling:

    ku kiai mauna and shut down Red Hill

    canoes paddling because a canoe tree fell down

    we must move or be moved

    rise or be left to drown[CAC5] [CAC6]

    canoe trees cultivated and felled

    divinely carved and meticulously helmed

    pulled across these sands of time

    into ocean tides

    crew members unified

    in principled struggle, meanwhile

    industrially cut and manufactured tables

    where the seating charts promise us

    the world will be able

    to hear our cries for action

    tables carved of empty promises

    seats given in reluctance

    all these conferences and still no justice

    this is why

    while they carve tables

    we carve canoes

    because if we are to keep existing, we must move

    guided by ancestors knowing

    sitting idle would be fatal

    IT IS TIME to take up your paddle

    and help keep the canoe stable

    master the ability to thread that paddle swiftly

    because no one is free until we all are free

    and until then, every single day

    tuhkehn wahr tipwitipw, wahr seisei

Acknowledgements:

I would also like to acknowledge Soused Productions and all of our friends and family that helped put this vision together. Just like we’ve always dreamed, we’re telling the stories we wish we had heard sooner. And thanks so much to everyone at EPIC for this opportunity and for the ocean we share. How amazing and filling it’s been. Kalahngan lap!


Caged Between Shores | 2022

SPULU

Navigating in multiple worlds, SPULU uses storytelling and movement to share their journey between faith, queerness, and family. Inspired by a Mormon church hymn “Ofa I Api” (Love at Home), this hymn reminds us that love is wherever you find home. Home is Tonga, Home is Ohlone land, Home is within.

Acknowledgements:

Indijeane Production (Miac), The Pulu Family (Back Haus Studios), Hakim Pulu (Husband), 2018 Recording Interview with Zoe Mountain, costume by: Meleane Motumanu (Family Matriarch)


Rebel Medley | 2022

Rexie & The Rally Round Band

Director Justyn Ah Chong

 

Photo credit: Ivy Lagodlagod (Instagram)

In this music video, from the visual standpoint, the goal was to create a curated exhibit space in a future timeline where police enforcement no longer exists the way it does today. However, the images throughout the space and projected behind the band are meant to allude to the story of Hawaiʻiʻs historical and ongoing struggles with America and state-sanctioned law enforcement. 

  • This music video piece is a collaboration between Hawaiʻi-born and raised Filipina singer/songwriter Rexie Adlawan, her roots reggae band The Rally Round, and Native Hawaiian filmmaker Justyn Ah Chong. In addressing EPICʻs prompt, from the visual standpoint, the goal was to create a curated exhibit space in a future timeline where police enforcement no longer exists the way it does today. However, the images throughout the space and projected behind the band are meant to allude to the story of Hawaiʻiʻs historical and ongoing struggles with America and state-sanctioned law enforcement.  The visuals paired with a lyrical response in the music are aimed at invoking thoughts of Kapu Aloha, or non-violent resistance strategies. Though law enforcement is touted as a force meant to protect the people, time and time again throughout our history here in Hawaiʻi, the opposite has been true - from the time of the illegal overthrow until present day, the safety and wellbeing of the people are put in direct conflict with law enforcement, often in defense of protecting ʻāina (our land and natural resources). Law enforcement tends to protect and uphold the interests of the State and multinational corporations, leaving the people of these lands to stand on the frontlines, in the crosshairs of injustice. 

    The use of native plants (nanea, uala, ulu, kalo, and others) throughout the space, crawling onto the photos of police standoffs and proliferating throughout the space is an acknowledgement that through all of these struggles, the ʻāina continues to grow, continues to fight back, and will reclaim these histories of injustice.  At the centerpiece of this video is the band and their rebel music. Music has always been a most prominent weapon of the people in any fight for justice, and that remains true to this day. We hope you are inspired by the compilation of the music, the lyrics, and the visuals of this piece, that it provides reflection on how far we've come, and ignites the fuel to continue fighting the good fight. 

  • Rebel Medley

    Earth Confrontation

    Try & sell us illusion,

    claim it is our free will.

    Fill up the mind with pollution,

    but the lion will stand still.

    Positive vibes in revolution.

    Give thanks & praise for everything.

    Collectively find a solution.

    May we trod strong.

    Now is the time to free up the truth

    Babylon burn down in a lyrical pursuit.

    Jah Army forward, i-nite in a response.

    Earth Confrontation.

    We never give up til they pay the price.

    Babylon fall and thy kingdom will rise.

    Humans justice is well-underway.

    Earth Confrontation.

    We coming, we coming.

    We coming, we coming,

    Emergency for urgency.

    Calling out to those who feel it,

    you know you must not speak softly.

    Take a stand for what you believe in.

    Falling mountains, drying streams vanishing from existence

    to rearrange our lives

    our people’s lost of a paradise.

    Hold on to what we have now,

    it is all worth the struggle,

    keep on troddin on forward,

    onipa’a our motto.

    We got to all live as one.

    United for a common bond.

    Before it’s all gone.

    Let it be heard, we can’t take no more.

    Now is the time to free up the truth

    Babylon burn down in a lyrical pursuit.

    Jah Army forward, i-nite in a response.

    Earth Confrontation.

    Sound-Off

    Gunshots.

    Said when’s it gonna stop?

    Kill another round, this here is a sound-off.

    Like an army’s renegade, we holding it down in a different way.

    Holdin it down, we kill it with the sound.

    Holdin it down

    From the belly of the beast comes the lion’s roar

    Runnin through the streets, them are hard to ignore

    Cover up with sheets, keep us safe once more

    Covered up with media mind control

    Til Gunshots.

    Said when’s it gonna stop?

    Kill another round, this here is a sound-off.

    Like an army’s renegade, we holding it down in a different way.

    Holdin it down, we kill it with the sound.

    Holdin it down

    Now we’re face to face at the front of the line

    Fill our cups with hate, addin fuel to the fire

    Ammunition must be drained, weapons retired

    Make way for a change in the governing style.

    Took Gunshots.

    Said when’s it gonna stop?

    Kill another round, this here is a sound-off.

    Like an army’s renegade, we holding it down in a different way.

    Holdin it down, we kill it with the sound.

    Holdin it down, we kill it with the sound.

    Ain’t Gonna Stop Us Now

    Here me when I say

    Too many people living negatively

    Focused on the riches, them go astray

    Can’t you see, can’t you see,

    it’s an emergency

    There’s trouble everywhere, why don’t you care?

    Remnants of the past

    shows Babylon don’t let good things last.

    So we hope to make a change.

    Try dem a try, dem a try (dem a try)

    But they ain’t gonna stop us now (ain’t gonna stop us now)

    Dem a try, dem a try

    But they ain’t gonna stop us now

    Try dem a try, dem a try (dem a try)

    But they ain’t gonna stop us now (ain’t gonna stop us now)

    Dem a try, dem a try

    But they ain’t gonna stop us now

Art Contest

Winners were chosen by a selection committee of diverse PILOT alumni.

1st Place

freedom dream | 2022

Mahina Kaomea

About the Piece:

“freedom dream” imagines Indigenous peacemaking as a pathway to abolition and an antidote to the violence of police and prisons. Instead of the settler state’s system of law enforcement, I urge readers to return to our own oral traditions to seek peace and learn to be good relations. For me, some of the deepest lessons on how to live in balance and reciprocity have come from our more-than-human ancestors, and so I begin this poem by calling out to them. I weave into my genealogy the mountains, rivers, and places that have fed and nurtured me, and acknowledge that the piko (center) of my being and of any peacemaking circle that I take part in will be grounded in place. I then extend this sense of genealogy to our Pasifika and Indigenous relatives, describing the way that our peacemaking tradition of hoʻoponopono “demands to traverse oceans.” Although hoʻoponopono was traditionally used to resolve conflicts within a family, I propose that if we learn to “see each other as kin,” hoʻoponopono can serve as an empowering method of conflict resolution for communities and entire island nations. I also speak to the way that settler state legal systems (and the police and prisons that enforce them) rely on the myth of impartiality to maintain an image of fairness and justice, while peacemaking traditions intentionally work within genealogies, thus strengthening our relationships through the resolution of conflict. The next section of the poem alludes to various stages of hoʻoponopono, radically re-imagining what they might look like in practice. Of these stages, hihia is particularly central to the practice of hoʻoponopono itself, and to this poem. Hihia refers to knots or entanglements that tie together individuals in conflict, with the ultimate goal of hoʻoponopono being their disentanglement. At the same time, I ask us to realize that “not all nets are woven to tangle,” and that weaving ourselves into each other can be an act of sovereignty and freedom. In a world without police and prisons, we can return to traditional forms of governance and conflict resolution that center our pilina (relationality) and ultimately allow us to better support one another. I end the poem with a convergence of inspiration from my intellectual ancestors. By putting the title of Mariame Kaba’s “We Do This ’Til We Free Us” in conversation with aloha ʻāina, the radical love for the land that I’ve inherited from my kūpuna, I argue that we cannot fully realize the potential of aloha ʻāina without simultaneously working towards abolition, for both are necessary to our collective liberation

2nd Place

No Virtue Under Unjust Law | 2022

Bryson Nihipali

I'm submitting a video of myself reciting a poem that I wrote as a freshman college student. Looking back at this writing, I recognized that it was about the discomfort I felt navigating a predominantly white institution. At the time I was writing the piece, my brother was incarcerated. I found myself constantly thinking about his situation and feeling guilty that, while I was in a position of privilege, he was not free. I was upset because I felt that no one else at this privileged institution seemed to care that my brother was one of the over a million people that were being punished by the state. I wanted to express how the disparity of our situations made me feel.

  • I'm submitting a video of myself reciting a poem that I wrote as a freshman college student. Looking back at this writing, I recognized that it was about the discomfort I felt navigating a predominantly white institution. At the time I was writing the piece, my brother was incarcerated. I found myself constantly thinking about his situation and feeling guilty that, while I was in a position of privilege, he was not free. I was upset because I felt that no one else at this privileged institution seemed to care that my brother was one of the over a million people that were being punished by the state. I wanted to express how the disparity of our situations made me feel. My brother and I have the same mother and father. We both have had to deal with the intergenerational trauma passed down to us. The difference between us was that I went to school. This put tremendous pressure on me to learn to navigate the unfamiliar space that was higher education. I was ashamed that I didn’t grow up with the knowledge or resources available to my other peers. I was angry that the university I was attending felt like it wasn’t designed for me. I was depressed because I felt that I wasn’t good enough to advance in what felt like a society designed to ensure that people like me (or my brother) did not succeed. Reflecting on the piece now allows me to have a healthier perspective on the situation. I can draw connections between the educational institutions and penal institutions that were both designed by the white men of this country. It helps me knowing that my feelings then were valid. This country was not designed for black indigenous people of color to prosper. In spite of that, we still find ourselves in the position to change the history, not only of this nation, but of the world. We can influence the design of institutions and policies that have historically disenfranchised us. Before any of this change can happen, I believe we have to come to terms with our own emotions. We must face the violence that has been perpetrated against us. We must call it out by name. We must recognize the negativity that exists within ourselves. We must claim it, and commit ourselves to not perpetuate the harm that has been done upon us. We have to hold ourselves accountable. We have to hold onto the principles we claim to believe, and find ourselves worthy of forgiveness before we can have a future where others are forgiven, not punished. Only then should we take on the responsibility of holding each other accountable, and deconstruct the systems that were built to police us. Abolish Police. Abolish Prisons. Abolish Political Parties. Abolish Western Doctrine. Abolish Ignorance. Free The People

  • No Virtue Under Unjust Law by Bryson Nihipali

    You’re askin’ me why I’m enraged?

    probably cause I was made ashamed of the way I was raised.

    Like my mom wasn’t tryna to raise 6 kids off a minuscule wage

    Like my dad wasn’t gone for a lot of those days

    Like he didn’t pass down a lot of his pain

    Like I really think things will change if I kept getting As

    Like this shit [white supremacy] doesn’t still stand in my way

    Like my people, our people weren’t exploited for a white man’s gain

    Like the places we used to call home weren’t given a foreigner’s name

    Like they don’t still see us in a similar way

    Like who let those savages out of their cage

    Like seeing your loved ones beaten by loved ones wouldn’t make you a lil insane

    Paradoxical thoughts entered my brain at young age

    this would set up the stage

    for those sad days that had came

    when I was turning a page, in high school

    trying to keep my kool

    Bryson… being spiteful was never really like you

    that’s really insightful,

    but i never really liked you

    and I was never really like you

    you see, our society was set up by a white fool

    And I’m supposed to unite with or fight you

    For position in “his” positive light

    dude…

    if you think that’s tight, cool

    but I’d rather have my wrist sliced twice,

    and blood poor out of my smile

    before subscribing to that system of white vile

    that shit leads to denial of culture

    it’s not my intent to insult you

    but I’m not sorry if i woke you

    you asked why I feel so,

    when your privilege to slumber, while we were under played a role in the numbers

    but that’s just how I’m feeling…In my soul

    as it’s consumed by negative energy

    mentally, it’s a little unsettling

    the long list of things

    I was never meant to be.

3rd Place

KA PUKE HANA NUI | 2022

Pīkake Pō

In KA PUKE HANA NUI, Pīkake Pō guides participants on a huaka’i - journey - of Hawai’ian culture.

Ka Puke Hana Nui, The Great Work Book, is an interactive digital & printable workbook. As readers learn about Pīkake & Hawai’ian culture they are encouraged to write, draw, & share about themselves, their cultures, & their huaka’i!

KA PUKE HANA NUI Zine