Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 27, Number 10, 1 October 2010 — Heather Giugni, MESSENGER OF HAWAIIAN STORIES [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Heather Giugni, MESSENGER OF HAWAIIAN STORIES

By Lisa Asato KaWai Ola Filmmaker Heather Giugni sees herself as a messenger. "I just carry the bucket, I see the stories and I fill it up," she says, as she prepares for the Hawai'i premiere of her latest production, One Voice, whieh took her back to Kamehameha Schools, where she graduated from in 1972. Not that she lost touch with her alma mater. She's been co-execu-tive producing the live broadcast of the annual Kamehameha Schools Song Contest since 2006. And it's there that she saw a story that needed to be told - the story of the song contest itself. "One Voice tells the story through the eyes and ears and hearts of teenagers who talk about what it is to be Hawaiian, their passion in regards to their eommunity, the love of aloha 'āina, the love of mele, the love of oli," says Giugni, a co-executive producer of One Voice with Paeihe Islanders in

Communications, a nonprofit she helped found. "It's a unique story that addresses the struggles but celebrates the future." Directed by Lisette Flanary, whose credits include the documentary Nā Kamalei: The Men ofHula, the 84-minute-long One Voice focuses on the individual song leaders from tryouts to competition, with a backdrop of the competition, Princess Pauahi's gift of education for Hawaiian students, and the success story of Hawaiian language revitalization (Filming took plaee leading up to the 2008 contest, whieh celebrated language revitalization through the theme 01 a Ka 'Ōlelo 'Ōiwi O Ka 'Āina.)

After receiving ^ positive feedback from screenings at the Los Angeles Asian Paeihe Lilm Lestival in May and

moie ieeenuy in oamoa, vjiugiu says uie film appeals to wide audiences because it is at its essence about the individuals you meet through the film. "You really start cheering on your favorite character and you want that character to win, and I think that was a success of Lisette's direction," says Giugni, CEO of Juniroa Productions. Giugni, who grew up in Hawai'i and Washington, D.C., where her father Henry Ku'ualoha Giugni worked for Sen. Daniel Inouye and had the distinction of being the first person of Polynesian ancestry to serve as a U.S. Senate Sergeant-at-Arms, says that at times she "has strayed" as a filmmaker and focused on nonHawaiian subjects. But she always returns to her calling, focusing on Native Hawaiian stories, like her documentary Nappy Napoleon: A Hawaiian Waterman and the TV magazine show Enduring Pride, a series on and about Hawaiians that aired on KGMB9 and PBS for a year in 1986. Currently she is building up a digital and web-based archive of Native Hawaiians and the people of Hawai'i. The

archives is named after her late father. As for One Voice, Giugni makes clear, "It's not just about the story of a school song contest but the story of our eommunity as Hawaiians." She wanted the film to discuss everything from sovereignty to language because for her, the film was a way to support the preference policy of Kamehameha Schools, whieh has been attacked as race-based. "I'm also very proud of Kamehameha Schools," she says, adding, "I think that this story shows the work that they've invested into the students at Kamehameha is an investment that will grow into the future." ■

One Voice Hawai'i premiere Oct. 15 — 8:15 p.m. at Dole Cannery D Oct. 23-7 p.m. Sunset on the Beach in Waikiki

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IAt left, Mau Piailug on the island of Satawal. - Photo: Courtesy ofHa 'alehu Anthony

lmages from One I /oke including the class of 2009 Juniors, above right.

Seniorsong directoi loshua "Baha" Tavares.

Heather Giugni and Kobert Lazimero, who appears in One I /oiee. - Courtesy photos