Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 29, Number 5, 1 May 2012 — PBS to shine national spotlight on Beamer film [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

PBS to shine national spotlight on Beamer film

By Kekoa Enomoto LAHAINA, MAUI — The soulful notes of the Japanese koto. The poignant strains of the nose flute. The haunting sound of the pahu. These are among the traditional ethnic instrument featured in a PBS Hawai'i film that is part of a Pacific Islanders in Communication series making its national television debut this month. Keola Beamer: Mālama Kō Aloha (Keep Your Love), co-pro-duced by slack-key guitar virtuoso Keola Beamer, will air at 8 p.m. May 26 on PBS. Upon the fourth anniversary of the death of his mother, Hawaiian cultural ieon Winona Beamer, Keola Beamer presents a film that encapsulates - with exquisite music, stunning visuals and not-often-seen hula - the history, culture and values

reflective of Aunty Nona, as his mother was affectionately known. "A lot of this is my mother's influenee," Keola Beamer said recently in the eool, serene recording studio at his West Maui homestead hale. "I was trying to remember the stuff that she taught us, and one of it was that aloha is more than a word," he said. "It is a kind of way of being in the world. . . . It ean be a kind of compass and guide towards eompassion and gratitude and love." Nona Beamer, a longtime kumu hula, storyteller, recording artist, author and educator, died in April 2008, at age 84. Remembered as feisty by her Kamehameha School for Girls classmates, as a kupuna, she wrote a letter to the state Supreme Court that helpedlead to a 1990s overhaul of the Kamehameha Schools Bishop Estate board of trustees. Better known for her loving greetings accompanied by a

warm smile and lit-up eyes, she left a legacy that includes the nonprofit Hula Preservation Society. Keola Beamer continues her pioneering, inclusive legacy with the film featuring "the first worldmusic collaboration of its kind, with different artists from around the world," he said. The hourlong homage eulminates with the John Lennon song "Imagine," translated into Hawaiian by Beamer's hānai brother, Kaliko Beamer-Trapp, and sung by Moloka'i songbird Raiatea Helm. An international ensemble includes Keola's wife, kumu hula Moanalani Beamer, on 'ūkēkē; Bernice Hirai on koto; Yuan Yu Kuan on erhu; plus a wind quintet, synthesizer and percussion, including Maui kumu hula Kapono'ai Molitau playing the pahu and chanting. Beamer, 61, a muhiple Nā Hōkū Hanohano awardee and Grammy-

nominated artist seeks to elevate Hawaiian music's global stature. "It's where I'd like to take Hawaiian music more, to the world stage - a beautiful context for gaining an understanding of aloha," said Beamer, adding he was "thrilled that Native Hawaiian percussionist Calvin Hoe was involved with the film." The film also features Moanalani Beamer recreating the dramatic Hula Mu'umu'u, or hula of the maimed, showing an armless, legless woman swathed in white. A performance of "Pūpū Hinuhinu," a lullaby classic composed by Aunty Nona in the 1950s, is Keola Beamer's favorite segment. "I think she would be so happy with that," he said of his mother.

The soulful music and poignant program will be available on CD and DVD as a PBS fundraiser, Keola Beamer said. "I believe aloha is Hawai'i's best gift to the world, and I can't think of a better way of sharing it." He said he conceptualized the Mālama Kō Aloha project several months after a community tribute to his mother in mid-2008 and finished the film last November. "She wouldlove this," he said, as he brought the sentiment firmly into the present tense, "Yeah, I think she does." ■ Kekoa Enomolo is a retired copy editor and staff writer with The Maui News and former Honolulu Star-Bulletin.

FILM SERIES ON PBS Pacific lslanders in Communication with PBS Hawai'i presents, in conjunction with Asian Pacific American Heritage Month in May, the national premiere of the five-part Pacific Heartbeat film series at 8 p.m. Saturdays, through June 1, on PBS. Here is the schedule: » MAY 5, Waimea 'Ukulele & Slack Key Guitar showcases musical luminaries during a five-day annual institute of workshops, events and concerts at Kahilu Theatre on Hawai'i island. » MAY 12, Under a Jarvis Moon documents some 130 mostly Kamehameha School for Boys students occupying remote Pacific islets from 1935 to 1942 to pre-empt foreign invasion before World War II. » MAY 19, Papa Mau: The Wayfinder profiles the late master navigator Mau Piailug of Satawal, Micronesia, who navigated the Hōkūle'a on her 1976 maiden voyage to Tahiti and taught the next generation of masters in noninstrument navigation. » MAY 26, Keola Beamen Mālama KōAloha showcases a collaboration of world-music artists from around the globe, in a film inspired by the legacyof Keola Beamer's late mother, Aunty Nona Beamer. » JUNE 1 , There Onee was an lsland: Te Henua e Nnoho follows the people of disintegrating Takuu Atoll who must decide whether to leave their homeland, site of a l,200-year-old culture and language, to become environmental refugees in neighboring Papua New Guinea.

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Recording artist Keola Beamer, center, his wife, kumu hula Moanalani Beamer, and Amehean lndian flutist R. Carlos Nakai are among the multicultural performers featured in "Keola Beamer: Mālama Kō Aloha." Moanalani Beamer will present the moving Hula Mu'umu'u in the hourlong program premiering nationally May 26 on PBS. - Courtesy: John Running