Filmmaker Christopher Kahunahana, Kumu Hula Lanakila Mangauil and Artist Nicole Naone; take their protection of Maunakea to the Honolulu Museum of Art with a fully immersive installation: P I K O.
Artist Statement
(pī'-ko), n.
Navel, umbilical cord; blood relative, genitals; summit or top of a hill or mountain; crest; crown of the head; purity.
Whether it be a dynasty’s collection of fine art, or religious relics - museums house and protect that which is sacred. Within indigenous communities, the scale of these sacred objects increases tremendously: a sacred river, a sacred lake, a sacred mountain. Is a painting of a mountain more or less sacred than the mountain itself? This immersive experience collaborates with technology and exists as a bridge to the sacred.
The Hydrologic Cycle, Evolution, The Big Bang Theory - all are terms used to explain processes that have been described in intricate detail by kanaka maoli (indigenous Hawaiian peoples) for centuries. The oration presented in this piece, references these understandings and contextualizes Kanaka Maoli in Hawaiʻi not only geographically, but genealogically. These chants describe how we are not merely inhabitants of this place - we are its descendants, with a familial line spanning both time and space.
PIKO was shot at 8,888 feet above sea level, in 360° time-lapse on the island of Hawaiʻi at Puʻukohe (also referred to as Pu’ukoli). The eternal majesty of this place is undeniable.
He aliʻi ka ʻāina, he kauwā ke kanaka.
Kū Kiaʻi Mauna. Aloha ʻĀina. Kapu Aloha. ʻOiaʻiʻo.
About the Artists
Chris Kahunahana
Christopher Kahunahana is a Kānaka Maoli filmmaker based in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi. He is a Sundance Institute Feature Film and Native Lab Alumni and founder of 4th World Film. He directed LĀHAINĀ NOON (Criterion Channel) and a documentary for the Smithsonian Institute’s Asian Pacific American “A Day in the Life” project. Kahunahana is best known as the writer and director of WAIKIKI which received the Grand Jury Award for Best US Narrative Feature, Special Jury Award for Best Cinematography (The Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival) as well as the Best Made in Hawaiʻi Feature Film and a Jury Award for Best Cinematography (Hawaiʻi International Film Festival.) In 2019 he contributed his services to Na Leo Kākoʻo, the media arm of the kiaʻi of Maunakea.
Lanakila Mangauil
Growing up in the forests of Ahualoa and down in Waipi‘o Valley, he was raised by and able to learn from a wide range of Hawaiian practitioners. Mangauil graduated from Kanu O Ka ʻĀina NCPCS in 2004 and became a Hawaiian studies teacher with the DOE Kūpuna/Mākua program, providing cultural education and expanded after-school programs to the Hawai‘i Public Schools for nearly ten years. In addition to working in public education, he launched HŌʻĀ, an organization committed to actualizing inspiring experiences rooted in ʻIke Hawaiʻi that challenge and empower communities to take action in the protection, restoration and revitalization of Hawaiʻi.
He is best known for his activism and his successful disruption of the 2014 TMT (Thirty Meter Telescope) groundbreaking ceremony, which sparked the current Maunakea movement of today.
Nicole Naone
Nicole Naone is a producer currently based in Honolulu, Hawai’i. She is a Kamehameha Schools graduate and holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts with an emphasis in Sculpture from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa where she was the recipient of the David H. and Doris C. Crowell Award of Excellence and has been honored as a distinguished alumna by the Arts and Culture Program. Her most notable film production credits include producing the award winning feature film, WAIKIKI as well as a short film LĀHAINĀ NOON, and is currently about to start production of a short film she wrote titled Stock.
Naone has contributed her mastery of visual communication to many spaces of Native Hawaiian resistance, most recently in the fight to protect Maunakea.
Credits
PRESENTED BY
Watters O, Martin Jr and the Puʻuhonua Society
SOUND
Kit Ebersbach, Sound Design, Mixer
Ted De Olivera, Sound Design, Mixer
VR
Keeley Turner, VR Editor
Hugh Hou, VR VFX Supervisor
Andrew Magpoc, VFX
CAMERA
Vince Keala Lucero, Cinematographer
Easten Tanimoto, First AD
SPECIAL MAHALO
Josh Silva, Ikaika Mahi, Ka'ionalani Caravalho, Kalewa Correa, Maile Meyer, Mark Tanouye, Max Jimenez, Naghme Najafi, Navid Najafi, Rick Schneider, Ryan Miyamoto, Ryan Uzilevsky, Sebastian Bach, Starr Kalahiki.
