Lucky We Live Hawaii
Native Hawaiians confront modern-day displacement and a historic legacy of disenfranchisement as seen through three connecting stories.
Length
60 minutes
Funding Type
Lucky We Live Hawaii tells the connecting stories of Native Hawaiians resisting displacement. Due to the increased cost of living attributed to tourism and an influx of newcomers, they are leaving their ancestral homelands in record numbers. Native Hawaiian experts and academics probe this issue further, chronicling a history of economic marginalization that led to current challenges. Historian DeSoto Brown explains that the exodus of his people is rooted in greed and systemic racial inequalities tied to the pursuit of capital gain over 130 years ago.
The film uses archival footage and data, weaving together this historical reckoning with modern-day portraits. Through three personal stories that connect the past to the present, a paradigm of Native Hawaiian self-determination and power emerges from overcoming systemic challenges.