Movie Scene
Film revisits Hokule'a's historical voyage

By Wayne Harada
Advertiser Entertainment Editor

"Hokule'a – Guiding Star" is an hour-long documentary that gives an up-close-and-personal glimpse of the Hokule'a's historical sail to Rapa Nui and Tahiti. 'Olelo "Hokule'a – Guiding Star" 8 p.m. today Honolulu Academy of Arts Theater $5; $3 for museum members 523-8701

"We're just students of the sea ... we're still learning," says navigator Nainoa Thompson. And, he says, 95 percent of the success of any sea journey is preparation.

So much of the film, originally shown at the Hawaii International Film Festival last year, is about planning, about talking and training, with the cameras putting the viewer in the heart of the discourse.

Using stars and intuition as guides and eyes as telescopes, the Hokule'a accomplished what no other Polynesian canoe has done since about A.D. 400, and that is to find its way across the Pacific to Rapa Nui (Easter Island). Or, as Thompson says, "We're doing something that few people on Earth can do ... and that's why we're doing it."

The daunting journey started simply with a dinner conversation between Hawaiian artist Herb Kane and Thompson at Kane's home. Kane paints canoes and scenes from island life, and he envisioned the building and eventual sailing of a voyaging canoe, from Hawai'i to Rapa Nui in the old-fashioned way, as a challenge for contemporary sailors.

Thompson picked up the cue with the notion that the voyage would embrace "culture, history, science, math, blended together in this one great adventure."

Indeed.

The film shares the personal trials and tribulations of Thompson and his crew, which included Shantell Ching, apprentice navigator and the first woman in 600 years to navigate; Snake Ah Hee, veteran crewman; and Na'alehu Anthony and Kai'ulani Murphy, novice crew members, and how they work in harmony to accomplish the mission of the Hokule'a.

Sleep deprivation was part of the planning process for the paddlers. Or, as Anthony says of the typical day: "Twelve hours sailing, 12 hours of on-land training."

Produced by Leah Kihara (who also directed), Lurline McGregor and Na'alehu Anthony, "Hokule'a" is testimony to man's ability to dream and do. Elizabeth Kapu'uwailani Lindsey narrates with a genuine storyteller's charm.

Teleconferencing with a He'eia Elementary School classroom and communication with the shuttle Columbia astronauts subliminally bonds the old world with the new world. Who knows if a student will someday be a canoe paddler ... or even a space adventurer?

The film also is blessed with a catchy theme song sung by Eric Gilliom and composed by Gilliom, Joel Clark Kira and Bob Bangerter.