The Hukilau event in La’ie last Saturday was staged for a documentary film on the shaka gesture. Volunteer photographers were recruited and provided with a shot list that may be used for the documentary produced by Bizgenics in association with Henry Kapono, a Hawaii legendary performer and song writer, who was nominated for a Grammy and multiple awards winner including “2021 Favorite Entertainer of the Year“. Above is an image of the video and sound crew as they made their final plans, before the crowds arrived.

One of the categories on the shot list that the filmmakers requested was Behind the Scenes photos. Above are some photos of professional cameramen and sound crew. Middle image is of Henry Kapono, as he walks into the sea playing his guitar. Bottom right image is cameraman with Steve Sue, Bizgenics chairman.

Hukilau is an ancient style of shore fishing where large numbers of people drive the fish into a net using ropes hung with leaves from ti plants.

Another category on the requested shot list included photographing various aspects of the fishing. The first phase is preparing the fishing nets. Above are images of tying the ti leaves onto ropes, then loading onto a wooden boat, and finally laying the nylon nets into the boat.

The next step is launching the boat with the nets into the sea (center-left). The nylon net is lowered into the water, and an underwater film crew is capturing the scene. The last phase is pulling the net back into the shore with hundreds of volunteers (all other images above). During certain periods, large schools of fish are driven into the net. The catch is then shared with the community.

For this event, held on Hukilau Beach, where the ancient form of fishing began, the community was welcomed to attend. Above are images of various people there that day. You can see the volunteer photographers hovering around the kids.

A unique tradition was that the first fish caught in the net is presented to a young girl (center-right) on the net line. Bottom-left is a selfie with Steve Sue, Stuart from California and two other friends. The seniors (anyone over the age of 62) were asked to “pretend” to be part of the the team pulling in the fishing net in. The editors will then incorporate the seniors into the documentary using digital magic.

Last was the luau, where a fabulous lunch was also served to everyone to celebrate the event, which included pork from three pigs that had been roasting overnight in a buried pit, along with poi and other treats. Henry Kapono (center) entertained the lunch crowd with songs he has written, including songs that will be included in the upcoming documentary. There were also a few demonstrations on how to make hats (lower row) and various items from palm fronds and pounding poi (upper-right).

Henry Kapono singing “Little Grass Shack”, one of the great songs that he wrote.