Kumu Hina


Kumu Hina is a 2014 documentary film by Dean Hamer and Joe Wilson and is the story of Hina Wong-Kalu. It premiered at the Hawaii International Film Festival and aired on Independent Lens, a PBS program, in May 2015.

Synopsis

is a māhū - a Native Hawaiian kumu, activist and cultural icon. She lives her life "in the middle", in between the traditional ways of Hawaii's indigenous, third gender, māhū culture, and as a modern transgender person in contemporary Hawaii, trying to preserve and pass on the indigenous culture to the younger generations.
During the year covered by the film, Kumu Hina mentors one of the girl students who also finds herself "in the middle" when she wants to join the all-male hula group in her school. The film also follows Kumu Hina's personal life as she seeks a committed romantic relationship with a younger man from Tonga, and we travel with her into the hills to meet her elders, the traditional third gender māhū who live together on the land and provide her with spiritual guidance.

Reception

Kumu Hina won the Documentary Jury award at the Frameline Film Festival and the Audience Award as the most popular documentary among voting viewers for the 2014–2015 season of Independent Lens. In 2016, the film won Outstanding Documentary from the GLAAD Media Awards.
Filmmaker Magazine called the film "a stunning eye-opener", while Indiewire considered it "incredibly poignant and moving", and Yes! Magazine commended the film for "lift the veil on the misunderstood and marginalized experience of “other” gendered individuals whose identity cannot be defined by the broad strokes of contemporary Western categorization.

Awards and recognition

The filmmakers initiated an education campaign to bring Kumu Hina's message to diverse audiences. The campaign, launched at an event at the Ford Foundation, includes a short children's version of the film, A Place in the Middle, and teaching and classroom discussion guides.