A new project known as Lei Pua ʻAla seeks to collect Hawaiʻi’s queer histories. KHON2.com was able to catch up with the busy directors of the project, Joe Wilson and Dean Hamer, to talk about this new initiative.

Wilson and Hamer are filmmakers who have lived in Hawaiʻi for 20 years. During their time here, they have delved into the deep histories, even some that have been forgotten over time, like the Kapaemāhū Stones that are in Waikīkī. So, let’s meet Wilson and Hamer and take a look at what they’re doing to preserve facets of Hawaiʻi’s history.

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In the new short from Dean Hamer, Joe Wilson, and Daniel Sousa, the team behind the award-winning ‘Kapaemahu,’ an island warrior who descends into a strange underwater world after being wounded in battle falls in love with the shapeshifting octopus that saves his life. 

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The 2023 short animated film “Aikane” by Dean Hamer, Daniel Sousa, and Joe Wilson begins by providing an explanation of the title for viewers who may be unfamiliar with its meaning. What ensues unravels as an epic fantasy romance, galloping at a brisk pace, encapsulating themes of colonial aggression, community harmony, gender fluidity, queer love, and the conflicts between humanity and nature within its short runtime. The animation bears a resemblance to Disney’s style, although the color palette isn’t overly bright and colorful, aligning with the somber themes explored in the story.

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This year’s animated short contenders tackle light and dark subject matter, like rapping with a pet dog to generational trauma, in as few as five minutes. At the top of the list is Aikāne , in which an island warrior falls into a mysterious underwater world and begins an epic adventure.

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Aikāne, the latest award-winning animated short from the team behind Kapaemahu, has been made available to watch online for free through queer news and culture outlet Them. The short was conceived by Dean Hamer and Joe Wilson, a married couple who began their filmmaking careers with a documentary about the reaction to their own same-sex marriage in Wilson’s small hometown. While the film most prominently draws from Native Hawaiian mythology, it also takes inspiration from LGBTQ+ legends from around the world — including Celtic Europe, ancient Greece and the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea. The settings are based on the couple’s free-diving experiences.

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Filmmakers Dean Hamer and Joe Wilson were exploring the rocky underwater coast of O‘ahu when the idea for Aikāne, their award-winning queer short film, was born. As the married couple floated around each other in the dreamlike blue haze, they realized they wanted to set a story about queer love and intimacy in a similarly whimsical underwater realm. “We just felt so connected and I felt just in that moment, that’s the story we should tell,” Hamer told Them. “It’s a story about connection and this is the place where we want to set the story.” The result was Aikāne, a short animated film about a supernatural queer romance, which you can now stream here on Them.

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Welcome to Cartoon Brew’s series of spotlights focusing on the animated shorts that have qualified for the 2024 Oscars. There are several ways a film can earn eligibility. With these profiles, we’ll be focusing on films that have done so by winning an Oscar-qualifying award at an Oscar-qualifying festival.

Today’s short is Aikāne from directors Daniel Sousa, Dean Hamer, and Joe Wilson. The film earned its Oscars qualification by winning the New Hampshire Film Festival jury award for best animated short.

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Honolulu officials on Tuesday introduced a new interpretive plaque for four large boulders in the center of Waikiki that honor Tahitian healers of dual male and female spirit who visited Oahu some 500 years ago.

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A new plaque has been unveiled to provide historical insights into the significance of the Kapaemahu Stones, allowing people to learn more about their cultural and historical importance.

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Mayor Rick Blangiardi unveiled a new plaque Tuesday at the stones of Kapaemahu during a blessing ceremony in Waikīkī. The plaque celebrates four gender fluid Tahitians who shared their healing arts with ancient Hawaiians. This is the first time that the dual male and female spirt of these mahu healers has been fully acknowledged with signage at the site of the stones.

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The creative quartet of Dean Hamer, Joe Wilson, Dan Sousa, and Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu create films that consistently tell an indigenous experience in precise animated terms. In their previous effort, 'Kapaemahu', the Hawaiian indigenous past was revealed in the commercialized present (more about the film). In the new short animation, the queer-themed 'Aikāne' (the term meaning intimate friend of the same sex) a queer romance is developed between two men in the very distant past, full of colonial implications. The film has now become Oscar-qualified, after it won the Animated Shorts Jury Award, at the 2023 New Hampshire Film Festival.

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That’s a wrap! New Hampshire’s largest film festival has announced the recipients of the New Hampshire Film Festival’s (NHFF) prestigious awards after four packed days of screenings, panels, and parties. This is the second year the NHFF is an Academy Awards qualifying festival for short films, making live action and animated shorts jury award recipients eligible to submit for Oscar consideration. NHFF Executive Director Nicole Gregg says, “We are so energized that once again, the New Hampshire Film Festival distinguished itself as an important opportunity for filmmakers who come from near and far, and for audiences, who not only get to see the films, but are encouraged to interact with directors, writers, producers, actors, and cinematographers.”

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It’s a story of a warrior, who is wounded, falls into the sea, and is saved in more ways than one. ‘Aikāne’  is a short, animated film by Dean Hamer, Daniel Sousa, and Joe Wilson, that tells of the transformative power of love in the face of danger. The film will be shown at Out Film CT. It is a return to Hartford of sorts for Hamer, who graduated from Trinity College. His alma mater is also where most of the films in Connecticut’s LGBTQ+ film festival are shown. However, "Aikane" will be screened at the Wadsworth in downtown Hartford. 

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Organizers of the Iris Prize LGBTQ+ Film Festival in Wales are delighted to announce the shortlist of 35 films competing for the £30,000 Iris Prize International Short Film Competition.  This year’s shortlist features films from 21 different countries, including four from the UK and one from Ireland. The shortlisted films, which includes AIKĀNE, tell stories ranging from a coming out party; flirtations in a library; a young woman and her ghostly best friend; chance encounters; and crossed wires that lead to tragedy.

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Great Reads from Great Places is a project of the Library of Congress Center for the Book. Each year, the 56 Affiliated Centers for the Book choose a book for kids and one for adults that represents their states’ or territories’ literary heritage. In this video, Kapaemahu authors Dean Hamer & Joe Wilson discuss their Hawaii-inspired book and why they write for young people.

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“When I was planning to write a “first impression” style article about an LGBTQ+ inclusive children’s book, my first instinct was to talk about what the book would have taught me when I was young. I did not expect to pick up a book that would teach me, a queer adult, about new aspects of queerness. That changed when I first opened Kapaemahu.” - Ethan Seavey

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A ruling Friday by the Supreme Court represents a devastating blow to LGBTQ protections. The majority ruled in favor of a Christian web designer in Colorado who refuses to create websites to celebrate same-sex weddings out of religious objections.

The 6-to3 decision says it's about protecting people's constitutional right to free speech. Dissenting judges called the ruling a "license to discriminate."

How will the ruling affect Hawaii's LGBTQ community? Well-known LGBTQ community leader Dean Hamer co-produced the Emmy nominated film Kapaemahu, about four mahu on Waikiki Beach. He hoped to open viewer's eyes and hearts to diverse identities. He's unhappy about Friday's Supreme Court ruling.

"This is a sad day for our mahu, aikane, LGBTQ community in Hawaii. Not because it'll affect us directly -- we can all find good web designers -- but because the Supreme Court says we're second-class citizens, and that's a really horrible thing," he said.

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Frameline’s resolve to supporting queer and trans filmmakers producing lifesaving work can be seen in its awards programs. Presented during the Festival, the Out in the Silence Award, which provides $5,000 to the selected filmmaker, honors an outstanding film project that highlights brave acts of visibility, especially in places where such acts are rare and unexpected. This year, Frameline honored Babatunde Apalowo, the director of the Nigerian gay romance All the Colours of the World Are Between Black and White. The Out in the Silence Award is generously underwritten by longtime film community members Dean Hamer and Joe Wilson and is named after their Emmy-winning 2010 film, which documented the quest for fairness and equality in rural and small town America.

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Drag queens donning the white, red and blue of the Hawaiian flag shimmied across the stage to a throbbing techno remix of “Aloha Oe,” a song composed by Hawaii’s last reigning monarch. Spectators roared as a performer shook her hips in a Tahitian-style dance.

All were “mahu” — a Hawaiian term for people with dual male and female spirit and a mixture of gender traits.

They starred in a drag show this week called “Mahu Magic” on the sidelines of a Native Hawaiian convention in Las Vegas to remind the world of the respected place gender-fluidity has held in Hawaiian culture for hundreds of years, while also making a foray into the national conversation about transgender rights.

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