'Aikāne': The Story of a Warrior Saved

by Doug Stewart - FOX61 - October 2, 2023:

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. 

“’Aikāne’ is a sort of fictional legend,” said Hamer from his adopted home of Hawaii. “It's not exactly a legend, but it's in the form of a legend from the region we live in now, which is the Great Pacific Ocean."

He continued:  "And it calls upon an ancient tradition called aikāne, which is the Hawaiian word for intimate friends of the same sex, or what we would call lovers today in modern parlance. And it's a story about a valiant warrior, and a young man, and the action and adventure that happens when they are accidentally thrown together.”

In the film, a valiant island warrior fights foreign invaders. When he is wounded, he falls into a mysterious underwater world and is rescued by an octopus. The octopus then transforms into a handsome young man, and the pair become aikāne, bound by love and trust, and it leads to an epic battle against the colonialists who seek to exploit their world.

The team made the decision to tell the story only through pictures, without dialogue.

“It's actually incredibly difficult to convey complex ideas without using words,” said Hamer. “But it also really forced us to make it a simple story, and not to have too many diversions or complications. And really to focus on the core of the story, which is, it's a story about love. And it doesn't make any difference that there are two guys, or even a guy and an octopus. But only that they respect each other, they rely on each other thing, they clone to one another. And it's a story about love. So I think that's a story that you can tell even without words.”

"This was all unfolding when the world was in a really strange place, when the pandemic was in full swing. And there was in the political sphere of the United States, this resurgence of anti-gay, anti-trans in particular, political rhetoric, and it was just taking on a really ugly, ugly form.' said Wilson. "And amidst all that, like many people, we were trying to figure out how to make sense out of it all. And, you know, as Dean mentioned, we live here in Hawaii, and one of the places of refuge for us is the water. And under the water, that's a place where a lot of things happen in such a beautiful and peaceful way."

The film also shows the accepting culture of the native Hawaiian population before Europeans arrived, which held a revered place in their society for same-sex couples and people who are transgender. The Europeans shut down those relationships when they took over the islands.

The goal of the film was to break away from the common framework of LGBTQ+ protagonists fighting someone who doesn’t want them to live their true lives. ”

"I think the biggest challenge is that we as queer people are so used to stories about our struggle about against everybody else, just to be ourselves just to be queer," the filmmakers said. "And we didn't really want to tell that story. We wanted to tell the story where the conflict was against other forces, and where the folks just happen to love one another even though the same sex.”

Hamer and Wilson are hoping the film goes on to be nominated for an Academy Award. And having won an award at an authorized festival, they’ve made the difficult first step.

For highlights of the festival go here

Aikane will be shown Sat, Oct 14th, at 3:00 p.m., at the Wadsworth Atheneum. It will also be available for streaming from October 6, 12:02 a.m. to October 23, 12:01 a.m.