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Kumu Hina

The inspiring documentary, Kumu Hina, introduces us to Hina Wong-Kalu, a Hawaiian transgender woman embracing her cultural heritage in contemporary Honolulu as a respected teacher (or “kumu”), an active cultural council member, and a newlywed.

lgbtmovies: “ KUMU HINA (2014) Kumu Hina is a Hawaiian documentary that centers mainly around two characters - a kuma (teacher) and one of her students. Kuma Hina teaches community classes to young people about Hawaii’s history and culture and also...

lgbtmovies:

KUMU HINA (2014)

Kumu Hina is a Hawaiian documentary that centers mainly around two characters - a kuma (teacher) and one of her students. Kuma Hina teaches community classes to young people about Hawaii’s history and culture and also serves as political representation to protect burial grounds from being disturbed on the island. Her classes learn traditional dances and performances that exhibit the preservation of Hawaiian culture after the colonies took over the land. In Hawaiian culture, gender isn’t thought of the same way as we’ve come to know it - Hina identifies as what we know as “transgender”, but she considers herself to be what is called māhū - “the middle”. Hawaiian tradition seems to depict māhū as a person who represents both genders, instead of one gender crossing over to become the other. I thought the whole concept was extremely beautiful - a lot of young people who are transgender go through a lot of emotional difficulties because they grow up knowing they are born in the wrong body and many times are not happy until they are able to obtain the body that matches what they feel inside. The young person in this film also goes through these same challenges, but takes solace in the fact that she is māhū and grows to love who she is as well as who she is becoming. Hina assures her that sometimes there are societal expectations that will make her feel that sometimes she must act or look a certain way, but that it will not last forever - that one day when she is an adult, “you’re not gonna have to move for anybody else”. Beautiful film 8/10

derica:

CS Julie Dash does something that no one else does: she makes people in her films look beautiful. Black women, in particular, in her films are stunningly gorgeous.

LH Why is that so important?

CS Because it never happens. In the short film that she made at UCLA, Illusions (1982), she has this close-up of a beautiful brown-skinned girl singing, and there’s an eye light—it’s a technique you use in film to make sure there’s a sparkle in the eye, you put in a kicker to do it. She’s fully separated from the background. There’s a diffused key light so her skin is soft and dewy. The framing flatters the shape of her face. I’ll never forget that frame. When I saw it I thought, A filmmaker has never asked me to look for this long at a black girl, has never applied this much attention to her appearance. I see Daughters of the Dust (1991), 12 black women lit with the setting sun in white dresses on the beach looking like goddesses and I think, That’s how we should look in movies all the time. I don’t want to see us look any other way—not until it becomes normal. I need this image in my everyday life. In cinema, the icon is everything. It’s the portal through which empathy is produced. And the more seductive you make that, the more care you put into its construction, the easier it is for people to enter and identify with that image. 

—Cauleen Smith by Leslie Hewitt, BOMB Magazine