

A transgender Native Hawaiian teacher inspires a young girl to fulfill her destiny of leading the school's male hula troupe, even as she struggles to find love and a committed relationship in her own life.
Direction
Intimate access without exploitation. You feel like family.
Cinematography
Hawaii as character, not postcard. Gritty, humid, alive.
Director
Dean Hamer
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Māhū were respected spiritual leaders in pre-contact Hawaii; missionaries criminalized them. Hina's teaching is direct resistance to that erasure.
Hina later became the first transgender person to run for Hawaii state office. The film captures her before that political chapter.
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