LOGLINE

Embark on a global quest to discover how the Shaka gesture is the secret to creating and maintaining paradise.

FULL SYNOPSIS

Shaka, A Story of Aloha is a feature documentary that traces Hawaiʻi’s iconic hand sign from its widespread modern-day uses back to its roots in the early 1900s.

The film opens in the Green Room at ShakaCon 2022, where contestants prepare for the Shaka Contest at the Polynesian Cultural Center in Lāʻie, Oʻahu. Their anticipation sets the stage for the film’s central mystery: what does the shaka really mean, and where did it come from?

This question launches an investigation, framed as a cinematic “who dunnit.” Filmmaker-detective Steve Sue builds a sprawling crime board covered with photos, memorabilia, news articles, archival footage, and interviews, guided by kupuna (wise elder) Aunty Kekela Miller. Together, they peel back time, one clue at a time.

The film leaps through history in surprising ways. Brook Lee flashes shakas after winning the 1997 Miss Universe Pageant. The “Shaka Battalion” in the Iraq War, led by commanding officer Kenneth Hara, credits the gesture with saving lives on both sides of the conflict. Going further back, newscaster Paul Udell closes KHON2 broadcasts with his 1979 shaka sign-off. In Brazil, Alfio Lagnado creates the iconic Hang Loose brand. In surfing, Eddie Aikau uses a Hawaiian hoʻoponopono (peace-making ritual) to reconcile with Australian surfers Ian Cairnes and Peter Townend with local Hawaiians during the “Bustin’ Down the Doors” era. The gesture spreads to extreme sports, politics, and everyday life: Honolulu Mayor Frank Fasi campaigns with the shaka, stamps it on public works signs, and incorporates it into the Honolulu Bus System’s digital boards. Entertainers and comedians build it into their acts, while Waikīkī businessman Lippy Espinda uses it to sell used cars.

The film then travels further back to uncover Buddhist roots of the word “shaka.” Derived from the mudra (hand sign) of Shakyamuni Buddha, also known as “O-Shaka-Sama” or “Shaka Buddha,” the term “shaka” carried the meaning “fear not, go for it.” This connection entered Hawaiʻi through Japan’s first 70mm Technicolor epic, “Buddha” (1961).

A series of competing theories are explored: Lippy Espinda creating the gesture while playing marbles in Makawao, Maui; Portuguese plantation workers using it as a drinking sign; a Hilo gesture called “esalay” meaning “easy lay”; and leprosy patients at Kalaupapa, Molokaʻi waving at tourists. But back at the crime board, Aunty Kekela laughs off these stories, insisting the true origin lies with one man: Hamana Kalili.

The film then unpacks the life and legend of Hamana Kalili. A sugar-mill worker at the Kahuku Sugar Mill, Kalili lost three fingers in an accident and was reassigned as a guard to stop train jumpers from stealing cane or hitching rides. Youth like Aunty Kekela, once a train jumper herself, recall how lookouts mimicked his missing fingers to signal “all clear”—the earliest use of the shaka.

But Kalili was far more than a gesture’s accidental namesake. He was a hero who saved a schoolteacher’s life in Pupukea in 1912, a master fisherman of the North Shore, a tug-of-war champion, organizer of the Lāʻie Hukilau, a deacon of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a musician, and even a model for sculptor Dr. Avard Fairbanks. For decades he played King Kamehameha I in the Kamehameha Day Parades, welcomed President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1934, and portrayed Hawaiian royalty in the Lāʻie Hukilau Aliʻi Parade.

The film documents multiple stories Kalili told children about how he lost his fingers, pinning the actual injury between 1912—when he still had all digits during the Pupukea rescue—and 1915, when the book Gathering Lāʻie describes him missing three fingers. Former train jumpers testify the gesture was known for decades as “Hamana DA” (“District Attorney”), a nod to his role as enforcer.

Sidebars highlight the Kahuku–Lāʻie region as a puʻuhonua (place of refuge) shaped by the LDS Church, and feature Marilyn Fonoimoana Washburn, who championed Kalili’s legacy until Mayor Frank Fasi declared an official Shaka Day in 1986.

Kalili’s influence is cemented with the Lāʻie Hukilau, which he helped found and run starting in 1948. Known as the largest such gathering in Hawaiʻi, it included the famed “Hukilau Song” by Jack Owens and the creation of the Hukilau Hula. Kalili led the festival until his passing in 1958. Hukilau Beach itself was formerly called Hamana Beach, renamed only after the new event began. Though the LDS Church ended the Hukilau in 1963 to direct visitors to the new Polynesian Cultural Center, Kalili’s legacy endures in the Hukilau Marketplace and a life-size bronze statue of him at the Center’s entrance.

The film’s finale returns to ShakaCon, where contestants showcase 10 divisions of shaka styles: Hamana DA (Kalili’s version), Train Jumper (lookout signal), Right On the Kini Popo (rightgeous driving), Buddha (spiritual), Shakey (political/sales), Hang Loose (surfing), Epic (conquest), Comic (entertainment), Beauty Queen (feminine), and Ambassador (soldier). Key figures from the investigation return as judges, closing on a tableau of aloha, love, and ʻohana. Narration reminds us that paradise is not a place, but a choice possible anywhere, anytime, by simply observing the principles of the shaka.

End credits launch Project Shaka, a nonprofit movement dedicated to spreading aloha worldwide. Behind-the-scenes clips highlight milestones including Hawaiʻi’s Official Shaka State Gesture Law authoried by Sue and the Hawaiʻi State Shaka DMV License Plate Program, cementing the shaka as a symbol of unity, peace, and Hawaiian spirit.