This prestigious award recognizes the people who help build awareness of the struggle for indigenous rights and for human rights through film.
The award went to the filmmaker, Catherine Bauknight and all people appearing in the film.
It was presented by Leo Koziol, Director of Wairoa Maori Film Festival, to Bauknight in Pasadena, CA, and Clifford Nae`ole, Cultural Advisor of the film in Maui, via Skype.
Bauknight worked closely with Nae`ole over the four years of filming throughout the Hawaiian Islands. Hawaii A Voice For Sovereignty will now screen throughout Aotearoa with the Maori Film Festival.
The film premiered one year ago in June, privately at the Capitol Building in Washington, DC and publicly at the Maui Film Festival where it won "Audience Award Best Hawai`i Film."
The film also garnered “Best Environmental Film” and “Best Documentary Feature” at the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival.
The films goal is to share the journey of the Native people of Hawai`i, since the illegal takeover by the US in 1893, to sustain their culture, spirituality, and connection to the land.
Comments