Simon Bussiere recently presented Ho‘omanawanui, a short film he produced which focuses on the resilience of the Hawaiian landscape. The film is featured at the 2021 Venice Biennale in the Italian Pavilion.

From the Biennale Catalog:

Resilience is site-dependent. Its principles are local, not globally universal, and a landscape’s ability to adapt to change and rebound to disturbance depends largely on the conditions, compositions and connections between its geography and its humanity. And no two landscapes are the same. No two identical memories of that same territory exist either. Each site, each story and each perspective is distinct and sacred, characterized by unique material, cultural, economic, political or spiritual factors. Yet despite that individualistic impression left behind many of the arguably more authentic landscapes within Hawaiʻi share a common bond to a profound and common sense of place. That imprint of place-based identity is deeply rooted in a heritage that is at once ancient and modern, storied and yet freshly poised for newness, or nowness. This presents a striking paradox – the contrasting elements of the ages against the needs to remake and regenerate for the future. All are simultaneously on bright display in the productive loʻi and stream corridors or each ahupuaʻa. Amidst a global pandemic, and likely in the post-pandemic context, the search for meaning and belonging, the tracking and seeking of connections between our place and ourselves, like the search for one’s own sense of authenticity in Hawaiʻi is threaded tightly to ecological resilience.

Ho‘omanawanui offers but a small glimpse into the contemporary story of Hawai‘i’s extraordinarily adaptable and resilient ʻĀina, through contrasting natural textures and atmospheres, and with a prospective vision and voice shared by kupuna and keiki alike.

A Film By:    A L S O    C O L L E C T I V E

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Credits:
Pag-ibig Ara Laylo Feducia, Director, Editor, Strategist
Simon M. Bussiere, Executive Producer, Writer, Editor
Keola Rapozo, Designer, Writer, Cultural Practitioner
Laurien “Lala” Nuss, Community Outreach, Narration
Matt Higa, Aerial Footage

Special Thanks:
Kākoʻoʻōiwi
Kamuela Yim
Kahiau Wallance
Bailee Naka‘ahiki
Banksy Na‘alea Naka‘ahiki
Parra Pō‘ailana Naka‘ahiki
Keola Naka‘ahiki Rapozo
NMG Network
Annacaterina Piras & Ministero della Cultura