Holding Fast the Dream

Short Synopsis

For more than two centuries, African Americans lived, thrived, and achieved in the islands of Hawai‘i, but little is known about their remarkable contributions. Holding Fast The Dream: Hawaii's African American Experience corrects this omission, telling the story that begins with a freed slave in the early 1800s to Hawaii's native son Barack Obama and his island roots and ties.

Description/Treatment

Holding Fast The Dream: Hawaii's African American Experience will be a first-of-its-kind work combining documentary film and the web, integrating pioneering academic research to tell stories heretofore untold and unknown.

Hawaiian, Samoan, Filipino, Japanese, Chinese, Korean—some of the ethnic peoples whose stories increasingly are told, whose voices can be heard, and whose presence in the Hawaiian Islands is known and documented. Notably absent from the list is a people who two centuries ago were warmly welcomed by the monarchs, later denigrated by foreign missionaries, and even today largely absent from larger story of the people of the islands.

Little known as well are the remarkable contributions African Americans have made to Hawai‘i--from pioneering the economic engine that is the visitor industry, to discovering the first effective treatment for a disease that ravaged the Native Hawaiian population.

Holding Fast The Dream corrects this record of omission and neglect. Linking the achievements of the present with their roots in the past, the film presents a coherent and inspiring picture of a people who deserve recognition for their contribution to our island society. Holding Fast The Dream illustrates the tenacity of the human spirit and the courage of the individual in the face of isolation and even ostracism—qualities and experiences which all communities exhibit and relate to.

Above all, Holding Fast The Dream explores the universal idea of community, the need for connection among people and between peoples, and the strength and support that community brings. As M. Scott Peck observed:

Community building is a process of building a shared story built upon respect for all individuals...

First welcomed by Hawaiian monarchs, African Americans soon joined the indigenous population as targets of denigration and discrimination in the missionary period. And they, like Hawaiians, have struggled with racial stereotypes and discrimination in a land heralded as a paradise of diversity and tolerance.

As the first African American to graduate with a Masters Degree from the University of Hawai‘i, Alice Ball conducted research that led to the first viable treatment for Hansen's Disease. But she received no credit for her work, as the white male who was her professor put his name to her breakthrough. Blacks were refused housing, restrictive covenants were common in real estate, and even military housing was segregated. Job openings were widely advertised for "haole" or "white" applicants only. Still, African Americans survived—and thrived—holding in their hearts the universal desires that build and connect communities.

The need for this project is apparent, as the Honolulu Advertiser recently noted:
While the history of blacks in Hawai'i spans nearly 200 years, it's a story that's been largely untold — until now. Local filmmaker Steve Okino and University of Hawai'i professor emeritus Miles M. Jackson have teamed up to make the first-ever visual presentation of the achievements and struggles of the black community in Hawai'i...
(Source: Honolulu Advertiser, June 13, 2007)

Community Despite The Odds

Holding Fast The Dream tells the stories of Hawai‘i's African Americans, illustrating the universal issues of freedom, security, and connectedness that spring from community, and that are essential to our individual well-being.
In doing so, the film will explore a unique concept of community.

Unlike Harlem in New York City, or South Central Los Angeles, there is no single physical place in Hawai‘i identified with African Americans. But that lack actually foreshadows the future for African Americans throughout the United States, as more African Americans move out of central cities. As Dr. Quintard Taylor of the University of Washington observes, the experience of African Americans in Hawai‘i can be a model for other areas in building a vibrant, thriving community.

The themes of community and achievement lend themselves to a combination of styles that will help the film achieve more than just communication of information, but that will evoke emotion and feeling; in short, providing a total experience of what community means, and how it affects our lives.

Innovative Storytelling That Moves and Inspires

The historical will intertwine with the contemporary, as individuals of today recognize their connection to those who preceded them. Pioneering scientist Ernest Harris shares a dedication to his work with Alice Ball, the young University of Hawai‘i student of a hundred years ago whose research produced the first viable treatment for Hansen’s Disease. Kapiolani Community College Chancellor Leon Richards acknowledges the legacy of Betsey Stockton and Carlotta Stewart Lai, who were the first Black educators in the islands.

We will tell the story of the early African American migration and community-building by combining the words and products of the migrants themselves with context provided by experts like Dr. Taylor, who bring a very human and easy-to-understand approach to the subject. For example, short dramatic works have been created based on the letters of early African American migrants to Hawaii, and we plan to incorporate readings and stagings of excerpts dealing with what Anthony Allen and Betsey Stockton experienced during their time in the islands.

Observational techniques also will be used when appropriate to illustrate community-building and the dilemma faced by African Americans of preserving culture amidst diversity. Because the church has played such an important role in African American community-building, we will explore its importance through the eyes of Rev. James Cook of Trinity Baptist Church in Honolulu. We will follow him as he faces the challenge of serving a dispersed community, watching the joy of everyday achievement coupled with the difficulty and frustration of bringing people who might see one another only once a week on Sunday together spiritually and intellectually.

Arts and culture often form the backbone of community. We will see and hear musicians like classical violinist Fumiko Wellington and jazz icon Azure McCall, dancers like Adela Chu, and poet Ayin Adams. Their performances and perspectives bring life to the joys and the frustrations of being an African American artist in Hawai‘i.

The future course of community among African Americans naturally lies with upcoming generations. We will sidestep the easy and obvious through more innovative approaches to to the experience of younger African Americans. Their expression through film and music show how they are integrating their African American roots with respect for Hawaiian culture and values. For instance, we will hear from singer Ryan Kamakakehau Fernandez—an African American from Louisiana adopted by a Hawaiian family and raised on Maui. And we’ll look at a scene from a short film being produced by a recent graduate of the University of Hawaii's Academy of Creative Media that deals with an African American student claiming his place in "the community" which is new, different, and unfamiliar.

We will connect these disparate stories in an equally innovative manner—with an overarching journey of discovery. It’s the personal journey of Wendy Pearson, now a high-ranking education administrator, who came to Hawai‘i in 1995 from Detroit. She left the comfort and familiarity of a large and long-established Black community to the challenge of living, working, and thriving in Hawai‘i. Her learning about Hawai‘i’s African Americans becomes our learning, guided by author and University of Hawai‘i Dean Emeritus Miles M. Jackson. Through their eyes, we reveal the breadth, depth, and soul of a community too long ignored.