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- Pack your things, you're coming over to Kauai.
- Kauai? What on earth for?
- How far is it to Honolulu, Waikiki?
- About a 100 miles south-east, another island.
- We always end up 100 miles from the main attraction.
- There's life on Kauai too, I understand.
-This is my childhood playground.
That's me in the white shirt.
We just sort of sidled our way in.
-I was part of the movie extra,
running around the place, just background stuff.
- In 1933, filmmaker Lois Weber arrived on Kauai.
When the sugar and pineapple industry ruled the island.
Weber made Kauai's first Hollywood movie, 'White Heat'.
also known as 'Cane Fire'.
A melodrama about a plantation worker falling in love with the owner.
That's my great grandfather, Alberto.
He had just recently arrived in Kauai from
the Philippines to work on the plantation
where Weber was filming and was used as
an extra in the film while on the job.
After years of working under abusive labor conditions,
Alberto began taking on the plantation as a union organizer.
The company fought back against him with a vengeance.
They demoted him from supervisor to ditch digger, forcing him
to work side by side with his sons, including my grandfather.
At the climax of Weber's film,
the plantation was burned to the ground by a worker.
There was no revolt on the plantation Alberto worked for.
Instead it was shut down and the machinery was shipped to
the Philippines to be reassembled with cheaper labor.
In the late 60s, my great grandfather, Alberto followed
the disassembled mill back to the Philippines.
My grandfather left to join the military.
And the rest of the family stayed behind on Kauai.
Weber's 'Cane Fire' became lost,
along with the only film footage of my great grandfather.
Over the next several years, Kauai's dominant
industry slowly turned from industrial agriculture to tourism.
- Kauai is known as the Garden isle.
Kauai is lush, tropical, wild and fulfills
every imaginable image of what Hawaii would be like.
- I first visited Kauai as an awkward only child from Seattle.
My cousins would call me 'Haole'.
Hawaiian slang for white boy.
I started watching films shot on Kauai as
a way to connect my extended family.
My cousins are still on Kauai, which today has
the highest cost of living in the United States.
For those who can afford it, the island
continues to fulfill the escapist fantasy.
But for the working class and native resident,
Kauai is at a breaking point.
- In Hawaii, our children grow up with the sugar cane.
# C&H # C&H
# Pure cane sugar # Pure cane sugar
# From Hawaii # From Hawaii...#
(MUSIC)
- No living relative has seen Kauai change
more than my grandfather's brother, my great uncle, Henry.
- When I visited, my cousins, his grandsons were staying
with him and would shuffle in and out of the house.
- Greasy I know. (LAUGHS)
So good.
- I took Henry up on his offer to show me around.
We visited the abandoned sugar mills and pineapple
canneries where he used to make his rounds as a truck driver.
- Uncle Henry.
- Well, I don't want to get him in trouble I just want...
- We stopped by the Lawai Cannery where Henry was born.
Now a storage facility.
Here's Henry's mother, my great grandmother,
posing in front of the cannery in her uniform.
(MUSIC)
- It's a story of a miracle in an arid, sun-smitten desert
created by a handful of adroit men with indomitable courage.
Pest-free, strong vigorous weeds, chock full of sweet sap, big business.
- When the cane is ripe, the field is set afire.
The tangleweeds burn but not the stalks full of sweet juice.
- Then field workers cut the cane and haul it to the mills for crushing
and shipping to refineries on the mainland.
- On soil less favorable for growing cane
they planted pineapple, big business too.
- For over 100 years Hawaii's economy was controlled
by five sugar and pineapple companies known as the Big Five.
Members of four generations of my family have been
employed by some form of Alexander and Baldwin alone.
Though they've now diversified, the plantation industry
still controls and profits from much of the land on Kauai.
The plantation industry began when Captain Cook first landed in Kauai
in 1778 and was met by Native Hawaiians,
or “Kānaka Maoli”
Cook ushered in families of Protestant missionaries
that began the production of sugar as a commercial enterprise.
There was an immediate clash between
the missionaries and Hawaiians.
The Hawaiian self-sufficient way of life operated
through an intricate system of maintaining the land.
With water flowing from the mountains
and rerouted into tributaries and fish ponds.
The plantations dug trenches in the mountains
and rerouted the water to flow into their own cane fields.
In 1893, in an effort to fully control the land,
a group of American insurgents including the Big 5
forcefully overthrew the Kingdom of Hawaii
with the aid of the U.S. Navy
and installed their own provisional government.
Several elements of Hawaiian culture
were further suppressed.
In order to make this new venture profitable,
the Big Five needed a larger workforce.
They imported labor from all over the world.
Wages were low and workers had no choice but to live on the plantations,
in the ethnically segregated housing camps.
Each time workers started to organize,
the Big Five would pit ethnic populations against each other.
Initially, the largest group was from China, then Japan,
and then from the Philippines, which included my family' s arrival.
(MUSIC)
- My name is Michael Faye.
I was born here in Waimea, Kauai.
My father was the...
manager of Waimea sugar mill company.
We had the privilege of growing up in the plantation era,
or the trailing end of the plantation era.
As us kids growing up,
none of us thought anything about race or ethnicity.
That was just...
That's who we were, you know and...
the manager's kids went to the worker’s houses,
the worker’s kids all were at the manager's house
and it was all just sort of one great big,
kind of great big happy family.
I know it's kind of...
covering some of the badder parts of it, but that's how we saw it.
(SINGING)
From my biased point of view, I think the family treated them well.
Or didn't treat them bad, at least.
(MUSIC AND SINGING)
- My father approached me if I would take over as manager.
And of course, that was something I had always really wanted to do.
And you know my uncle was living in the manager's house and I was
gosh, I was only about 30 years old or 31 years old, just got married.
I accepted the job but I did say that you know
if I was gonna come there and be the manager
I had to... or be the top guy.
I had to be in the top house in the manager's house.
So I basically, kicked my 80 year old uncle out and moved into that house.
- My sister was the substitute for Yvette Mimieux in 'Diamond Head'.
Riding a horse, because she was a good horse lady.
- Well that got the kinks out.
You know, our island’s the only place that gets bigger every time I see it.
You suppose it's because it's ours?
- Why else?
- The movie 'Cane Fire' was filmed here at Waimea Sugar.
So of course, it's going to be of interest to us.
It'd be wonderful to find a copy of it somewhere.
But so far it's elusive.
- Have you ever sought out a film that you knew was shot here?
- Oh yeah, we always do.
Yeah, we always want to see what we look like.
(MUSIC)
- In the 1930s,
news of appalling labor conditions began reaching the rest of
the world and the reputation of the sugar industry came under attack.
The Big Five began a PR campaign addressing their labor practices.
And through the cooperation of major Hollywood studios
they began to lure tourists to the island,
bringing a fleet of cruise ships to transport them.
- From a world that is overburdened with the sterner realities of life,
we seek respite in the romantic isles of the South Seas,
Where life is not so complicated and joy is unrestrained.
- Films shot in Hawaii in this era were known as South Seas fantasies.
Native Hawaiian and Asian immigrant residents are portrayed interchangeably.
- Aloha, Coyama.
At least you never change.
- Welcome home, Mrs Sloan, you hungry?
- For the ceremony of the bowl, I choose my friend.
The friend of all my friends.
I choose the haole.
When Lois Weber submitted 'White Heat' to the ratings board,
she was forced to make several revisions.
Some of these revolved around
what was seen as sexually explicit behavior
between the plantation owner and his lover, a quote "native girl".
But the most significant
required change involved the climax of the film in which
the "native girl" spurned by the plantation owner
deliberately starts an out of control cane fire,
destroying the plantation.
The ratings board cited fears that the scene
would encourage labor revolt among the plantation workers.
- The sugar companies were feeling threatened.
They had just deported the founder of
the first Filipino labor movement, Pablo Manlapit.
Just four years before my great grandfather arrived to Kauai,
Pablo Manlapit called upon Filipino plantation workers to strike.
Leading to the deadliest labor revolt in Hawaii's history.
16 workers were killed by police and were quickly buried in a
mass grave to quell any further activism.
This little known event occurred in the town of Hanapepe.
Now a tourist stop.
- Everyone's so friendly.
- Yeah, It's an act.
- Roger, can't you forget you’re
an expert on territorial labor relations.
- If this is the sloppy way that Folger
and the other planters run their business,
no wonder they had to call me in to straighten out their labor.
- Alright, to get right to it.
The company is highly aroused over
the recent outbreak of costly accidents here.
- Terrible.
- What's it all about?
- Agitation, sir.
Labor agitation.
- Well, I assumed that, but agitation over what exactly?
- Oh, the usual radical demands, outrageous pay,
impossible hours, palatial housing.
This Filipino fellow stirs them up.
A dedicated rascal with the heart of a born revolutionist.
- Same kind of following that every fanatical leader has.
- The machete-wielding madman portrayed in the film 'Jungle Heat'
closely resembled Pablo Manlapit,
who after being deported from Hawaii for his activism,
was never allowed back into the islands.
It wasn't until the 1940s that Hawaii had its first
successful large scale unionization, led by the ILWU.
My great grandfather Alberto would bring Henry along as a child
to attend their rallies,
inspiring him to be active in the union himself as an adult.
- One tactic to defeat the ILWU in Hawaii,
was to label them as Communist conspirators.
‘Big Jim McClain’ stars John Wayne as a House of Un-American
Activities Committee member sets investigate Hawaii.
- Next day was launched the investigation that made headlines.
known as, 'Operation Pineapple'.
- The gossip in Washington is that your Committee is
setting up an investigating team out in the islands.
- Well we're here on a vacation, overwork and all that, you know.
- After being a hard working dedicated Communist for almost 11 years,
I came to my senses and recognized Communism for what it is,
it's a vast conspiracy to enslave the common man.
- Henry arranged for me to meet his friend and neighbor,
Alfredo Castillo, who was the ILWU Division Director
during Kauai sugar years,
and was once one of the most influential people in Hawaii's labor movement.
- This goes on your collar.
- Yeah.
- The plantation workers had won a battle against the Big Five sugar companies,
but meanwhile, more powerful forces had
been changing the island around them.
Since the arrival of Captain Cook,
the United States had seen Hawaii as a valuable strategic outpost.
And in 1898 - the same year that Guam,
Puerto Rico, and the Philippines became American Territories
- the US forced an annexation of Hawaii
to formalize their control over the islands.
Many Native Hawaiians wishing to retain their land
had to qualify under a U.S. program
called the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act
which had prohibitive guidelines and requirements.
When the attack on Pearl Harbor occurred in 1941,
it was the United States chance to make
the case for statehood, in the name of national security.
- The United States Congress has admitted Hawaii as the 50th state.
The islands were discovered over 180 years ago
by the famous British navigator, Captain Cook.
And in this century they've become world famous as a holiday paradise.
# I love to sing and dance for you
# and give a flower lei too
#and with that goes a kiss or two
# that's the Hawaiian in me... #
- Hawaii became a US state because of its strategic value to the military
but they sold the idea of statehood to the American public
through the Hawaiian Tourism Bureau,
which carefully crafted the message and style of the subsequent films shot on the island.
(SINGING)
- Alright, it's a deal.
- Cut. Very good, thank you.
- You talk to him, dammit!
- Yeah, Charlton Heston. (INAUDIBLE)
Charlton Heston.
- I feel I have a right to be here.
This is my home ground.
- After statehood, the Big Five could no longer rule the islands as they had.
They started to strategize on ways to fully
transition into the next shift in industry, tourism.
- Maile, I've got to get a job.
- And I gather not in your father's pineapple plant.
- No, ma'am, Hawaii has a big future.
I want to become a part of it.
I'm young and healthy, I'm not too stupid.
- Wonderful.
- This place is growing by leaps and bounds, more
tourists come here than any other state in the union.
Hey, that's it.
Well, I know every inch of these islands, I'll make a good tourist guide.
- You'd make a great tourist guide.
- I gotta get going.
I gotta see your boss.
I've wasted too much time already.
- One of the things that my father had started was
in about 1960 he had done a little conceptual
master plan of transitioning from a plantation centric to a more visitor centric.
All the plantations were doing this at the time,
this concept of
"Hey do something with the beachfront, jump on the tourist bandwagon."
- Color, decor, everything tropical.
I'll make the Paradise Carlton the greatest showplace in the world.
(MUSIC)
- With more and more visitors flooding to the island,
Alexander and Baldwin absorbed Matson shipping,
in addition to their cruise line.
This enabled them to profit off of almost
everything imported into the island.
Today, 90% of Hawaii's food and goods are still imported.
- So, one of the things to do when you get off on the islands
is they have these free shuttles that take you to the shopping centre.
They go to Wal-Mart, Kmart.
I think the mall.
So, I think we're going to head to the mall 'cause mom wants to
shop and buy some Hawaiian stuff so...
Oh look, the guy's giving out leis.
Hello.
- Aloha.
- Thank you.
- No visit to Kauai would be complete without a sojourn
at the Coco Palms Hotel, which we are now approaching.
- The most iconic destination of Hollywood's Golden Age
was the Coco Palms Hotel,
which was led by Grace Guslander, who's husband was a Matson executive.
(MUSIC)
(SINGING)
- On August 26, 1853.
137 years ago.
Queen Deborah Kapule died.
Kapule was the last queen on our island of Kauai.
These were her royal grounds.
Each year, in commemoration, the Queen returns.
The King approaches.
- That's the traditional Hawaiian way of announcing that chow's on.
-The torch lighting ceremony was not a Native Hawaiian practice,
but was invented by the hotel's manager Grace Guslander
as entertainment for the guests.
- Pretty impressive, right? - It's beautiful.
- Meet my wife, Gloria.
(APPLAUSE)
(SINGING)
-The island's economy continued to transform
and the sugar industry slowly declined.
Beginning in the 1980s,
workers were forced to give up benefits and take pay cuts.
Despite this, the Big Five started moving operations
overseas for cheaper land and labor.
Blaming the unions for seeking a living wage for their employees.
- The big boss has called everyone into these
offices this morning to tell them the bad news.
- When I go home tonight?
Hard, very hard.
Grandkids.
"Hey, Poppa ain't working no more"
That's it.
- An entire workforce was left stranded on the island.
Those that didn't leave were forced to adapt
to the service industry which lacked
the organized labor power that had been
built up in the sugar plantations.
Meanwhile, due to the rise in real estate value,
the US government continued pushing out Native Hawaiians
who had previously been promised land
as part of the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act.
- Street's our house, new house everybody, the streets.
- We are not gonna live on the streets.
We no more house.
- Yes.
- At least give us a piece of land to live on.
- Keep Hawaiian lands in Hawaiian hands.
- We are Hawaiian. This is our land.
This is our way of life.
- Aloha, sister.
- This is the most recent of a series of arrests
and evictions from the beaches of Hawaii.
But with close to 90% of the people of Hawaii unable to
afford their own homes,
this incident will probably not be the last.
- Before the 'King of Rock' arrived,
the kings and queens of the Hawaiian Kingdom
lived at the current Coco Palms Hotel site in the Wailua Valley,
considered one of the most sacred places in Hawaii.
It was the site of several Hawaiian burials
before they were removed by Coco Palms manager, Grace Guslander,
when the hotel was being built.
- A huge hurricane is forcing thousands of people to evacuate,
the eye of the storm taking aim at the tropical resort.
It is moving rapidly and packing powerful winds.
- Tomorrow's gonna be another day.
- Kiss it goodbye.
- There's no quick fix for Coco Palms Resort on Kauai.
The hotel, which has been in disrepair
since Hurricane Iniki devastated the Garden Island 20 years ago,
remains in shambles.
(Chant in Olelo Hawaiian)
- You know that one?
(CHANTING)
- For more than two years,
a group of Native Hawaiian activists have been working to restore
the most sacred land on Kauai, the former site of the Coco Palms Resort.
(CHANTING)
- This property that we have been rehabilitating
is significant for a few reasons.
There are "loʻi", taro patches,
"loko iʻa", fish ponds.
"heiau", temples.
And burial sites.
The place has a complicated history and there
are a lot of stories that haven't been told.
When you walk the grounds and you sleep on the grounds,
there's a lot deeper of history there.
And that is why we're working to restore it.
- This song was written by the queen.
It happened, true story. Shipwreck in Kapaʻa Town
Goes something like this.
(SINGS)
- Hello everybody out there, I'm using Keʻala's phone right now.
(CROSSTALK)
Uh huh, uh huh.
We're pounding some poi today, gonna ”kau kau” a little bit.
- I've been here from day one.
We cleaned all this place by hand.
No machines.
By hands, every day.
I grew up right across the street.
This was my playground.
Went in the service for Uncle Sam.
Never went back.
There is no clothing construct,
it's just how you feel you need to express yourself.
- Show you a place where we can record back here.
Is it on?
So, this area you are looking at
it's gonna be another taro patch,
and right on top here I want to build a traditional Hawaiian house.
Elvis is dead.
The King of Rock died many moons ago.
The hotel died over 20 years ago.
The past is the past.
We can't bring it back but what we can do is the best of our
knowledge and ability for our future by starting now, today.
Don't wait for tomorrow.
We need to act on it now.
- OK, I'm Bob.
- Hi, Bob.
- Well, if you thought Coco Palms was closed
and not making any money, think again.
The caretaker of the Coco Palms property
has started a behind the scenes tour of the site.
- This has got to be the most famous hotel in the South Pacific.
In fact, it's been shut down for 22 years now.
OK. How many of you have seen 'Blue Hawaii'?
We'll do a refresher course.
- A way I earned my living when I first got here.
I would go up to Wailua Falls with parrots.
And I would take people's pictures with the parrots.
Wailua Falls was at the beginning of every episode of ‘Fantasy Island’.
And so, visitors up there would keep asking me about that
and other movies done here.
And I said, "God, you know what,
if we had a van and put a TV and we got all these movies
and we found all these locations,
we just start taking people
and when we get there we show them onscreen what's filmed there."
We did our first tour in 1996.
And it just took off.
- And here we are, ladies and gentlemen, at the famed Coco Palms Hotel.
It brought Hollywood icons like Bing Crosby,
Frank Sinatra and yes, even Elvis Presley to the resort.
- What room did the King stay in?
-I knew someone was going to ask that.
OK, come on, gather round.
- As the Native activists continued their occupation,
it was announced that the long dormant Coco Palms Hotel
was to be restored to its former glory by a new developer.
- It's a day many thought would never come.
A blessing that marked the rebirth of Coco Palms Resort on Kauai.
- So, as everybody can see today.
This right here is Coco Palms.
There is a very wise woman,
this gal by the name of Grace.
As many of you know, that had a very significant impact
on how Coco Palms was shaped.
It's the spirit that gravitated and pulled inside of us
and said, you know, we can't give up.
We have to keep the course.
We have to stay on this journey.
#There's a full moon over Kauai... #
- There are so many opinions surrounding Coco Palms
You almost have to function in all of these, like,
random worlds simultaneously.
You have your Kanaka, you have your tourists,
but you also have locals who don't necessarily agree with what we're doing.
The one argument that most locals have
is that Coco Palms is bringing jobs to the island.
To destroy acres of land
and bring all the pollution that comes with that,
when it's going to be underwater in 10 years,
purely for profit.
In the long run, that mentality is going to kill us.
- Keʻala reminded me of my cousin, Sandi,
who I've been staying with on Kauai.
The daughter of my great uncle Henry,
her mother and Henry's wife was full Native Hawaiian.
Sandi practiced the traditional hula and studied the Hawaiian language.
She was Keʻala's age during the Hawaiian renaissance
of the 1970s,
in which she participated as a committed activist.
This was a social movement of Native Hawaiians
that led to demonstrations across the islands.
Inspired by the Black Panthers
and the American Indian Movement,
the groups were protesting being pushed from their homes,
as well as the military occupation that was bombing sacred islands for artillery practice.
In one demonstration,
Sandi joined a group of protesters in blocking the construction of a hotel
being developed by Alexander & Baldwin.
Sandi declined to be in the film due to her job today as a high level manager
at one of Kauai's largest hotels.
A position she worked incredibly hard for.
Beginning as a construction worker while it was being built.
Sandi also serves as a Hawaiian priest
who conducts blessings at the hotel.
It's a role she's reluctant to speak about but feels a duty to fulfill.
- We're in Kauai,
Kauai.
- Wow, it's bright.
Who turned on the lights?
Who turned the lights on?
Wow, it's really bright.
What's that guy doing?
Ah, that was just for the ladies.
Excuse me, what language are you speaking?
What language are you speaking?
What is it?
Well, you know there was a girl who she was just putting her clothes back on,
but she looked really good so I had to get her on video.
Goodbye.
I bid you all farewell for the day with a traditional Hawaiian song.
(IMITATES HAWAIIAN LANGUAGE)
(LAUGHS) Sorry.
That's not a real song.
Goodbye, Kauai.
It's been nice knowing you.
(MUSIC AND SINGING)
- Have a good night guys and enjoy the show.
(CROWD CHATTERS)
- Hey, how are you?
- So, you weren't able to... yeah.
- Well, tourism at the center of our island economy.
The industry is looking to get a boost,
and looking to some of our best and brightest started on a career in tourism,
today the Tourism Authority hosted some 800 high school students
and about 100 college students to an expo
to expose them to opportunities in the state's number one industry.
Presenters also wanted the students to understand that they are
very important to Hawaii's future and sustainability as well.
- Most people know me by 'River'.
or Alakai.
I'm one hapa haole, so they call me the white Hawaiian.
But I have Hawaiian in my blood.
I got two brothers on Kauai.
Micah is the oldest.
There is a lot I can learn from Micah.
What to do and what not to do, you know.
- I been staying with my poppa 'cause
he can't really do a lot of the things that he used to do like clean up
the yard and clean the house, even.
I'm just there helping out as much as I can
and spend as much time as I can with my grandfather,
get as much knowledge as possible.
You know, you never know.
- My name is Pamela Green and I am the Kauai Division Director.
And I have held this position for about
so I want to say three years now.
It could be longer, I lose track of time.
Well, we have different trade groups.
We have tourism.
We used to have pineapple and sugar.
It's very difficult to get a lot of the younger people to
connect the dots because they're under the assumption,
well, I get a half hour lunch break, or, you know,
"If I'm sick and I tell my boss I want to go home,
he has to let me go home, right?"
Or, "Where's my break?"
You know, "I'm entitled to a break. That's a law, right?"
Well, it's not a law.
It's a collective bargaining benefit that somebody has fought for
and struggled and gone up against the company to get for you.
And you could lose it, just like that.
We don't have affordable housing here.
Families that want to have the ability to buy a home.
It's almost a dream that's not within their reach.
The union's philosophy has always been that you should provide
the worker with a wage that enables them to maintain a cost of living,
within the cost of living.
And I think, I don't know how to how to fix that.
I mean it's the deeper you dig the more depressing it gets.
-Yeah. (LAUGHS)
- You think the workers are afraid of the management again?
- You may not know there's an affordable housing crisis here on Kauai.
Leading the charge is Habitat for Humanity.
They're helping a few lucky locals make their dreams come true.
- Habitat for Humanity is a program where lower income
families receive resources to build homes,
provided they work 30 to 40 hours a week on the construction
on top of their already full time employment.
The land being leased for this housing project is
owned by the sugar company Alexander and Baldwin.
- We have near 2,000 people that have
expressed interest on building with Kauai
Habitat saying that they're in desperate need of affordable housing.
Out of that, had about almost 250 turn in applications.
Out of that group, we've got an initial 12 loan qualified homeowners.
Just the case in Hawaii is there's just not much available land at all.
So, we've got to really strategize on that
and work and see what our options are.
The first two bedroom house back here.
She's waitstaff at the Hyatt.
This guy here is waitstaff
I believe at Keoki's over in Poipu.
Back over here, another gentleman that's on the wait staff
at the Hyatt as well with banquets.
One gal on the house over she is a receptionist over at a boat company.
- Can I get you folks another round of drinks?
- Yes. Two more.
- Mr. Martin.
There's a telephone call from Miss Munroe.
- I'll take it.
- Hi, guys.
Hi, what are you doing?
- The babysitter fell asleep.
- Oh great.
I mean, come on, it's like a Hawaiian 'Rosa" huh?
- Oh my...
- Oh my god.
- Yeah, that's just like...
- Did you ever seek out any of the films that were shot on Kauai?
- No, no, just in general like movies that were...
- What, really?
- Yeah.
- The battle between a group of Native Hawaiians
and developers came to a head today here at Coco Palms.
The group took up residence there almost two years ago.
- Aloha mai kākou, it's Keʻala, I'm in my hale right now.
Got to take everything out and leave what I can't carry in my own car.
They're pushing us out to leave even though they don't have an official ejectment.
Which is really fucked up.
They sent people over to hurry me along to
make sure I can get all my stuff quickly and
I told them straight,
I need to get all my shit out.
- Today, they threw a curve ball at us.
First, actually they kicked all of us out.
Then they say we could go in two at a time to take our personal belongings.
And there's families in here.
So, each family has to rotate two at a time
to go in to take out their belongings.
My car's weighed down right now with all of my belongings
and the belongings of, you know, common items that we had shared
in our communal kitchen and tools and everything.
We had no idea that the US Marshals
would possibly be coming for us.
As far as I'm concerned everything they did today here was illegal.
- The developer, Tyler Greene, also called in a private security force.
But they declined to help the police in removing the activists.
- I was just sworn in as the president of Kauai Board of Realtors
just a couple of days ago.
So, I will be the 2015 President of the Kauai Board of Realtors.
And not only do I find it to be an extreme honor
to be thought of so highly
as to be able to represent the people of Kauai,
but I look forward to improving the image of realtors throughout the islands
and also to serving better,
able to serve the people of our island.
I'm the broker in charge of Kauai Tropical Properties.
Based out of Hanalei on the north shore of Kauai.
We specialize basically in giving our clients
a one on one feeling that they have someone they can actually trust.
And who's not just trying to get trying to make the next dollar
but that they're more concerned with their clients.
Rather than making a living.
(LAUGHS)
We moved here, my wife and I at the time
and had never been to Kauai but we moved here.
And we looked at each other with two kids
in tow you know we looked at each other
we both had tears in our eyes when we
turned back and we said, "My God, we're home."
There's always more property becoming available,
there is always new developers coming in to do things.
- Oh, this is perfect, a massage table,
I wonder if this comes with it.
No it’s absolutely gorgeous.
- Do you two live on the island, or...?
- Well, we're residents.
But we haven't bought anything yet.
- How long you've been residents?
- Well, we've come every year for a month or two, every year we're here.
Yeah, I love it.
- I was quite surprised by the fact
that 50% of the homes on Kauai are owned by non-permanent residents,
either second homes or investment properties.
- Ciao, baby.
- I'm just assisting other people, you know.
I'm not making the laws,
I'm not making the rules.
I'm just helping.
- I see in a lot of advertisements, 'plantation-style homes'.
Like, what does that mean?
Like, a New York brownstone?
- (LAUGHS) "The plantation-style home".
- There are only a few of the original residents living in
the Alexander and Baldwin plantation housing.
They're protected by a hard fought ILWU contract that allows
them to remain on the property with rent control.
- Hi.
- Come on.
- I have a daughter and son living here temporarily
but they're always off working so basically I'm home alone.
They're just waiting for us to die out one by one,
unless we make trouble, then they to get to boot us out.
But old ladies don't make trouble yeah? (LAUGHS)
We snitch on other guys. (LAUGHTER)
But just thank God our rent is small that we can survive here.
I couldn't pay rent outside, I would probably go homeless.
Sleep in my truck with my dogs. (LAUGHS)
Haven't you looked around at the prices?
Sale on the houses? The land?
It's a dream.
Every time I see dream mansions that I tell my daughter,
"Oh, can I have one of those, please?"
I can dream, can't I?
- Bali Hai. What's that mean?
- Bali Hai mean 'I am your special island'.
Mean, 'here I am'.
You listen you hear island call to you.
Listen...
- Coldwell Banker's latest home listing report shows Hawaii is
the most expensive state for residential real estate in the country.
As tourism raised land values,
Kauai's tropical paradise became more than a place to visit,
but a place that the wealthy can invest in.
The overt agenda of Hollywood slowly receded into the background
and the wealthy residents picked right up where Hollywood left off.
- A body temple of light and radiance.
- It was a group of us that came together to help people
find their authentic self.
And we thought,
"Wow wouldn't it be really nice to put clay all over our bodies?"
And we mentioned how this used to be done as children.
We basically started what is now known as Tribal Kauai.
- Why do I like coming to Kauai?
This island...
this home that my family and I have found here.
It's not for everyone, it certainly is a beauty.
It's a paradise but that's somewhat an illusion.
Because it's...
You have to work hard to be here.
- CEO Mark Zuckerberg spent some 66 million bucks,
On a 357 acre beachfront plantation on Kauai.
- Welcome to Kukuiula,
the world's most talked about new club and community.
Kukuiula is 1,000 acres of pure joy.
It's the most significant new private club and community in decades.
Kukuiula is the Kauai you fell in love with.
It's a down to earth paradise with an old Hawaiian soul.
Kukuiula is Hawaii as it once was.
Hawaii forever.
Come, make it your own.
- Kukuiula is being developed by A&B properties the real estate
division of the sugar company Alexander and Baldwin.
- For A&B, our partner,
the blessing today for Kukuiula is really the culmination
of a 30-year journey.
This project has been made possible because of
an incredible collaboration between the people of Kauai and our
efforts to envision what was the right thing for this beautiful land.
- For 16 years I worked with A&B particularly
to help to foster the process of approvals.
All along, you know there are people always that are
naysayers you know and today to walk up to
this building and see that yes it is a
plantation styled building although it's plantation elegance.
It just takes money and there will be jobs continuing for our people
and our people will be appreciated
and their Aloha will be felt.
- My cousin Dylan is employed as a groundskeeper
at the private club Kukuiula.
It's non-union and he is constantly working.
It was difficult to find a free moment with him
that wasn't driving to and from work.
- Ketchup on it? - No.
- Are you sure? - No.
- He shares a basement studio with his wife and their daughter,
with another baby on the way.
They rotate work shifts between each other while taking care of Maeva.
- I kind of have like this, this year plan
just to get all my finances straight, like pay off my school loan.
Which I've been on top, I paid off medical bills within the last year.
Hopefully, by the end of the year I'll have some money put aside,
you know, just to kind of help pump me up to save more money.
- So you want to buy a house?
- Yeah. I mean, I really do want to buy a house,
but I don't know how the market is gonna be when I do have the money.
So...
The real estate is going up.
This is like home to me.
So, I'll put in the work for it.
- What are you going to do when you grow up,
and you get older, what you want to do?
- This is the boneyard.
This is one of the few skate parks on the island.
I had to cut my hair because I need to get a job.
It was my grandpa's idea.
Hey it was a good idea though.
I just got hired at the Brennecke's Deli,
so I'm pretty stoked about that job.
Honestly, I'm grateful very blessed to have that job,
so we are gonna see how it goes.
Kind of work that they have here on this island
is mostly service jobs,
where you have to serve other people,
which is hey, you know, it's good and all, but what about us?
Even if you're having a bad day you have to put on a smile.
You have to be nice, even when they're treating you rude,
you know, you have to be nice, smile.
That's what they tell you, smile just smile,
and it’s just like, OK, you know
they want us working here and they want us serving them.
Meth.
People do it because it's hard.
The lifestyle over here in Hawaii where it's work, work, work, and then you play.
But it's mostly work, you know.
I didn't know about any of that dude, until like,
I mean I kind of knew about it, like, a little bit but I didn't like ever see it.
but everyone fucking does it.
I hate to say it, but a lot of people do it.
A lot of people do it.
- Late at night,
I received a call from Mike Wong in a distraught state.
He had been recently fired from Smith's Tropical Paradise
for having an argument with the owner.
- Bob continued his Coco Palms Hotel tours
as the Hawaiian activists moved further into the property
after being removed from the original camp location.
They were determined to continue to restore the site,
but as soon as they got settled,
the hotel developer Tyler Greene once again called for their removal.
- We are here at Wailua.
This morning, 7:00, the family got waked up.
You're telling me that DLNR and KPD gotta come with this much muscle
and guns against civilians that has no weapons and no guns.
They pull this shit on us every fucking time.
Excuse my language, but right now,
the stakes are higher.
Us at Wailua, The Garden Island of Kauai
We're real pissed off an upset already.
Enough is enough.
- There are forces out there that don't want us to survive,
because our existence threatens directly their existence.
The fact that the Kingdom exists
takes away from the legitimacy of the corporation
that stole these lands.
- I was hoping that through my research I would find Lois Weber's 'Cane Fire'.
I was searching for a possible glimpse of my great grandfather.
He was just an extra, but outside the frame he was taking on the plantation.
I'll never see the climax of Weber's film
in which a plantation worker deliberately starts an out-of-control cane fire.
But after seeing Kauai today I began to imagine an island-wide revolt.
- Conversation really sparkles tonight dear.
- I find little to sparkle about.
- Anxious for bright lights, social life?
This is the best that Kauai has.
- Very lovely.
- Something wrong, Captain?
- Sounds pretty close.
- Might be a cane fire.
- A cane fire?
- Alright, gather around, gather around, thank you.
- But is that the Elvis room you told us about over there?
- No, it's not, the one you're looking for is over there.
The last one to the right.
- Bob, let's go check it out.
(MUSIC)
- Aloha, you mothers.
(MUSIC)
- No sense of moderation.
- Okay, Henry.
- When I first spent time with Henry for this film,
he drove me to his favorite lookout spot in the Waimea Canyon
he would often visit here with his wife, Cleo, before she died.
It was in this peaceful untouched place
that the family spread his ashes.
- All unions are on attack, politically.
And I don't think we have ever been attacked in this way before.
We'll probably end up going full circle
again and it won't be in my lifetime.
I mean I'll probably be dead and gone before that uprising starts again,
but it will start again.
- Has things really changed?
Largely no, they still control all this land.
An individual or a small group of individuals
own these humungous chunks of land.
(MUSIC)
- I'm very interested in film.
I think that what we create and put out into the universe
is very telling of who we are.
I don't think we should limit ourselves to Hollywood.
Elvis Presley like coming in on a canoe,
that's not real.
- The Native Hawaiian activists occupying Coco Palms
took their case to state court.
Knowing they stood no chance of winning within a legal system
that refused to acknowledge their rights to the land.
They chose to defend themselves without lawyers.
This at least gave them the chance to speak for themselves.
And to confront the developer, Tyler Greene, face to face.
- I'm here to assist everyone on this island in
protecting the island.
It's why I came here.
It's why I love Kauai.
It's why I love the spirit of aloha.
I'd like to touch on that actually, the spirit of aloha.
Met a very local Hawaiian family
and I remember getting in conversation.
With the woman.
And she said, "oh you're visiting our island?"
and I sheepishly said, "well, we actually, we moved here
and we're buying some land."
To my amazement this woman threw open her arms and said,
"oh you Kamaʻāina...welcome, welcome."
She put her arms around us, gave us a big warm hug,
and I said, "We are home."
This to me was true Aloha.
And I'll never forget it.
It's Kauai.
(MUSIC)