Leonelle Anderson Akana

This hour-long documentary is a provocative look at a historical event of which few Americans are aware. In mid-January, 1893, armed troops from the U.S.S Boston landed at Honolulu in support of a treasonous coup d’état against the constitutional sovereign of the Hawaiian Kingdom, Queen Lili‘uokalani. The event was described by U.S. President Grover Cleveland as an "act of war."

This 1995 film by Tom Coffman chronicles the history of the Hawaiʻi from arrival of the first Polynesian explorers through the establishment of four separate kingdoms on Kauaʻi, Oʻahu, Maui and Hawaiʻi to the formation of one kingdom encompassing all islands. Featured in the film is Kumu John Keola Lake sharing stories and chant, artist Herb Kāne and author and scholar Rubellite Kawena Johnson.