Filmmaker Statement: This film was shot on the Big Island of Hawaii during our first vacation with our nearly 2-year old daughter. I’d come across the beautiful poem “Hawaiian Love Song” by Kleber Wing some time before and was struck by how visual it was.

I knew I wanted to use it as the narrative base for a film. The poem was written sometime around 1947, but very little information is available about its author. While the poem seems like a meditation on Hawaii’s natural wonders, I’ve come to believe it is about the loss of a loved one. Still, I felt the beauty and simplicity of the words left room for interpretation. With that, I wanted my film to be a narrative about new life rather than loss. Playing off of an old cliche (message in a bottle), I used vivid imagery, time-shifting, and a narrative focused on our daughter’s first experiences of Hawaii, to create a film focused on hope rather than loss. Experimental film (2022).