The Hawaiʻi International Film Festival will be returning at the end of October, and one of the local films making its premiere is a short documentary titled “Pili Hou: Finding Helen.”
The 15-minute film captures the journey of Diane Ako as she searches for traces of her great-grandmother, Helen Maliu, who mysteriously disappeared one day in 1900.
Ako is a former journalist from Oʻahu and is the narrator and producer of the film, and she worked together with fellow producer and director Martha Shade to share her story with the world.
HPR’s Catherine Cluett Pactol spoke with the two filmmakers about their journey, and where it eventually led them — Kalaupapa.
“It was exciting, and it was more emotional than I expected,” Ako said, reflecting on the moment she was finally able to travel to Molokaʻi to learn more about her great-grandmother.
“I was really looking forward to seeing the buildings where she lived or the churches that she may have gone to, because there's a lot we don't know.”
What made the voyage particularly meaningful for Ako was being able to bring her daughter along to learn about her family’s history.
“The idea of being torn from your children and being torn from your ʻohana like that is the heart of this movie,” Shade told HPR.
“Somebody who, two generations on, still cares and still wonders about her ancestor and wants to make peace with that and wants to find her and find her story — that's what this is all about.”
“Pili Hou: Finding Helen” is scheduled to premiere at the Hawaiʻi International Film Festival on Oct. 31, 2026. More information about ticketing and screenings can be found here.
This story aired on The Conversation on Sept. 30, 2026. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Jinwook Lee adapted this story for the web.
