The Hawaiʻi International Film Festival kicks off on Wednesday, Oct. 21, in downtown Honolulu.
The theme for 2026 is “Voyagers & Visionaries,” and set to have its world premiere at the Hawaii Theatre is the film “The Navigator,” as told through the eyes of Hawaiʻi’s Nainoa Thompson.
Thomspon is the CEO of the Polynesian Voyaging Society who studied the tradition of wayfinding under master navigator Mau Piailug.
To learn more about the documentary, HPR spoke with director Jordan Manley and producer Kathy Muneno, who also happens to be married to Thompson.
Thanks to a partnership with Patagonia and years of effort, the film was finally able to come to fruition, she told HPR.
“What we wanted to do was a film about the deep connection of human and nature that is a navigator,” Muneno explained.
“It talks about what Mau talked about … which is the magic, and that can only happen when you get into that deepest part of a connection with nature.”
For Manley, capturing that connection on film could only be done from a place of reverence and respect.
“I approached the story with a lot of caution and a profound amount of respect for the tradition that I came to learn more about,” he told HPR.
“So that was just an incredible honor, really, to be a part of those and do my best to capture what happens out there,” he continued. “A lot of the navigation is invisible. It's what's going on in the navigator's mind.”
More information about the film and the rest of the HIFF lineup can be found here.
This story aired on The Conversation on Oct. 19, 2026. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Jinwook Lee adapted this story for the web.
