There are a lot of ways to be the right storyteller for something.

"Weve been here since about 3:30am this morning.

And they're about to dispatch police officers."

Sometimes it's a cultural connection.

"I love our community; everybody knows everybody here."

Sometimes it's an emotional connection.

"Thats only in the past Dad.

We gotta look forward."

Sometimes it's an experiential connection.

It's about transforming and giving ourselves permission to tell any story.

Hi!

- Hello!

Hi!

Are you guys in Hilo?

- Uh Waimea on the Big Island.

Oh that makes sense!

My name is Ciara Lacy.

Im a Kanaka Maoli filmmaker.

- Where are you at right now?

Um, I'm in Portland right now.

But I wish I was in Waimea!

I live part-time in Portland and part-time in Honolulu.

It's hard to distill what part of you is Hawaiian, when it just is.

I grew up in Mililani on Oahu.

It's a flat plane in the middle of the island.

The borders of our town were pineapple fields and banana fields.

I grew up in a really Chinese Hawaiian household.

My mother and my auntie had a Lei sewing business.

And as kids, we picked flowers.

I just spent a lot of time outside, ran around barefoot all the time, and then really just enjoying what it meant to be home, but also never questioning it ‘cause it's all you know.

My dream was to write.

That was what I really wanted to do.

It was my dream, but not a dream I felt like was a real one partially because the stories that I saw weren't about being Hawaiian.

And so, I graduated from college with a degree in psychology and I couldn't get a job and I wasn't sure what to do.

And I took $2,000 and a credit card and I moved to New York.

And I just bounced around.

I sold hot dogs at Central Park and I taught the SATs to pay the bills so I could intern for free Went to work in documentary and then found out that I was actually working in reality.

I lost my job.

I ended up getting really sick and um, ended up finding myself back at home.

While I was in recovery, I had an auntie who mentioned this story of our Kanaka Maoli men dancing hula in a prison in Arizona.

The idea of our cultural practice behind bars was such a horrific metaphor for colonization.

And, I just had this crazy thought that we could heal each other.

"I think I had to go to the ends of the Earth and hit bottom to really find out who I was."

Being able to make that film, like it was a really powerful experience.

After we finished "Out Of State" I was tired.

But it's hard to also step away from what you're connected to.

"If it doesn't bring a tear to your eye, if it doesn't conjure a memory, the poem's useless to me."

My latest short film, "This is the Way We Rise" was meant to be about the creative process of a slam poet.

Then when the protection of Mauna Kea erupted, we shifted the story.

"I watched as thirty became one hundred.

Then one hundred became a thousand.

Then a thousand became us all."

That film became something I never intended.

"Lacy is the first Native Hawaiian woman to have her work screened at the Sundance film festival."

A platform like Sundance, I could have never anticipated that, but it's not because of me, right?

It's because of us.

The moment that we're in for Hawaiian cinema, for Kanaka Maoli cinema, I am wowed.

There are so many incredible filmmakers kicking out really crazy good work, and I'm excited for the future.

This isn't just a fad or a fashion.

This is a shift in perspective and there's so much more work to be done.