LAHAINA: VOICES OF CHANGE w/ KŪKULU

On August 8, 2023, the devastating Lahaina wildfire claimed more than 100 lives, displaced thousands, and destroyed much of the historic West Maui town. One year later, award-winning Native Hawaiian filmmaker Ty Sanga turns his lens toward the quieter, deeply personal work of what comes next. Distinct from last year’s award-winning LAHAINA RISING, Sanga’s latest documentary is rooted more intimately in a Kanaka Maoli perspective, focusing not on the scale of the disaster but on the small steps toward healing: reflection, reconnection, rebirth, and what might be understood as a “second succession.” Once the capital of the Hawaiian Kingdom, Lahaina remains an ancestral homeland whose future raises urgent questions about who will return, who can remain, and what rebuilding truly means. Through intimate community perspectives, the film considers recovery not simply as reconstruction, but as an opportunity to restore relationships to ʻāina, culture, and one another, ensuring that Lahaina’s next chapter remains rooted in the people and histories that have always defined it.