Hi! My name is Ryan and I grew up in Wai'anae, but I went to Kamehameha High School. I didn't transfer from any community college. If I was an artist's tool, I would be a sketch pad because there's so much you could make out of it. For myself, I have a sketch pad with a few drawings but mostly notes and some doodles. Others could have drawings or paintings in them, which I'd want to get back into some day. But like any type of book or canvas, it's totally up to you what you make it.
Accurately representing Hawaiian culture has long posed challenges for creative professionals in the islands. Relaying native stories and depicting the community on screen bears major responsibility. However, many obstacles emerge throughout this process, from technical difficulties to issues of precision or authenticity, which stand to greatly shape what audiences glean. Still, each creative professional offers their own insight on this challenge and approach to the duty of respectfully incorporating Hawaiian culture into their work. This documentary spotlights select vantages on the topic—the outlooks and commentary of professionals in the field.
The concept of creativity has come a long way. The Old Greeks would call those creative forces muses, other religions referred to them as God. Today people still mostly treat creativity as an aha moment outside the area of influence. However, just by looking at the creative process one can tell, that creativity and creative work is more than just that one "Aha-Moment" (insight). It is clear that generating ideas demands planning and preparation, identifying something of interest like a problem, an opportunity or a challenge, doing research. This then leads to thinking of a solution, allowing time to incubate and iterations before arriving at something “complete.” Students learn that hard work is what makes their ideas come to life and sticktuiveness is what helps them get better.