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Kumu Hula

Directed & Produced by: Andy Lampard

Stage: Post Production
Location: Hawaii, United States
Updated: December 1, 2025
Project Type: Feature
Project Style: Observational
Theme Subject: Art and Artists, Indigenous, Social / Cultural

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Logline

Spanning 8 watershed years in Hawai’i’s history, including the pandemic and the Lāhāina wildfire, the “Michael Jordan of Hula” teaches his ancestral dance style to a group of young men from the state’s poorest city. Together, they chase a decade-long dream of triumph on the world’s biggest stage, even as they grapple with personal heartbreaks and learn to transform profound loss into resilience.

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Synopsis

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Background

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Participants

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Participant

La'akea Perry

Kumu Hula, Ke Kai O Kahiki / Story Protagonist

As the story’s protagonist, La’akea aims to keep his hula lineage alive while empowering his students through the relentless gauntlet of the Merrie Monarch journey. This odyssey echoes La’akea’s own story. He was discovered by Ke Kai O Khaki’s founding kumu, O’Brian Eselu, while he was dancing for Don Ho’s Waikiki show in the early 1990’s. Although La’akea had only just started dancing, O’Brian could see that he possessed prodigious talent. In fact, he had never encountered a student who so quickly grasped Ke Kai O Kahiki’s notoriously difficult style.

After making La’akea his alakai (lead student), O’Brian mentored him for 20 years, passing his knowledge to him and ultimately choosing him as his successor to lead Ke Kai O Kahiki when he died in 2011. Since then, with the help of his wife, Brandy, and their three children, La’akea has been trying to elevate his dancers to the heights he reached with O’Brian while keeping his hula free. But, having won every hula competition there is, he knows that taking home a Merrie Monarch trophy feels meaningless compared to the journey it requires. He dangles Merrie Monarch glory as a carrot, enticing them into a year-long crucible that develops discipline, perseverance, and humility. Those are the trophies he is after.

Part of La’akea’s mystique is that he is the descendant of Samuel Pua Ha’aheo, an historic figure in Hawai’i who was instrumental in saving hula when it was forced underground following the United States’ overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom in 1893. La’akea is unique in that he is the purveyor of two styles of hula — Ke Kai O Kahiki’s style, as well as Ha’aheo’s style — meaning he is responsible for their practice and continuation. Part of his journey is about searching for a worthy student to pass his knowledge onto, as O’Brian did in choosing him, or they will disappear forever.

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Participant

Tusi Taufa

Lead Dancer

Tusi, the hālau’s loveable lead dancer, and also its lead rascal. A natural-born entertainer of Tongan ethnicity, he has a special way with audiences, but his jovial stage presence belies his intense competitiveness. Growing up as a Tongan minority in the state, he often felt unaccepted by Hawaiian hula dancers. He joined Ke Kai O Kahiki to prove that a Tongan could dance hula as well if not better than an Hawaiian could. His ultimate goal is to win a trophy for La’akea, his hero, before he ages out of competitive dancing.

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Participant

Maka'ala Perry

Dancer / La'akea's daughter

Maka’ala is La’akea’s daughter and, at the start of the fillm, Ke Kai O Kahiki’s sole female dancer. Despite growing up watching her father dance for Ke Kai O Kahiki, Maka’ala only embraced hula a few years ago. She used to associate all of hula with Ke Kai O Kahiki’s intensely masculine style, which never resonated with her. Her opinion changes during the pandemic when she falls in love with hula after learning Pua Ha’aheo’s style from Merrie Monarch judge, Noenoe Zuttermeister, who is her hula professor at the University of Hawai’i. Finally, hula is speaking to her through her ancestral lineage. With her father as her kumu, she decides to enter the Miss Aloha Hula competition, a bold movie considering most dancers spend years honing their craft before entering Merrie Monarch. But can she learn her ancestor’s style in time to properly honor his legacy?

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Participant

Julian Maeva

Dancer

If Tusi is the hālau’s class clown, Julian is its stoic warrior who dutifully follows La’ake’as direction while quietly leading by example. Outside of hālau, Julian is married and the devoted father of four boys, two of whom are born during the film’s timeframe. Half-Samoan, he works as a professional fire knife dancer at Paradise Cove, a tourist luau that O’Brian started and La’akea currently directs. By having one foot planted in traditional hula and the other in tourist hula, Julian embodies the neocolonial divide that so many dancers must straddle while making a living from hula.

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Participant

Aukai Sullivan

Dancer

When we first meet Aukai, he’s a timid and shy 19 year-old who barely utters a word in practice. But over the course of the film, he transforms into La’akea’s lead male dancer and becomes, along with Maka’ala, its future. Originally from the remote island of Molokai, Aukai made his first Merrie Monarch line when he was still in high school, but he dropped out of hula the following year after suffering from depression during his freshman year in college. When the hālau reassembles in 2021, La’akea asks Aukai to return. Aukai initially struggles with his self-confidence, choosing to hide in the shadows of his bigger, louder hālau brothers. After the fallout of the 2021 competition, Aukai must conquer his doubt about his hula abilities to help train La’akea’s new guard. Is he ready to lead the hālau into a new era?

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Participant

Kaena Keiki

Dancer

Kaena is La’akea’s most experienced dancer, whom he relies upon the most to help train promising new students, like Aukai. Born and raised on Hawaiian homestead land in Waianae, Kaena is the last of his family to still be living in the state. Like so many Hawaiian families fractured by Hawaii’s exorbitant cost of living, they were forced to move to the mainland. When the hālau reassembles in the pandemic, Kaena is grief-stricken over his father’s recent death from Covid and is struggling with loneliness and despair. He tries to make hula his outlet, but his world seems drained of joy and color. He no longer knows why or for whom he’s dancing. Eventually, Kaena is forced to examine whether his hula journey as a dancer is over, and if it is not, whether he will be able to summon what it takes for one last dance.

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Participant

Brandy Perry

Hālau mom / La'akea's wife

Brandy fell in love with La’akea when they were teenagers working for Don Ho’s Waikiki luau show in the early 1990’s — long before he became known as the “Michael Jordan of Hula.” Married for 30 years, they have three grown children, including Maka’ala, but all of the dancers treat her like a mother. Brandy has worked as a flight attendant for Hawaiian Airlines since her 20’s while also juggling operations for the hālau and running businesses on the side to cover Ke Kai O Kahiki’s expenses. When the hālau is unable to fundraise during the pandemic, Brandy starts up a sherbet company out of the hālau’s studio so that the hālau can stay afloat. When the business becomes successful, the hālau is able to recruit and develop a new, young crop of dancers and to start a wahine (women’s) line led by Maka’ala. Over the course of the film, Brandy steps out from behind-the-scenes to help La'akea heal and unify the hālau once and for all.

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Style & Tone

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Team

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Team

Andy Lampard

Director & Producer

Andrew (Andy) Lampard specializes in cinematic non-fiction, creating independent documentaries and journalism, as well as commercials and videos for brands. A dual US/Canadian citizen, his recent clients include Amazon, Atlas Obscura, PBS Nature, Gartner, Washington Post Creative Group, and Subaru, among others. He's also directing a feature-length film that follows a school of hula dancers on the West coast of O'ahu over the course of several years. Prior to forming Studio Koa, Andrew worked as a producer for Great Big Story, which he joined in 2015. Before that, he worked as a staff producer for ABC News and Reuters. Andrew is based in Victoria, British Columbia, but often works in New York City, where he lived for 13 years.

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Team

Farhod Family

Director / Producer / Cinematographer

Farhod got his start in media in Iran, covering the country's 2009 presidential elections. Since then he's filmed, produced and directed documentaries and commercials across the world for various media outlets and brands. Prior to forming Studio Koa, he was a staff producer and cinematographer for CNN's Great Big Story. His work has also appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, PBS Frontline, CNN, and Fusion, among other outlets. Fluent in French and Farsi, he is a dual citizen of Iran and the United States. He holds a bachelor’s degree in history and French from the University of Hawai'i and a master’s degree from Columbia University’s School of Journalism.

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Leland James

Editor

Leland James was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. Currently based in Brooklyn, he has been editing feature documentaries for nearly 20 years. Some of the films he has worked on include The Fix, a documentary he shot and edited about recovering heroin addicts enrolled in a storytelling program with the Moth, which premiered at AFI fest and won best documentary at the Soho International Film Festival. On The Way Home, a documentary he edited about Georgian refugees, premiered at Slamdance and won best documentary, best cinematography and best editing at LA Doc fest. Black Girls, a film that he edited about several black female activists, debuted on Peacock and played at Tribeca X. In Hell With Ivo, a film he edited about celebrated Bulgarian conceptual artist and pop star Ivo Dimchev, premiered at the Munich Doc Fest this year, and just won the special jury award at the Sarajevo Film Festival.

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Team

Joann Park

Producer

Joann Park is an award-winning content leader, audience strategist, and community builder based in Los Angeles. Over the last decade, Joann has built and led world-class audience development teams at renowned brands like CNNs Great Big Story, MTV, Paramount, Headspace, and more. Joann has a passion for helping brands understand their audiences and help them meet them where they are. Due to her unique background in analytics and communication, her expertise is generating an actionable strategy using data by painting a clear picture of what numbers reveal. Joann uses interdisciplinary research methods to tell a story in a clear digestible way that empowers her stakeholders to take action. She has done this for renowned brands across functions, from editorial to product, social media marketing to subscription-based products. From audience activation, conversion, and retention strategies, she ensures a holistic approach that optimizes each stage of the audience funnel.

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Jonathan O'Beirne

Producer / Camera Operator

Jonathan O'Beirne is an Emmy award-winning producer and shooter. Jonathan has shot a variety of commercial and documentary projects domestically and abroad. He has worked as a Director of Photography and Camera Operator on docs and series for Amazon, Netflix, and CNN, as well as, producing awarding-winning shorts for Great Big Story. He currently resides in Maryland and shoots fulltime as a CNN Photojournalist.

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Duy Linh Tu

Executive Producer

Duy Linh Tu is a journalist and documentary filmmaker focusing on education, science and social justice. His work has appeared in print and online, on television and in theaters. He is also author of Feature and Narrative Storytelling for Multimedia Journalists (Focal Press). He teaches reporting and video storytelling courses at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Duy is the proud Vice-Chair of the Video Consortium's Board of Directors.

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Team

Lauran Bromley

Executive Producer

Lauran was born in Hawaii and studied at the University of Southern California, majoring in film and minoring in business. Lauran was an Executive Producer for Mariska Hargitay's documentary MY MOM JAYNE, as well as her Emmy winning documentary I AM EVIDENCE which revealed the justice system's failure to process hundreds of thousands of rape kits from sexual assault victims. This documentary also won numerous other awards. Lauran also was an Executive Producer for A Tree of Life, Pay it or Die, Emanuel, Hot To Trot, and Drift (starring Cynthia Erivo).

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Team

Michael Fequiere

Camera Operator

Michael Fequiere is an award-winning filmmaker, photographer and producer. His short films have screened in numerous festivals worldwide (TIFF, AFI Docs, CPH-DOX, PBS, IDFA, Blackstar). In 2017 he won the FOX Inclusion Emerging Artist Award in Documentary for his short film KOJO. His photos have appeared in the hip-hop magazine XXL and on music websites including Popcrush and Loudwire. Michael has worked as a producer, director and photographer at Townsquare Media, a digital media agency where he made branded content videos featuring Janelle Monae, Jidenna, Joey Badass, Nipsey Hussle and more. He currently works as a Producer at CNN's Great Big Story, a video network dedicated to cinematic storytelling on short-form documentaries from around the world.

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Tobi Nova

Sound Recordist

Tobi Nova is a motion picture sound editor, audio engineer, composer, and sound designer. He has a background in classical music composition, audio production, film directing, and audio forensics. Tobi is known for collecting sounds and using them in his music compositions. He combines traditional instrumentation, electronic instruments, found sounds, and world music.

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Budget

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Kumu Hula

Logline

Clips

Participants

La'akea Perry

Tusi Taufa

Maka'ala Perry

Julian Maeva

Aukai Sullivan

Kaena Keiki

Brandy Perry

Team

Andy Lampard

Farhod Family

Leland James

Joann Park

Jonathan O'Beirne

Duy Linh Tu

Lauran Bromley

Michael Fequiere

Tobi Nova

Budget

Grants & Awards

Stills

Our Ask