Hawaii International Film Festival 2009

In 1999 Hawaiian Music legend and documentary filmmaker Eddie Kamae visited the West Maui town of Lahaina, only to find that Pioneer Mill, the center of Lahaina's sugar industry, was closing down. Eddie knew that this signaled the end of Lahaina's plantation era--a simpler, more innocent time that he remembered fondly from the childhood summers he spent in the area visiting his grandmother. He knew that a change as momentous as this needed to be documented, so he immediately hired a crew to film the last harvest, the last cane burning, and the final days of operation at Pioneer Mill.

Thus began Eddie's eight-year journey though Lahaina's complex, tumultuous, and fascinating past. The result is a one-hour documentary of poetic beauty, rich history, and heartfelt emotion. Lahaina: Waves of Change takes us back to the beginnings of Lahaina's history as a sacred Hawaiian place, in a time when "high chiefs worked with heavenly beings."

This epic story is told in the intimate, highly personal style that is the hallmark of all of Eddie Kamae's films. It is told through his eyes, through interesting people he meets along his journey, and through his heart.