Chief of War, Part 2 - Flicks (2025)

Tell me of the outside world. It is strange. The pale skin honors no gods of the land. There will be coming soon. If this island is divided, this kingdom will fall. Chief of War is a nine-part series set in Hawaii during the period of time where the indigenous people fought the colonialists. Jason Mimoa, executive produced and stars in it. I talked to him about what it meant to him and now I talked to the supporting players about what it means to them. The land is very much uh part of the family. It's a part of the community and we see ourselves as caretakers and descendants of the land. So, it really is like it's the main character. Yes. you had an opportunity to create characters in an environment that I would assume enhanced your ability to believe in the characters especially when you know we we live in a time where it's been developed so much and you know you move the camera a couple inches and like oh there's building that was one of the challenges for sure in terms of the locations but what really helped us was to suspend our reality and imagine what took place on these lands before you know all the wars that existed. You can really feel it. Like Hawaii is such a spiritual place. You could feel the love and the care and the way that it had been written and the way that the characters came to life on the page. And that only happens when the creatives behind it truly believe in that's a fair thing in the story that they're telling. You're right. We're not creating characters. We are allowing space for actual ancestors that still exist to tell their story through us. So it's really just being being open to uh being an open vessel to let them do the work. What extent do you feel like you have an obligation be as close to reality or not? Honoring all of our kuna, all of our elders from this story that our language and then our culture, they're all interwoven and really cannot be showcased without every component, every move that I had made. came from in my opinion coming from my kuna came from my people. These kuna are not only here right now in this space with us in that sense. Um they also have living descendants. Many of us descend from these ancestors. So they're real on that sense too in in a very real and physical way. So yes, we're creating a show on on screen, but we're we're living in the world that these ancestors still live in. Thank you very much. I do appreciate you sharing all of that. Thank you. Great questions. Yes. Thank you so much. Flicks with Patrick Stoner explores the craft and culture of film making that enhance our communities for television stations and websites around the country. [Music]