A DOCUMENTARY ABOUT PARADISE

Shaka Film Media Kit

"SHAKA, A Story of Aloha" is an 80-minute feature-length global quest to unravel the mysteries of the Shaka gesture from Japan's temples to Brazil's waves to Hawaii's white sandy beaches. Discover why it ignites pride in train-jumpers, surfers, and everyday adventurers alike, explore its origins and meanings, and learn how it holds the key to creating and preserving paradise.

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Media Contact: Steve Sue, producer/writer | steve[at]id8.org | (808) 220-6449 | @histevesue

Trailer

Logline

Everybody knows the Shaka. But where did it come from, what does it really mean, and how did a simple Hawaiʻi hand gesture conquer the world? What begins as a playful cultural “who dunnit” becomes a 100-year journey through surfers, soldiers, entertainers, politicians, Buddhism, plantation history, and the small community of Laʻie—where the pieces finally come together around a remarkable Hawaiian fisherman named Hamana Kalili. Along the way, the search for the Shaka’s origins reveals something far greater than who started it: the power of aloha and the secret to creating your own paradise.

Plot Summary

Everybody knows the Shaka. But where did it come from, what does it really mean, and how did a simple hand gesture from Hawaiʻi conquer the world?

Filmmaker Steve Sue sets out to solve the mystery, gathering years of research, photographs, archival records, and interviews onto a giant “who dunnit” crime board for Aunty Kela Miller, a Laʻie elder who insists the real story begins in her small North Shore community. What starts as a playful investigation soon becomes a journey spanning more than a century of Hawaiʻi history.

Steve first follows the Shaka through the many people who helped make it famous. Hawaiʻi soldiers use it to build trust in war zones. Television turns it into a statewide symbol. Surfers carry it around the globe. Elvis Presley flashes it before millions. Mayor Frank Fasi adopts it as his political signature, while entertainer and master promoter Lippy Espinda helps popularize the word “Shaka.”

But each answer leads Steve further back in time.

The word itself leads to Japan, where Shaka has for centuries referred to Shakyamuni Buddha, and Buddhist hand gestures carry meanings including the powerful message “fear not.” The physical gesture leads elsewhere—to Laʻie and Hamana Kalili, a revered Hawaiian fisherman and community leader who lost three middle fingers, leaving him with the distinctive hand that generations of Laʻie residents remember as the genesis of their familiar wave.

As Steve uncovers Hamana’s extraordinary life of courage, service, generosity, and leadership, the investigation shifts. The mystery is no longer simply about who created a gesture. It becomes a search for the values that gave the gesture its meaning.

The trail leads to Laʻie’s historic hukilau, where Hamana and an entire community worked together to pull fishing nets from the sea, feed one another, welcome visitors, and transform limited resources into something extraordinary. The hukilau becomes a living metaphor for aloha: everyone has a role, and everyone must pull together.

Returning to his crime board, Steve finally sees the whole picture. Hamana, Laʻie, Buddhism, entertainers, politicians, surfers, soldiers, television, and generations of ordinary people all contributed different pieces to what the world now knows as the Shaka.

The investigation that began with “Who invented the Shaka?” ends with a much bigger discovery.

The Shaka is more than a gesture. It represents connection, service, gratitude, courage, cooperation, and the willingness to fear not and go for it. And the people of Laʻie reveal the film’s ultimate lesson: paradise isn’t simply a beautiful place we’re lucky enough to find.

Paradise is something we create together. Paradise is a choice.

Backstory

Says producer/writer Steve Sue, "Our original goal was to produce a 20-minute short for classroom use but the story turned out to be bigger than anyone could have imagined. In the end, we discovered the Shakaʻs magic and how itʻs the secret to creating and maintaining paradise." He continues, "If you want to know how to throw a truly legit Shaka or how to create paradise in your corner of the world, watch this film."

After an award-winning run through global film festivals and winning the coveted People Choice Award at Hawai'i International Film Festival, the film was up by Byron Allen's Freestyle Media Group. On January 16, 2026, the film became available on wide On Demand streaming distribution services including Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Fandango, YouTube Movies, Google Movies and some months later on Kanopy. picked distribution, hopefully on streaming channels and possibly in cinemas. It has been in production since 2019 when first-funding and cultural experts were provided by Kamehameha Schools. During production, the COVID Pandemic forced a 2-year hiatus, but the project continued in 2022 with epic shots including the one-time running of an authentic Hukilau expedition that had not run in 60 years and the worldʻs first-ever Shaka Contest.

Through the production, it became clear that there are many origin stories, thus multiple theories are presented in the film, allowing audiences to decide which theory they find most credible. Says Sue, "The titling of the film as 'A Story...' represents only our group's intent to present multiple origin stories, as several origin stories have evidence and testimony available. This leaves room for each audience member to decide for themself which story they favor as well as for other storytellers to present their own versions of the story." Sue continues, "The more important thing for our team is providing a deep understanding of the meaning of it and how it can be used to share aloha and create paradise around the world."

While the film was originally intended as a non-profit education piece, there are now prospects for it to be distributed in public entertainment channels. Says Sue, "There are no investors to the film and none of us as producers own any part of it, so any distribution proceeds will go to our non-profit to support Shaka-based programs that benefit Hawai’i and the world beyond."

The Global Aloha Movement

Even before release of the film, the publicʻs appetite for the story has resulted in several Shaka-based programs, now recognized as Project Shaka, a movement that includes the documentary, a free Shaka Decal program, a Hawai’i State Bill to recognize the Shaka as the official Hawai’i State Gesture (authored by Steve Sue, filed by Senator Glenn Wakai and Representative Sean Quinlan, signed into law by Gov Green, 2024), an official Hawai’i State DMV Shaka License Plate (went live 2024), and curriculum models that teach the values and uses of the Shaka. In turn, Project Shaka is now part of a larger, movement called Global Aloha. See GlobalAloha.org »

For more, see Filmmaker's Statement »