Independent Lens
Belly of the Beast
In California’s women prisons, incarcerated people who were sterilized without their consent fight for justice.
Lucky We Live Hawaii
Native Hawaiians confront modern-day displacement and a historic legacy of disenfranchisement as seen through three connecting stories.
- Length
- 60 minutes
- Funding Initiative
- Open Call
Producer/Director
Ciara Leinaʻala Lacy
Ciara Leina`ala Lacy is an Emmy Award-nominated filmmaker whose Native Hawaiian identity drives the intimacy and authenticity in her work. Her films have shown at Sundance and Berlinale as well as on Netflix, PBS, ABC, Al Jazeera, and the Criterion Collection, and her portfolio includes documentary, animation, and narrative content.
- Other ITVS Films
- Out of State
Producer/Director
Christen Hepuakoa Marquez
Christen is a mixed race Native Hawaiian filmmaker who creates films that spark empathy and bridge communities. Her work has been featured on Netflix, Disney+, Discovery, Nat Geo, PBS, CNN, Oxygen, and NBC Universal, garnering two Emmy Awards and a Peabody nomination. She aims to incite action, change systems, educate, and catalyze justice.
- Other ITVS Films
- Belly of the Beast
- E Haku Inoa: To Weave a Name
We fund untold stories for public media.
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The Film
Lucky We Live Hawaii tells the connecting stories of Native Hawaiians resisting displacement. Due to the increased cost of living attributed to tourism and an influx of newcomers, they are leaving their ancestral homelands in record numbers. Native Hawaiian experts and academics probe this issue further, chronicling a history of economic marginalization that led to current challenges. Historian DeSoto Brown explains that the exodus of his people is rooted in greed and systemic racial inequalities tied to the pursuit of capital gain over 130 years ago.
The film uses archival footage and data, weaving together this historical reckoning with modern-day portraits. Through three personal stories that connect the past to the present, a paradigm of Native Hawaiian self-determination and power emerges from overcoming systemic challenges.
