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'Ulu'ulu 2025 Year in Review

December 31, 2025 Tisha Aragaki

ʻUluʻulu 2025 Year In Review

As Hawaiʻi’s official moving image archive, ʻUluʻulu continues its kuleana to preserve and share the stories that shape who we are. In 2025, the archive strengthened its role as both a cultural repository and public resource—supporting filmmakers, educators, students, and communities while ensuring Hawaiʻi’s audiovisual history remains accessible for generations to come.

A major milestone this year was ʻUluʻulu’s success at the Hawaiʻi State Legislature, resulting in increased recognition and support for its vital work.This affirmed the value of sustained investment in preservation, access, and education, and reinforced ʻUluʻulu’s importance as a resource across the pae ʻāina. Additional highlights included new acquisitions, continued progress in digital preservation, increased visibility through film and television premieres, and expanded community outreach and professional development. Together, these efforts reflect a year defined by collaboration, impact, and a renewed commitment to mālama Hawaiʻi’s moving image history.

The year also brought a moment of reflection with the passing of Tom Coffman, a respected journalist, author, historian, and filmmaker whose work profoundly shaped understanding of Hawaiʻi’s modern history. A longtime advocate for truth-telling and historical accountability, Tom’s contributions—many preserved at ʻUluʻulu—continue to inform and inspire. ʻUluʻulu honors his legacy with deep gratitude.

Wishing you all a Happy New Year!

New Acquisitions and Collections

Our work would not be possible without the generosity of our collection donors who share their films and videotapes for researcher access and viewing. In 2025, we welcomed several new collections that highlight Hawai‘i’s unique stories.

Hawai‘i Visitors and Convention Bureau

This collection contains videotapes, motion picture film reels, photographs and slides of marketing material from various advertisement campaigns produced in the 1970s and 1980s by the Hawai‘i Visitors & Convention Bureau (formerly the Hawaiʻi Visitors Bureau).

Richard Hamasaki

This collection contains the 30-minute documentary film “Circus Hawaii” directed and produced by Richard Hamasaki with filmmaker Makoto Ishikawa, filmed in 1978-1979 and completed in 1980. The film is about Hawaii’s international 3-ring circus and crew.

Hawaiian Natural History

This new acquisition of the Hawai‘i Educational Film collection contains films from the 1982 documentary series “Evolutionary Biology of the Hawaiian Islands,” co-produced by the University of Hawai‘i and the British Broadcasting Corporation.

David H. Kalama Jr.

This collection contains programs on Hawaiian and Polynesian culture produced by filmmaker David H. Kalama Jr., president of Kalama Productions. Programs include: King Kamehameha traditional hula and chant competition; the 6th Festival of Pacific Arts Rarotonga, Cook Islands; Mahina project; Rocky Jensen project; and Native Son: Senator Daniel Akaka.

Noboru Taketa Family

This collection contains videotape recordings of Buddhist lectures that took place at the Buddhist Study Center and the Honpa Hongwanji in the 1990s-2000s. The programs were produced by Noboru Taketa and were broadcast on Ōlelo Community Media public access television.

Titus Chan

This collection contains television cooking shows hosted by local celebrity chef Titus Chan and which aired in the 1980s and 1990s on various local stations and on national PBS stations. Programs include Aloha China, Art of Chanese Cooking, and Cooking the Chan-ese Way.

Honolulu Museum of Art

This collection contains audiovisual materials originally collected and held in the HoMA Archives at the Honolulu Museum of Art. Films include Hula Ho‘olaule‘a: Traditional Dances of Hawai‘i (1961) performed by ‘Iolani Luahine and directed by Francis Haar.

Digital Preservation

This was an incredibly busy year for digitization at ‘Ulu‘ulu. We digitized 966 analog reels, 559 hours of footage, and created 37.46 TB of digital preservation files. This work was generously supported by several grants and awards in partnership with these organizations.

Alaka‘ina Foundation

Our work continues to preserve the Hawaiian Legacy Foundation Eddie and Myrna Kamae collection and with support from the Alaka‘ina Foundation we launched a project in 2025 to digitize 487 videotapes, films, and audio recordings related to the music and films produced by Eddie and Myrna Kamae.

American Archive of Public Broadcasting

‘Ulu‘ulu contributed nearly 1,500 videotapes from the PBS Hawai‘i collection to be digitized through this collaboration between the Library of Congress and GBH to preserve and make accessible historically significant public radio and television programming that has aired over the past 70+ years.

Council on Library & Information Resources (CLIR) Recordings at Risk

In 2025 ‘Ulu‘ulu embarked on the Digitization of Hawaiʻi Regional Broadcast News 1970-1981 project to digitize and preserve 403 local television newsreels from the 1970s that chronicle the Hawaiian Renaissance, a period of profound cultural and political resurgence, and document Kanaka ʻŌiwi-led movements for land and water rights, cultural revitalization, and social justice.

National Endowment for the Humanities

We completed work for the 20th Century Hawaiʻi: Moving Images from Territory to Statehood project which sheds light on how the path to statehood took on varying degrees of reactions and repercussions for the Native Hawaiian and Japanese American populations in Hawaiʻi. We digitized and cataloged over 655 hours of footage from 986 audiovisual items, creating 73TB of digital preservation masters.

Office of Hawaiian Affairs

OHA supported this project to digitize and describe 200 analog reels to be made publicly available online through ‘Ulu‘ulu’s Recollect catalog and OHA’s Papakilo Database. Over 71 hours of digitized films include local news magazine programs from the 1970s, agricultural operations and harvesting at sugar plantations on Maui and Oʻahu, and documentation of Reinstated Hawaiian Government and Protect Kahoʻolawe ʻOhana activities.

Highlight Reel

Click to watch our 2025 Highlight Reel!

Television and Film Premieres

Every year brings us new opportunities to work with filmmakers, media students and other researchers. We are grateful for the chance to help those looking for archival footage to use in new projects and for research purposes. Below is a list of television and film premieres highlights for this year. We look forward to more in the coming year!

In Hawaiian Hands: the story of Reggae in Hawaii (Produced by Jesse Macadangdang for PBS Hawaiʻi)
Ono! Hawaiʻi’s Food Culture: Saimin (Produced by Faron Jove for PBS Hawaiʻi)
A Paradise Lost (Produced by Anne Misawa, Laurie Sumiye. Directed by Laurie Sumiye)
Mālama Mākua (Produced by Mikey Inouye)
George Tahara: A Legend of Hawaiʻi (Produced by ʻUluʻulu)

Community Outreach

Our staff took part in outreach events and programs with a rich blend of audiences, from high school classes to high-level professionals. We connected and shared our work with hundreds of people at these events in 2025:

Virtual Orientations for UHWO new students and for classes
University of Hawai’i at Manoa class orientations and tours
“ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi: Access, Preservation & Challenges in Historical Repositories,” the Association of Hawaiʻi Archivists Annual Meeting, February 2025
International Indigenous Librarians’ Forum (IILF) – June 2025
Summer Reading Challenge Film Screenings at Kahuku Public and School Library and The Hawaiʻi State Library
Kō Kākou Mō’īwahine – September 2025
Community Archiving Workshop (CAW) collaboration and hosting – September 2025
The International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives (IASA), South East Asia-Pacific Audio Visual Archive Association (SEAPAVAA) Conference – September 2025
HIFILM Conference – October 2025
Kalaheo High School media visit to class and orientation – October 2025
Hawaiʻi International Film Festival (HIFF) – October 2025
“Laulima” Hawai‘i Library Association Conference – November 2025

Top Row: Shots from our day-long training with the Community Archiving Workshop during the IASA-SEAPAVAA pre-conference.

Bottom Row (L-R): At Kahuku Public and School Library with Head Librarian Tamara King, and Gilbert “Pokiʻi” & Marianne Vaughan. Panel at Kō Kākou Mō’īwahine, Tom Coffman, David Kalama, Meleanna Aluli Meyer, Head Archivist Janel and Collection Specialist Heather.

We were also happy to host many distinguished visitors this year, including:

Andy Lampard & Farhod Family – Studio Koa
Christina Ayson-Plank
American Association of Australasian Literary Studies
Larry Kimura & Bruce Torres Fischer
Meleanna Aluli Meyer
Kate Sample & Sara Banks
IASA-SEAPAVAA Professional Visit and Tour
Society of American Archivists Student Chapter UHM
James Campbell Company LLC
David and Elizabeth Mattson – Daniel Kahikina Akaka Family Foundation
Senator Troy Hashimoto and Maui County Council Staff
Brigham Young University – Hawaiʻi Library Staff

Visits with Society of American Archivists Student Chapter UHM, IASA-SEAPAVAA conference attendees, Meleanna Aluli Meyer and David Mattson of the Daniel Kahikina Akaka Family Foundation.

2025 Interns

We welcomed four great interns this year, including two spring semester interns, our Roselani Summer Intern and a new E Hoʻomau Intern. We always enjoy the opportunity to train new, up-and-coming professionals and look forward to seeing their future contributions to the libraries and archives fields.

2025 Spring Library and Information Science Interns Sophia Kim O’Sullivan and Morgan Schmidt
Summer Roselani & AMIA Pathways Intern Connie Li
Spring, Summer, and Fall E Hoʻomau Intern Kaua Kalaiwaa