Director Kimi Howl Lee points her lens to a neglected corner of the United States’ paradise island of O‘ahu. The relatively low-income neighborhood of Wai’anae is predominantly home to native Hawai’ians and sets the scene for the story of Mahina, a queer teenage girl trying to navigate life on the streets after leaving her home and a toxic relationship with her stepfather.
The film’s cast is primarily made up of homeless, first-time actors, including sixteen-year-old lead Malia Kamalani who reenacts her personal history for screen. Kama'āina, which translates as ‘child of the land’, shows that the road to homelessness is not only caused by economic factors, but that social inequality around gender, ethnicity and sexuality also conspire to make someone destitute.
However, hope comes in the form of Twinkle Borge, a self-identifying queer woman who the director describes as the “de facto governess” of Pu'uhonua O Wai'anae—the largest homeless camp in Hawai’i. With the state’s infrastructure skewed in favor of tourism, many local residents have been priced out of the island’s housing market. Borge has single-handedly raised dozens of minors, including many LGBTQIA youth who have turned to her for shelter, and together they have built a community. Pu'uhonua states: “We say ‘houseless’ not ‘homeless’ because nearly all of the people of the village call Hawai‘i home, but simply cannot afford a house.”
Kamaʻāina won best LGBTQ+ short at this year's Palm Springs International Film Festival for its sensitive insight into life at the camp with its community of over 260 families. Pu'uhonua has successfully raised $1.5 million to buy twenty acres of land in Waiʻanae Valley. Help support their visionary approach to houselessness by contributing to funds that will help them build permanent residences and communal facilities.