Decades-long family mystery leads to Kalaupapa in new HIFF short film

Hawaii News Now·Oct 25, 2026 · 4:16 PM CT

Readthrough summary

Former Hawaii news anchor Diane Ako's decades-long search for her great-grandmother, who her family learned had been exiled to Kalaupapa, has become a 15-minute short film. "PiliHou: Finding Helen," made with director and producer Martha Shade, is showing at the Hawaii International Film Festival. Ako said her parents' generation never talked about where their grandmother went.

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