‘EA (SOVEREIGN)’ brings Lahaina land struggle to global stage at imagineNATIVE

“EA (SOVEREIGN),” the feature-length documentary exploring the enduring relationship between people, land, and memory, will have its international premiere at the prestigious 2026 imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival in Toronto, Canada.

Selection at imagineNATIVE marks a major milestone for the film, placing it within the world’s largest presenter of Indigenous-made screen content and one of the world’s most respected platforms for Indigenous cinema and media arts.

“EA (SOVEREIGN)” follows the Kapu family’s decades-long struggle to defend kuleana lands in Kauaʻula Valley. Central to the documentary is Kanaka ʻŌiwi community leader Keʻeaumoku Kapu, whose commitment to restoring and revitalizing his family’s lands is traced through court proceedings, ʻohana life, and the ʻāina itself. The film captures the historic quiet title jury trial over lands in the valley, an uncommon proceeding in Hawaiʻi that placed long-running questions of land ownership, plantation history, and Hawaiian rights before a jury.

The documentary also honors the enduring legacy of Nā ʻAikāne o Maui Cultural Center, which has been led for many years by the Kapu ʻohana. Though the Center’s physical home was lost in the August 2023 Lahaina fire, the cultural knowledge, practices, and purpose nurtured there continue through the community that carries its work onward. In doing so, “EA (SOVEREIGN)” affirms that the protection of ʻāina and culture lives beyond any single building or physical space.

Featuring interviews with Keʻeaumoku Kapu, Uʻilani Kapu, Akoni Akana, Sam Kaʻai, Ekela Kaniaupio-Crozier, and others, the film frames sovereignty not as an abstract political idea, but as daily kuleana. 

Grounded in genealogy, place, and lived experience, these voices connect the Kapu family’s story to a larger movement for sovereignty and self-determination across Hawaiʻi.

The film’s visual language brings together expansive landscape cinematography, archival materials, and contemporary Indigenous storytelling. Original animation and digital mapping help illuminate both the physical geography of Kauaʻula Valley and the layered histories held within the land.

Directed by Noah Keone Viernes and Sancia Miala Shiba Nash, “EA (SOVEREIGN)” is at once a record of resilience and a call to reckon with the continuing impacts of dispossession in Hawaiʻi. Rooted in the Kapu family’s experience, the film reaches beyond Lahaina to speak to shared responsibilities to protect ʻāina for future generations. The film was produced by Viernes and Lance D. Collins.

“E Hoʻi ka Nani i Mokuʻula,” performed by Keʻeaumoku Kapu and Uʻilani Kapu for the film, is available on streaming platforms: https://ehoikanani.hearnow.com