Maui-based film wins two Regional Emmys for documentary filmed before and after Lahaina wildfire

Maui-based filmmaker Stephan Boeker and Pacific Story Tellers won two Northern California Regional Emmy Awards for “Journey Beyond the Grid: The Hawaiʻi Off-Grid Story,” a documentary that began as a story about sustainable, self-sufficient design and ultimately became a much broader exploration of resilience and preparedness in Hawaiʻi.

Boeker was filming in Lahaina on the morning of Aug. 8, 2023, and left around noon. As it became clear that something serious was unfolding, he canceled the following day’s scheduled filming, and production ultimately stopped for nearly a year.

When the team returned to the project, the events in Lahaina had fundamentally changed the questions the film was asking. Through architect David Sellers and Hawaiʻi Off Grid, the documentary explores how decisions made long before a disaster — about design, infrastructure and self-sufficiency — can affect a community’s ability to withstand and recover from crisis.

“What began as a story about off-grid design became a story about the choices people make before a crisis asks whether their values are real,” said Boeker.

The film follows Sellers, whose work on resilient, self-sufficient design took on new meaning following the wildfire. The documentary revealed the underlying values behind the design firm and how it influenced his ability to prepare for and respond to crisis.

Rather than presenting resilience through statistics or technical explanations, the documentary invites audiences to experience those ideas through real people, making complex issues accessible, relatable and emotionally engaging, according to a news release.

The film received Emmys for Business/Consumer – News or Long Form Content and Outstanding Achievement in Editing, recognizing editor Reece Pottorff.

“These honors mean a great deal because they affirm something I see all the time: organizations doing important work often have enough facts to get noticed, but not the human story that earns belief and lasting support. Our work is to find that story when the moment is too important to get wrong,” Boeker told Maui Now.

When asked what it means to be able to tell stories from the perspective of someone who lives here, Boeker said the quiet, rural life in Upcountry, Maui “gives his nervous system a baseline.”

“That stillness helps me listen before deciding what the story is, so the film stays true to the people living it and gives audiences a human way into even the largest global issues.”

The two awards build on Pacific Story Tellers’ 2024 Regional Emmy win and continue recognition for a documentary exploring how communities prepare for uncertainty—and the human values that shape resilience long before disaster strikes.

Pacific Story Tellers is a Hawaiʻi-based story finding and documentary studio that partners with founders, organizations and mission-driven leaders to uncover the authentic human stories behind their work through cinematic documentary filmmaking.

See more HERE.

*Maui Now’s Wendy Osher contributed to this report.