Documentary traces journey of family matriarch who lived in Kalaupapa and vanished from Honolulu in 1900

The documentary of a former Hawaiʻi news anchor’s search for her family’s missing matriarch premieres during the Hawaiʻi International Film Festival.

Film cameras followed former KITV4 news anchor Diane Ako as she retraced the final footsteps of Helen Maliu, her great-grandmother, to Kalaupapa, Molokaʻi, a leprosy settlement established in 1866. Maliu disappeared from Honolulu in 1900.

“Pili Hou: Finding Helen” (pilihoufilm.com) follows Ako’s family as they unlock the secrets of her great-grandmother’s disappearance. It will be screened on Nov. 8 at 5:30 p.m. at Kahilu Theater on Hawaiʻi Island.

In a news release, Ako said she went on “behalf of her family to pili hou – rejoin – with my long-lost great-grandmother.” She was assisted in her search by Ka ʻOhana o Kalaupapa, a nonprofit organization that works to preserve the history and culture of Kalaupapa, where many Native Hawaiians were forcibly relocated.

“When I heard my friend Diane talk about her genealogy search, I was drawn in by the mystery, and then fascinated by the finding,” said Martha Shade of Martha Shade Productions. “There are universal themes here of ʻohana (family) and aloha.”  

The film, which is Shade’s directorial debut, will make its international premiere at the Pasifika Film Festival on Nov. 29 the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, Australia.

For tickets and more information, visit https://boxoffice.hiff.org/events/PILIHOU-FINDINGHELEN.