THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT<3

We reached our goal!!!

STRETCH GOALS

This initial crowdfunding campaign will support our in person filming in March 2024, but our total budget is 55k for the entire project. We greatly appreciate any further donations our community is able to make!

• If we raise $5,000 more than our initial goal, we’ll have enough funds to complete post-production.
• If we raise $10,000 more than our initial goal, we’ll have funds to pay the producing staff and additional operations costs.
• If we raise $30,000 more than our initial goal, we will be FULLY FUNDED and can put our full focus on making this story come to life and showcasing the spirit of Lahaina at film festivals and screenings across the country. 

For decades, when Laurel Tamayo's grandparents, aunt, and cousins were asked where they lived, they could simply say: "it's the yellow house!" You could always easily spot it from the road. The house was built from scratch by three generations of Director Laurel Tamayo’s family. A house with banana trees growing in the backyard, a place where the extended Tamayo family frequently reunited. That was until the 2023 Maui wildfire destroyed the yellow house along with 2,200 other structures and numerous multigenerational homes across the town of Lahaina. In the chaos, 100 people lost their lives, and many others remain displaced today.

Lahaina has always been a tight-knit community. It was a town you couldn't go anywhere without seeing someone you knew, or being introduced to someone as an "aunty," "uncle," or "cousin." 6 months after the fire, the community is still staying strong together, even as the future remains unclear. Laurel's family is still living at a hotel with other survivors, and the rebuilding plans for Lahaina remain in a lingering process.

This documentary covers a personal exploration into the Lahaina wildfire through the eyes of someone with deep family roots in the town and first-hand knowledge of the beauty of Hawaiian culture. Laurel's family members and close family friends will share their stories of the Lahaina they knew before the fire, their experiences in the midst of the devastating event, and the state of the community after the fire. The subjects of the film have found strength in their community, support from generous people outside the community, and healing in helping others. 

Director Laurel Tamayo grew up visiting her family in Maui, and specifically loved visiting Ka’anapali Beach. Her and her family would lay out on the sand and talk story all day with a view of the beautiful blue ocean and coconut trees. In the Fall of 2022, she shared a story to her Harvard class about how her most recent trip felt different. The sand was so hot it stung her feet and melted her coffee cup. Maui had hit heat records 5 times that same month. She worried about the future of this beach, a place she always envisioned bringing her own kids to, not knowing the devastation that would hit the town less than a year later.

Laurel brings a deeply personal connection to this story, as well as a professional background in film and climate storytelling. In the days that followed the fire, Laurel recalls searching through list after list of names from evacuation sites, unsure of the whereabouts of her family members. She watched the news as the vibrant town of Lahaina turned into ashes. Working in the climate field, she knew the reality of increasing natural disasters and noted seeing more and more disasters on the news. She never thought it would impact her and her family so directly and so soon.

(Pictured: Laurel Tamayo's Grandparents)

Since then, Laurel has witnessed how the fire has impacted daily life for her family and family friends. This documentary will help tell their story, while also acting as a global call to action for climate resilience and disaster preparedness.

The Director/Producer team have dedicated our careers to using film and TV to tell stories of the climate crisis and highlight climate solutions. Our last short film, Gen Z Mental Health: Climate Stories played in 15 countries, was nominated for the Deep Blue Environmental Shorts Award at the 2023 Hawai’i International Film Festival, and hosted over 75 community screenings. We are working together again to tell this deeply personal story in the most honest and proactive way possible. As a team focused on impact, we have identified three core guiding pillars.

With your support, together we can:

- Support the Lahaina Wildfire Survivors -

- Reduce Stigma Around Mental Health & Natural Disasters -

- Encourage Global Climate Resilience -

Six months after the fire, news stories on the destruction itself have begun to slow down. Meanwhile, rebuilding and relocation efforts are just beginning.

Rebuilding will span multiple years, thus this film will highlight the lasting impacts of a major wildfire and the ways in which a community comes together to heal. With a long road ahead to rebuild a safe and sustainable town, this film showcases laughter and love. We capture the regrowth of banyan trees, the native birds still fluttering about, and the strength of communities coming together to support and protect one another in the worst of times.

This documentary also features the lasting impact and reactions to the fire, including how the youth of Hawai'i are taking it upon themselves to learn disaster preparedness through Maui 4-H. Through this training, attendees learn about CPR, cribbing, medical triage, light search and rescue, and first aid so that they’re ready when the next disaster inevitably happens. Rather than just documenting the disaster itself, we're focusing on what comes next for the town of Lahaina, and what can be done to better prepare communities across the globe.

The climate crisis is already impacting our communities locally and globally. The link between climate change and the increased intensity and frequency of natural disasters has been well documented in recent years through reports by the IPCC and UN. In 2022 alone, natural disasters displaced 3.4 million people from their homes in the US. By 2050, 1.2 billion people are at risk of displacement globally due to climate changed fueled natural disasters. This documentary takes a local story, and applies a global approach as to how we can measure climate resilience in communities across the world.

As a film team immersed in the realm of climate storytelling and environmental research, we plan to address this underlying issue throughout the film. In this documentary, we investigate questions like:

• How did the combination of climate change and colonization exacerbate this catastrophe? 
• How do direct impacts of climate related events affect our mental health?
• How do we measure the strength of community resilience and prepare for disasters?

Hurricane winds and dry conditions left Lahaina susceptible to fires. Lahaina was once a wetland community with rivers and waterways throughout the town, however in the late 1800s, plantation barons started diverting water for sugarcane. Lush land was turned into dirt and invasive grasses have since taken over. 

No one should have to experience the terrifying feeling of fleeing your home during a natural disaster, or searching through a spreadsheet of names to find out if your family is safe. Unfortunately, the climate crisis and compounding factors continue to intensify fires, floods, and other extreme weather events leaving more and more vulnerable to this reality.  

What we can do is be prepared for natural disasters, take climate action, and build community resilience - all of which are key points this documentary aims to capture.