From the acclaimed mind behind WAIKIKI, Native Hawaiian writer/director Christopher Kahunahana unleashes a new cinematic thriller that masterfully intertwines stark historical truth, forcing us to confront the haunting question: Why does history repeat itself?

Make history with us

Revive indie film making in Hawaiʻi! In 2025, Hawaiʻi faced an unprecedented pause in television and large-scale production, leaving local filmmakers without work for months at a time as corporate consolidation erase independent voices. Hotel Street exists as a response to that moment. Proof that meaningful, culturally rooted stories can still be made outside the machinery of conglomerates. It offers not only a deeply human narrative, but a tangible act of belief in Hawaiʻi’s creative community:

Weʻre halfway thru production and have a few more weeks to go!
Donate and be part of history.

The Story: The possibility of redemption

Through Shinju, a Japanese modern dancer carrying the trauma of war into contemporary Honolulu, the film examines how violence, both personal and historical, fractures identity. Her journey reveals a sobering reality: under the right conditions, any of us are capable of becoming a monster. Yet Hotel Street ultimately argues for something rarer and more necessary; hope, accountability, and the possibility of redemption.

Within a Chinatown thick with the echoes of WWII, Shinju finds herself drawn into a fractured circle: Freddy, a musician touched by unsettling clairvoyant visions; Evan, her boyfriend, whose charm masks a sadistic darkness; and Miller, a veteran grappling with a fractured memory.

As Shinju delves deeper into the horrors of the bombings and the quiet anguish of Japanese internment, she begins to unearth a buried family secret tied to their abrupt departure from Hawaii during the war, a secret that now threatens to consume her.

Why This Matters

Hotel Street is more than a story. It is a visceral truth shaped by land, history, and the people bound to its enduring echo. The weight of what was endured during wartime Hawaiʻi has never lifted; it lingers beneath the surface, pressing forward as unresolved history demands its reckoning. The film exposes a stark hierarchy that persists across generations:
Who is granted sanctuary, who is brutally cast aside, and who is utterly obliterated when the shadows of yesterday bleed into today.

Revive indie filmaking in Hawai'i

In 2025, Hawaiʻi faced an unprecedented pause in television and large-scale production, leaving local filmmakers without work for months at a time as corporate consolidation and streaming oligarchies erase independent voices. Hotel Street exists as a response to that moment. Proof that meaningful, culturally rooted stories can still be made outside the machinery of conglomerates. It offers not only a deeply human narrative, but a tangible act of belief in Hawaiʻi’s creative community:

Local stories, told by local voices, still matter…and still have the power to heal.

Connect with the Team

Vince Keala Lucero

Producer

Phone: 818-732-8833

Email: [email protected]

Naomi Yoshida

Producer

Phone: 808-258-2931

Email: [email protected]