Storytelling for the Screen: The Wind and the Reckoning

  • Thursday, May 9, 2024 / 7:00 PM - 9:30 PM (PDT)
  • Pollock Theater
  • Screening Format: 4K digital projection (94 Minutes)
  • With Angela Laprete (producer), Lindsay Watson (actor)
  • Director: David L. Cunningham
    Starring: Jason Scott Lee, Lindsay Watson, Johnathon Schaech

Set in the aftermath of the 1893 overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom by US land barons and militiamen, The Wind and the Reckoning is a stirring portrait of family life and Indigenous resistance amidst the twin disasters of colonial occupation and a devastating leprosy epidemic.

Having orchestrated the ouster of Queen Lili’uokalani, the new settler government of Hawai’i issues an order that all Native Hawaiians (Kānaka Maoli) suspected of having leprosy be permanently banished to Kalaupapa, a remote colony on the island of Moloka’i. But when a local cowboy named Ko’olau and his young son Kalei contract the dreaded disease, they refuse to allow their family to be separated, sparking an armed clash that will make Ko’olau and his wife Pi’ilani heroes for the ages.

Visceral and visually arresting, The Wind and the Reckoning is based on real-life historical events as told through the memoirs of Pi’ilani herself. It is one of only a small number of films with international distribution to be performed primarily in ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi (the native Hawaiian language).

In this event, producer and UCSB alumnus Angela Laprete and actor Lindsay Watson (Pi’ilani) joined moderator Tyler Morgenstern (Assistant Director, Carsey-Wolf Center) for a post-screening discussion of The Wind and the Reckoning.

Biographies

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Angela Laprete (Producer)

Angela Laprete is an award-winning producer from Hawai’i and an alumnus of UCSB’s Film and Media Studies program. She has worked in the production industry for over thirty years. Her work spans local, national, and international projects for episodic television, blockbuster features, and independent films. Her long list of credits include Hawaii Five-0, The Wind and The Reckoning, and the upcoming Apple TV+ series Chief of War.

Angela’s focus has always been on elevating Hawaii’s film industry and educating the next generation of filmmakers. In early 2023, she co-founded International Cultural Arts Network (ICAN) with the mission to empower diversity with a focus on Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders in the entertainment industry, and to help develop indigenous stories for a global audience. She served on the board of the Hawaii International Film Festival (HIFF) for fifteen years. She is currently developing an episodic television adaptation of the award-winning book The Tattoo.

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Lindsay Watson (Actor)

Lindsay Watson is a native of Maui, HI and attended Kamehameha Schools Maui, where she first explored acting through their theater program in both plays & musicals. After graduating, she relocated to Los Angeles where she pursued acting in film and television. She has trained extensively at numerous acting studios throughout Los Angeles. Prior to her film castings, Lindsay had an extensive commercial career with ads for Adidas, Nike, United Airlines, Playstation, Shiseido, Hyundai, and Subway to name a few.

Lindsay Watson can be seen starring in Netflix’s family-adventure film Finding ‘Ohana in which she plays one of the lead roles, Hana Okumura. Lindsay’s most recent film, The Wind and The Reckoning, is now touring the festival circuit and stars Lindsay portraying the historical role of Pi’ilani. Lindsay has recently started to explore her passion for writing film & television scripts, as well as her passion for singing. Outside of her career, Lindsay is passionate about helping other Hawai’i natives pursue careers in the entertainment industry.

Headshot of Tyler Morgenstern. The black and white image depicts a man wearing a scarf and floral button-up long sleeve shirt. He is smiling and posed in front of a nature background which features a pond, large trees and mountains.

Moderator Tyler Morgenstern

Tyler Morgenstern is Assistant Director of the Carsey-Wolf Center and an alumnus of the UCSB Film and Media Studies PhD program. As a scholar, his research and teaching focused on the media and technological cultures of empire and settler colonialism. He completed his dissertation, Colonial Recursion and Decolonial Maneuver in the Cybernetic Diaspora in 2021, and has published in journals including International Journal of Communication, Media+Environment, and Synoptique. With Krista Lynes and Ian Alan Paul, he is also co-editor of Moving Images: Mediating Migration as Crisis (Transcript Verlag, 2020).

 This event is sponsored by the Carsey-Wolf Center.

Storytelling for the Screen

Since their emergence, cinema and television have been in a state of constant technological and industrial flux. But even as our ways of distributing and accessing moving images have changed, and even as tastes and styles continue shifting with the times, our passion for compelling onscreen storytelling persists. At the Carsey-Wolf Center, we are committed to fostering a nuanced understanding of cinematic and televisual storytelling across genres, formats, styles, and historical periods. To this end, we sponsor a wide range of events, programs, and workshops designed to cultivate a new generation of media storytellers, and to help audiences better understand the evolving role of narrative across diverse media forms.