halemanō - house of the shark
an independent hawaiian feature film
OVERVIEW
A story about growing up in Hawaiʻi nei, where sharks still walk on land. HOUSE OF THE SHARK -HALEMANŌ is a slice of Hawaiian life, told from the perspective of impressionable KAIPO as he comes of age in Mānoa, Maʻili & Honolulu on the island of Oʻahu.
This multigenerational story of love, heartbreak and discovery finds KAIPO, his single mom KALEI and AUNTIE RUTH dealing with everything from brushes with first love, to the politics of art and sexuality, to the reality of a metropolitan jungle that spirals along without compassion nor remorse. The past is crushed by time, sun, the elements, parceled into this or that catacomb or garage.
From the beaches of his youth to the concrete byways he skateboards, KAIPO’s journey reveals potent memories of childhood, and universal truths about love, hope, fear, growing up, family, culture and being human and Hawaiian in Oceania in the early 21st century.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
House of the Shark takes you off the beaten track to the home(s) of real local Hawaiians, and across several generations. Most of the films and TV shows today about Hawaiʻi are really about millionaires playing everyday people or paramilitary types and their exotic challenges and struggles with romantic love, international intrigue or both.
Our no-budget film was written, directed by and stars Hawaiians in their actual domestic habitats, renting, struggling, thriving, creating.
This coming-of-age film explores local Hawai'i and Hawaiian culture, intergenerational conflict, mixed-race ʻohana, love, betrayal, domestic violence, forgiveness, redemption, homelessness, mental health, systemic poverty, art in Hawaiian homes, transience, memory, hanai relations & generational forgetting.
Tiare Thomas Harris plays the widowed mother in this story. Tiare first filmed for this project in 1996 when she was 14-years old. In 2012 she reprised her role, this time as the 29-year old single mother of a precocious little boy.
Kamahele plays KAIPO, the boy. He filmed from 8-years old in 2012 until 21 in 2025. Kamahele and Tiare are hapa-Hawaiian, born and raised in Hawaiʻi.
The film has many inspirations and intersections if you look closely, including French New Wave, Third World Cinema, Hollywood, Japanese Cinema and Scifi.
SCREENCAPTURE
Tiare Thomas Harris filming “Mango Dreams” sequence in 1996, Mānoa, Oʻahu