Category Archives: Uncategorized

‘Ulu‘ulu will be closed tomorrow, Friday August 15 for Statehood day.  To commemorate this occasion, check out our Hawaiʻi Before Statehood theme:

Since becoming a state in 1959, Hawaiʻi has undergone remarkable changes. By clicking on the theme, relive memories of daily life in Hawaiʻi prior to statehood.  These videos were part of the HKG Pilot Project and Lyman Museum and Mission House collection. There is footage of paniolo, aircrafts, plantation life and more.

The UH West Oahu library will be closed to the public from August 19 – 23rd. The archive will reopen with normal hours on August 26th.

The 43rd Annual ‘Ukulele Festival will be held this Sunday, at the Kapiolani Park Bandstand, in Waikiki. This free event draws in thousands of locals and tourists each year, highlighting many artists and bands from around the world, including an ukulele band made up of over 800 students, mostly children.

17th Annual ʻUkulele Festival (1987). Juniroa Productions collection

Variety Magazine recently published an article in April 2013 called “The Reel Ending” in which authors Andrew Stewart and David S. Cohen describe the near extinction of celluloid “as digital delivery of movies rapidly becomes the new norm at theaters in the U.S.” citing reasons such as cost savings in distribution and new creative possibilities that only digital projection can offer.

Hawaii is also following this norm and three of the last analog projectors on Oahu have now found a new home at ‘Ulu‘ulu.

On July 1, 2013 the Hawaii Theatre began renovations that include new digital projection capability. For years, the Theatre screened films using one 16mm and two 35mm projectors, but needed to make room in the projection booth for the new digital projectors.

Thanks to the efforts of General Manager Burton White and Production Manager Jude Lampitelli, the Hawaii Theatre worked with ‘Ulu‘ulu to save these analog projectors from the dumpster and to ensure that they will be preserved at our archive in the UH West Oahu Library as display pieces and hopefully one day be refurbished and operational.

Getting the projectors to ‘Ulu‘ulu was a challenging endeavor and definitely required a team effort. Each projector weighs about 500 pounds and is housed in a six-foot tall rack. Alan Sakaida of Consolidated Theatres disassembled the projectors and audio equipment in order to break them down into smaller components that could more easily be moved out of the Theatre. The Hawaii Theatre itself is an historic building with no elevators and much care and planning had to be taken to make sure that chairs, carpets, stairwells and walls were not damaged by the move. This meant that the movers (mahalo Island Movers!) had to hand-carry each item out of the projection booth, navigate the upper balcony steps, go out the side door, and down concrete stairs to the van below.

We are very excited that these projectors have come to ‘Ulu‘ulu and look forward to getting them reassembled and on display!

Pictures of the projectors and of the move day can be seen here.

Peter Kowen, Summer Volunterr Intern

Peter Kowen is a life long resident of Oahu, and an avid film fanatic.  After receiving his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington in 2008, Peter has worked and volunteered for a variety of local organizations, including the Hawaiian Humane Society and the USS Missouri Memorial. He is planning on applying to graduate schools in the coming months, and hopes to focus on film and media studies.  Peter is currently volunteering with Uluʻulu, hopes to gain archival experience in a moving image archive.

In honor of tomorrow’s Kamehameha Day, here are few photos from the 1963 King Kamehameha Floral Parade.

As a reminder, ʻUluʻulu will be closed Tuesday June 11  in observance of the holiday.

In celebration of  Hōkūleʻa setting sail on their  worldwide voyage, here are clips from the 1976 inaugural voyage return:

Ashley Hartwell, Summer Volunteer Intern

Ashley Hartwell is a graduate student at the University of Hawaiʻi at Manoa, pursuing her Masters of Library and Information Science with a focus on archives.  With this focus in mind, Ashley is volunteering for the ʻUluʻulu Archive this summer to gain some archival experience prior to her graduation in December.  She is assisting in the inventory of the Meleanna Aluli Meyer Collection, a new acquisition that consists of over a dozen boxes of film and audio reels, created by the Hawaiian documentary filmmaker Meleanna Aluli Meyer. Please help us in welcoming Ashley!

ʻUluʻulu is featured on this week’s HIKI NŌ!

Mahalo to the students at Kamehameha High School, Kapalama Campus, for doing the story!