Every generation has underdogs that alter the course of history. In the early 1970s, a group of women from Hawai‘i broke through social restrictions and helped to change sports in America forever.
They were the wahine from the University of Hawai‘i volleyball team.
The county Committee on the Status of Women, in celebration of March being Women’s History Month, is hosting a pre-screening and talk story this Sunday with Dean Kaneshiro, director and producer of “Rise of the Wahine,” a documentary about the UH Wahine Volleyball Team.
‘Rise of the Wahine’ director and producer Dean Kaneshiro.
“The thing that blows my mind, I grew up in Hawai‘i, and this incredible story took place right here in my own backyard — I had no idea,” Kaneshiro says in the trailer of “Rise of the Wahine.”
The movie is about the mostly untold story of the women from Hawai‘i who battled and overcame women’s inequality issues in the 1970s — a time of great social change for women, according to a press release from the Committee on Status of Women.
“We can look at the Wahine volleyball program today, I mean, these girls are like rock stars here,” Kaneshiro said. “But if you rewind the clock in this country, let’s say, in the 1960s and the 1970s, education and athletic opportunities for women … it was nowhere near what it is like today.”
The film chronicles events leading up to and after the passing of Title IX — co-authored by the late Hawai‘i Congresswoman Patsy Mink — and focuses on the formation of the first volleyball team at UH Manoa.
“The country had to pay attention to gender equity as well as race equity,” Mink says in an interview in the movie.
University of Hawai‘i Wahine volleyball team in the 1970s.
Two Kaua‘i women — Maile (Golden) Toeaina and Leah Karratti — were former Wahine players.
Dean Kaneshiro, Director/Producer, and Ryan Kalei Tsuji, Producer, will share some exclusive completed clips of “Rise of the Wahine” and also provide behind-the-scenes stories of their experiences making the film, which is scheduled for release later this year.
A Question and Answer period will follow their presentation.
The movie and Q&A will be Sunday at Room 2A/2B in the Mo‘keha Bulding at the Lihu‘e Civic Center, from 4-6 p.m.
Contact County of Kaua‘i Boards and Commissions Support Clerk at 241-4920 for an alternate format or an auxiliary aid to participate.
Call Pat at 639-0888 or email phunterwilliams@gmail.com for more information.
Call 241-4920 for more information about the Committee on the Status of Women.
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