 We're going to talk about a film that has been trying to be made for a long time. And the subject is Barack Obama. And this week, I just really felt a need to talk about Barack. We shared the Punahou campus for a couple of years. He was a sophomore when I was a junior when I was an incoming freshman. And that picture behind us is of the Punahou campus. This is a film about his roots and how Hawaii influenced him. And this week has been a very emotional week. And Gloria Borland, who has been working on this film with extraordinary dedication for a very long time, thank you for coming to talk about the film, where it is. And tell us a little about the horrible story that what happened as you were trying to get the momentum build. And somebody said, they didn't want you to make it. What happened? Well, first of all, I'm from Hawaii. And I was raised here and went to college in Washington DC and then was involved in media in Washington. And while Obama was going through the primary when he was running, starting to run it for the presidency, people always, especially the press and the media and my colleagues there, they always assumed that he was, they liked him, they didn't understand him. He was supposed to be the angry black man from Chicago. And I said, no, he's from Hawaii. And that's not the stereotype. And they didn't understand Hawaii because most people, especially the professionals on the East Coast, have never been to Hawaii. They don't know Hawaii. They only know Hawaii from the stereotypes. And so friends told me to set the record straight and explain Obama's biography and Hawaii in the context of that. And I was uniquely able to do that because I grew up here. I'm five years older than Barack. So the same 60s and 70s, that period of Hawaii, I'm also half black, half Japanese. So I understand that when you go to the mainland for college and the shock that how you're seeing that way. But as you know, producing a documentary film, the research was years in the making. And to have a quality that we want for theatrical release requires funding. And as a fundraising in Washington, DC, I always kept getting roblox. I would raise some funds and then roblox. And then the Washington Post did a story on my efforts. And I was surprised to find out, which was great publicity and it was picked up all over because the editors of the Washington Post said that the research and the information in this film was something they never knew. After they saw what we had and they saw my work in progress, they said, oh, yeah, now it makes sense. The aloha spirit is in him. We see that. We see his values. The Obama drama, that's just the way people here behave. They don't scream and yell at each other. So they started to understand that. But then I also got feedback after the Washington Post article that the Chicago political operatives had for years been trying to squash me. They didn't want the Hawaii story out because professionally, they branded Obama as Chicago. And they didn't want anything to interfere with that brand, and including Hawaii. They put Hawaii on the same level as too exotic, too non-American. Well, Cofi Roberts just a couple of years ago. Why isn't he going to Myrtle Beach? Right, and that's where middle-class blacks would go to on vacation is Myrtle Beach. They wanted to pigeonhole him that way. But they didn't understand that this is where he grew up. This is where his family is. I do the same thing. Even though you're away in college on the mainland, you come home every Christmas to see your family. And he's been doing that for since he left for college. But even when they lived in Indonesia, they would come home for Christmas to Hawaii to visit their grandparents. So Hawaii's home. But that message was never told to the American public. And the press never understood that. And somebody got upset about it because you were doing such a good job. Yeah, well, one thing about political operatives, I don't even think they saw what I did. They just made their decision, Hawaii. Maybe it's part of our multi-millions of dollars worth of Hawaii advertising. Right, we're exotic. We're off the beaten path. You want to come to Hawaii and escape. We're not. And so the stereotype is Hawaii is not part of America. And even the best and the brightest in Washington, DC, you wouldn't believe how many members of Congress have never been to Hawaii. And we suffer the stereotypes. Do you live in grass shacks? They don't realize that we are progressive politically. In spite of HTA. And Magnum P.I. and Hawaii 5.0. Yeah, it's bizarre. Right, and also when they were bidding for the library, I remember one of the somebody from Chicago historians said, scholarly work needs to be in Chicago. Hawaii, they don't do scholarly work in Hawaii. The stereotype, we're a bunch of beach bumps. So they don't see that they're great big thought leaders from Hawaii. And so in the film, we also mentioned great, we explained through Obama's biography, Hawaii's history too, from statehood to being the first to ratify the eco-rights amendment. We had the first nearest, closest universal health care was from Hawaii. And Obama was 13. And that's where health care comes from. But on the main one, they don't get it. And the people that put the health care plan together, they didn't even look at Hawaii. They looked at Massachusetts because Massachusetts told the world that they were the first state, which was not true. That was a lie. Hawaii was. So it's just a lot of stereotypes. And the mission of this film is to change the stereotypes that the president feels and still receives as well as Hawaii. Let's watch a clip. You have some lovely montage of images that come in at the end. At the end, it's the closing montage. So poignant today, today the day that Obamacare has been. Right, it was the very first step of resending. Anyway. OK, so it's a hard thing to digest all of this. So now that there isn't the political pressure against you telling the story, do you think it'll be possible to sort of bring this to fruition a little easier? Well, that's one of the reasons why I moved back home two years ago is that I wanted to finish it here because I knew that I would be able to get the support and funding to finish the film here in Hawaii. And it's difficult in Washington when people haven't been to Hawaii. And they're also focused on the Chicago story. So it'll be finished here. And if you look at some of the stills, people don't realize that his grandfather, Barack Obama's grandfather, Grant's, he only had a high school education, but he was absolutely brilliant. Maya told me that their grandfather had a repertoire of 3,000 jokes. It was brilliant. And one thing I heard from interviewing Stanley's co-workers and friends is that he loved his grandson and he encouraged Barry over and over. When you grow up, you can be President of the United States. Really? He actually said that. Yes. When you're a little kid and you're growing up and your grandfather is telling you, you can be President of the United States someday. My gosh, that has an impact on you. So he was conditioned from his grandfather to be an optimist, to be patriotic, that he could do anything. And over and over and over, he could be President of the United States. Now, Stanley, when he was working for an insurance company, John Hancock, not on Fort Street Mall, his co-workers remember at least four times. At least four times, he would go into the office and say, my grandson is brilliant. And he's got such a heart, great heart. He could be President of the United States someday. At least four times to his co-workers. So when you have that, since you're really little, that says a lot. And we have a picture of the, just to kind of put things in perspective again, of the disconnect. We seem so connected these days. But are we really that whole birther thing that somehow it managed to go all the way through eight years of a presidency? And people kind of, finally, it became just a joke. But that it had so much impact when it really was just a black and white thing. I mean, there are a lot of things that are. But that is one that is. I mean, you have a picture of the woman who had, she had twins, wasn't she? Eleanor Nordike, I interviewed her in 2009, August 2009. And her twin daughters were born at the same hospital the same day. They were about 24 hours apart from Barack Obama. And so the numerical sequence on the birth certificate of her twins were in the same order as Obama. So it shows that it couldn't be forged because it was in the same numerical sequence. And also her twin daughters ended up going to Noelani Elementary School as Barry and then also Punahoe. And their last name was Nordike. Her husband was a surgeon, a nuclear scientist. And so N and then O. So Nordike and Obama, they were on the same yearbook page. Yes, yes. Oh, my goodness. So the way that the softness and gentleness and the inclusivity, all of those are things that we associate with Hawaii. And yet Barry was, Barack was able to translate that successfully into this beautiful presidency, even if, and it's really, really true that I did not always agree with his policies, certainly not. But especially is as they have transitioned out of the White House to see the beauty and grace and the gratitude and just the graciousness with which the Obamas are leaving it is such a credit to Hawaii. And I'm hoping that your work will give Hawaii its due in that sense. And I also felt that it was part of my kuleana, no matter what the obstacles were, even when the Chicago guys said they didn't want the story out. It was shocking. It was hurtful. But I said, I've got to keep going, because I have got to tell a Hawaii story. That's my loyalty. It's my kuleana. But how he behaved himself as president, it was over and over the lower spirit. It was aloha to everybody. And Governor Mike Dukakis, who ran for president in 1988, came to Hawaii for several months. And he studied our health care system. And he even says that I interviewed him in Boston in 2014. He said, oh, the way the president governs is aloha. So he said he validated it. Gloria, we're going to take a short break and then be back and talk some more. OK, I'm here with Brent Overgaard of the Faculty of the School of Journalism and the Department of Communications at UH Minoa. We've had a number of shows. We have a movable feast going on. And we talk about journals. And we talk about language. We talk about communication in general. And we talk about the effect of that on the country and on individual people. Brent, it's so good to be able to discuss this with you in our movable feast. Oh, it's my pleasure. This is a great opportunity. You'll have to come back again and again, OK? Deal? That's a deal. Brent Overgaard. I'm Jay Fidel. We care about everything. Thanks. Aloha, Kako. I'm Marcia Joyner. And I'm inviting you to navigate the journey. We are discussing the end-of-life options. And we would really love to have you every Wednesday morning at 11 AM right here. Hey, has your signal just been taken over? Or am I supposed to be here? This is Andrew, the security guy, your co-host on Hibachi Talk. Please join us every Friday on Think Tech Hawaii. Welcome back to Hawaii Is My Main Land. I'm Kauai Lucas. And with me here today is Gloria Borland, who's the director, producer, everything. This is your brainchild, Gloria, the Barak of Obama made in Hawaii film. So let's dive in and take a little history of Barak starting with his mother. And tell us, what are your favorite mom stories? What I was really impressed, because again, it's a stereotype during the campaign in 2008. The press falsely portrayed his mother as a hippie-dippy. And in my research, it was extraordinary to find out that she was a brilliant scholar. First of all, she was only born in Kansas. She was really raised in Seattle. So she really is from the Pacific Northwest. And her values come from Seattle and the Pacific Northwest, not Kansas. She was a smartest girl at Mercer High School, Mercer Island High School. And she was absolutely brilliant, extraordinarily high IQ. And she was like, she did micro-loans. And back, she was a trailblazer in that. And finding the ability to be able to give loans to poor village people. Muhammad Yunus got the Nobel Peace Prize for doing micro-loans in Bangladesh. Obama's mother was doing the same thing at the same time in Indonesia, but never got the publicity or the credit. Same thing, same kind of trailblazing work. And that's his mother, absolutely brilliant. So how long did they live in Indonesia? Well, he was only there for a little over three years. And he would come home to Hawaii to see his grandparents for the Christmas holidays. And also during the summer. But his key, his major influence, 14, 15 years, was in Hawaii, out of his first 18 was Hawaii. And no one knows that on the mainland. All the historians, they all focused on Indonesia or Chicago. What age was he in Indonesia? He went in first grade and second grade. But he was back here in Hawaii in third grade at Noelani and then fourth grade. And then he took the exams to come to Punahua in fifth grade. And we have a darling picture of him at Noelani as a kindergartner. Oh, how cute. And you look at that class and you just think, look at that smile. I mean, you just know that things are going to be good for this kid. Standing behind him are his two teachers. And I interviewed them in 2010. They retired from the Hawaii public school system in Maui. And they remember Little Barry in their kindergarten class. And they talk about his personality as was still the same, how he behaved in kindergarten as how he is as president. Well, I didn't personally know him. Although, I mean, we didn't hang out together or anything. I mean, he was an upperclassman. So but I, of course, knew him just his presence on campus as he went bopping around and his smile. I mean, who can not forget, I mean, who can not remember that smile and just being, having that incredible energy. I mean, being energetic. Yeah, amazing, amazing. So I didn't know until learning about your film that he had a half-brother who lives in Asia. And you were able to talk to him. Right. Mark Obama, they share the same father, the same Kenyan father. And they both have white American mothers. So when Obama's senior went, after he left Hawaii, and got his degree at University of Hawaii, now the press reports say that he left at two. He really left when Barry was not even one and went to Boston, went to Harvard. And while he was at Harvard, he met Mark's mother. She's a Lithuanian Jew and was studying to be a teacher. And so that's, and so he married her after he had a lot of women. But anyway, he married. And so Mark and David were born from that relationship. And so Mark is five years younger than Barry Obama. And they're a lot similar, although they weren't raised together. They're similar in many ways intellectually. Well, when Borac was going off to Harvard Law School, Mark was going to Stanford. And there was a little rivalry between the two. And but Mark went to China and fell in love with the place and the culture. And he's been there for 14, 15 years. And he's married to a woman from China, from Shenzhen. So I went and visited him in March and interviewed him about their father. Because he's a mystery, and there's a lot of stereotypes and misconceptions about who their father really was. So who better to give testimony than the son, Mark Obama, who actually lived with a father? So did Mark, yeah, Mark lived with a father for a long time? Well, up until eight or nine years old and then his parents' divorce, there was domestic violence in that family. And so in the interview, he talks about the trauma of domestic violence. And Borac was sheltered from that. He was not exposed to domestic violence. So in a way, Borac's personality was able to evolve and grow in a nurturing, loving environment with his mother and grandparents in Hawaii and not in that dysfunctional, crazy, alcoholic domestic violence. But that's the reality. That's the truth. That's the history. So were you able to, so you talked and in the film, you'll have the interviews with Mark? Oh, yes. Mark was freely and open and talked to. I mentioned all that. So that's the film. So we also have a wonderful picture from his sister, speaking of siblings, wedding. And there's, I love this, because you get, it's like the UN, all in one picture and all in one family. Right. This is when Maya married Conrad. And Conrad's from Chinese family from Canada. And this is what the story came from Neil Abercrombie, who knew Obama's parents at UH. So Neil was in the wedding reception audience. And Borac and his wife, Michelle and daughters, flew in from Chicago to give Maya away. He spoke on behalf of Maya's family at the wedding reception. And while he was speaking, Neil Abercrombie looked over to his wife and said, oh my god, he's going to be President of the United States someday. It struck Neil that this very was going to be President someday. And this is when he was still a state senator. State senator. State senator, right, before he even started. And so, right. So he just knew intuition-wise. When Borac spoke about family, he spoke about Ohana. Exactly the same thing he said during the campaign trail in 2008. The exact same thing. And that's what touched everybody. All across the United States, all across the world, when he talked about the goodness in people and that there's hope and that we all can come together and our better days are ahead of us, those are all values from Hawaii. And that's how he speaks. And it's not prepared. It's not speech writing. It comes from his heart. And that's why people, that's why 69 million Americans voted for Obama twice because of that message, that message. So I assume that Borac knows that you are making his film. I don't think so. Really? He's in a bubble when you're the president of the United States. Information only gets to you through the chief of staff in your, that's Washington. I mean, it's amazing. Nothing, it's, they control what they say. But my, his sister knows. Yeah, she, I interviewed her several times. And, but, right, and so I'm really grateful that she, that I was able to interview her for the Dunham side of the family. But it's, he's dealing with two wars. And there's, it's very, very hard. It's, no, I don't think he knows about it. So what, what are your plans for the movie at this point? Well, I've found a wonderful production company here in Hawaii, this, they're seasoned pros. They just finished a documentary that aired on Hawaii News Now. They're really great. And so we're in the process of raising finishing funds and with their post-production team, we're gonna complete it, finish the editing. And there's some of the interviews that we did in 2008 when it was, the technology was standard definition and not high definition. So we're gonna redo some of those interviews, re-shoot some of those. But it'll be a top notch film that could be shown on any place in the world. Wow. So that's our goal. And then in our last minute here, Gloria, what can you say is maybe one of your, your most touching moments in the process of making this film? Out of the, I interviewed over a thousand people. Oh my gosh. Over the last eight years, over a thousand people, I was 51 on camera, 51 on camera. And about five emotionally broke down and cried when they opened their hearts, you know? And that was just so powerful when they were talking about their experiences with Barry or Barak. I mean, they just broke down and cried. And it was so emotionally touching. And the message that Hawaii, you know, Hawaii is the most, I've traveled around the world. I've been to 70 countries, you know, Tibet, Kenya, then all over the world. What brought me back home to Hawaii is Hawaii is still the best place in the world. And our culture and how we treat people is a story that needs to be told. And in this Trump era, where everyone's afraid of, you know, all the people that don't look like them, you know, and the Caucasians are afraid. And, you know, let them see Hawaii and see how we get along and that we have something special we've had. We've been doing this for like hundreds of years. This is unique. And the story of Hawaii needs to go out to the world that we lead in renewable energies. We have brilliant minds that have come up with technology. We, we have great, yeah, we have great, it's not just a beach, we're at this culture and where everyone comes together really is a catalyst for great things. And that's why it's true. Thank you, Gloria.