A magical take on a true story, The Queenʻs Flowers is an animated short adventure for kids. The film follows Emma, a Native Hawaiian girl in 1915 Honolulu, as she makes a special gift for the last monarch of Hawaiʻi, Queen Liliʻuokalani.
Ciara Lacy is an Emmy-nominated, Native Hawaiian filmmaker whose interest lies in crafting films that use strong characters to challenge the creative and political status quo. Her work has screened at festivals such as Sundance and Berlinale as well as shown on networks including Netflix, PBS, ABC, and Al Jazeera. As a child, Ciara was an expert flower picker and lei maker, a skill she learned from her family’s business selling lei to retailers in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi.
Filmmaker’s Statement
As a little girl, I would sew flowers into thick ropes of fragrant color that my family would then gift or sell. It was a tradition that I knew intimately, having spent many cool mornings picking jasmine or crown flowers amongst the butterflies and bees. So when producer Concepcion Saucedo-Trejo shared a true story from 1915 about a girl named Emma Pollock who loved to gift the last Queen of Hawai`i with flower garlands, it felt like destiny.
As we began the process of collaborating with Director of Animation Daniel Sousa, I knew I wanted the film to be filled with visual kaona or layers of meaning. Every scene was not only painstakingly built off of historical reference images, it was also carefully encoded with symbols and gestures rich with meaning in Hawaiian culture. The intention was to present a nuanced introduction to traditions from my home mixed with staple elements of fantasy to make the work broadly accessible.
High-quality animation about Hawaiʻi has been made by studios like Disney or Pixar, however The Queen’s Flowers was made independently within the Native Hawaiian community. It’s exciting to reclaim authorship of our Native stories for our children, especially for young Indigenous girls. So often when we think of history, we don’t think of children, let alone little girls. By engaging Emma’s viewpoint, we acknowledge children of our past while also igniting the imaginations of the kids of today. And, for myself, a former headstrong little Native Hawaiian girl, I get to share my love note to a woman long gone but still cherished, Queen Liliʻuokalani.
