This BuzzFeed News story by Michelle Broder Van Dyke on the movie ‘Aloha’ is an absolute must read to understand Bumpy’s perspective on the movie ‘Aloha’ and Cameron Crowe’s relation with Bumpy and the village of Puuhonua o Waimanalo.

While controversy over the film’s title and racial aspects of casting have overshadowed other aspects of the movie, Bumpy notes the “megaphone platform Crowe had afforded the Hawaiian rights movement.”

Crowe gave Kanahele room within the script to mention the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom in 1893.

“My time with Bumpy made me want to reference his struggle,” Crowe said in his email.

In Aloha, Kanahele wears his own shirt, which reads “Hawaiian by birth” on the front, and “American by force” on the back.

For Kanahele, the shirt means that to avoid violence, Hawaiians have to accept — to an extent — the past: “We are forced to do the things we don’t want to do for the sake of peace.”

That said, he’s proud of Aloha, “because we can say we are under military occupation — and that’s the truth.”

There are tons of reviews out there for the movie ‘Aloha.’ Whatever else critics may object to, they have mostly positive takes on Bumpy’s role in the film, and how his character (basically playing himself) is treated respectfully, and conveys a genuine voice about Hawaiian issues, history and culture.

But I want to draw your attention to this blog post by Shay Chan Hodges, who brings a somewhat inside perspective on the filming of the movie and the issues it takes on, including the failure of Bank of America to live up to its still outstanding commitments to the Hawaiian people.

Here’s an excerpt, but please read the whole thing.

With Aloha, Cameron Crowe made a heartfelt effort to present a cultural narrative that has not been attempted before in a star-studded Hollywood production. The scenes with Bumpy and other residents of the village are the most authentic depictions of what Hawaii looks like, sounds like, and feels like of any feature film I’ve seen. In a review in The Atlantic entitled, “Aloha‘s Hawaii Shoots for Magic and Realism,” Lenika Cruz writes:

Kanahele speaks on his own turf and in his own words with Gilchrist and Ng about the problems and concerns of native Hawaiians, before inviting them to eat and drink with the rest of the community. It’s a touching, if short-lived, vignette that indisputably stems from genuine reverence and compassion for the people of Hawaii. Besides, when was the last time a major motion picture even glanced at the lives of America’s indigenous people with something other than mockery?

When it comes to cultural sensitivity, Aloha has been criticized for its title, lack of Asian representation, and Emma Stone being cast as a mixed-race character. Yet, the people I sat with in the theater two weeks ago shared the rare experience of seeing their realities reflected in a major motion picture — including ongoing tensions between the struggle for sovereignty and the power of multinational corporations that operate as if they are above the law.