Tracey Niimi put aside his student support specialist hat at University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo’s pharmacy college to direct and film the 2021 Hula Bowl halftime show. The coveted college all-star football game on January 31 was the final one scheduled to be played at Aloha Stadium.
The opportunity came as a surprise to Niimi who received a call from a Hula Bowl representative about his video skills. The Hilo native owns a local photography company, but filming for a living is a fairly new field.
“My wife and I both graduated from UH Hilo’s College of Business and Economics back in 2011 before starting our photography business,” Niimi explained. “When COVID-19 hit this past year I had to pivot our business and I started doing video production as well.”
Because no spectators were allowed to attend the game, organizers asked Niimi to film the halftime show ahead of time.
The four-and-a-half-minute segment was shot at Kahilu Theatre on Hawaiʻi Island and featured iconic Hawaiian fashion designer Manaola Yap and Hālau Manaola. The award-winning hula troupe falls under the direction of Kumu Hula Nani Lim Yap, the designer’s mother. The young trendsetter narrated a poetic monologue on what hula means to him while dancers performed A Koaʻekea I Pueohulunui.
“Everyone in hula has their own perspective on what hula is so I wanted to respect that and share what hula is to me through what I was taught while growing up,” Yap said. “Around the world, the view of what hula is has been different. This halftime show is about taking back that cultural narrative and helping the audience to experience the true meaning, essence and power that hula is.”
To help capture the culturally charged production Niimi assembled an entire team of local videographers including UH Hilo alumni, Kevin Fujitani and Reid Kubo, an information technology specialist at the Hawaiʻi Island campus’ pharmacy school.
“I think we all felt that weight of responsibility to our community to create a piece that not only properly represented the Hawaiian culture, but was a piece that our entire state would be proud of sharing with the rest of our country,” Niimi said.
The 75th Hula Bowl aired in January on CBS Sports Network and streamed on the CBS Sports App.
For more go to UH Hilo Stories.
—By Susan Enright, a public information specialist for the Office of the Chancellor and editor of UH Hilo Stories
