In 2023, a wildfire swept through the picturesque town of Lahaina, in Maui, Hawaii, claiming over 100 lives and destroying thousands of structures, including the multigenerational family home of this episode’s guest, Gen Z filmmaker Laurel Tamayo.
Laurel went back to Lahaina the next year to make a film about the losses– and the community’s journey of healing. The result was a powerful, award-winning documentary, Healing Lahaina.
In this episode, Laurel shares her feelings of anxiety about wildfires and mourning her family home, how she figured out her climate magic, which is using creativity as a tool to build resilience in herself and others, and the power of storytelling in shaping our climate future.
SHOWNOTES
- Laurel Tamayo’s LinkedIn
- Healing Lahaina film website
- Article for Teen Vogue by past Climate Magic guest Anya Kamenetz about the film
- The o’o bird, more info
- Racing Extinction film
- Tehya Jennett’s site
Voice from documentary trailer: Maui was strong. Maui was resilient. Even though Maui has hurt, we never gave up, you know? The world needs a place like Maui to show them that we can fix things through kindness, through happiness, through helping people. The world needs that, period?
Sarah Ray: Welcome to "Climate Magic," a show where we explore the messy human side of climate politics. We ask, "What if our hearts and minds are the most radical leverage points at our disposal?" How do our human emotions and mindsets and cognitive biases and wounds shape climate policy?
I'm your host Dr. Sarah Jaquette Ray, an author and a professor of environmental studies at Cal Poly Humboldt. On "Climate Magic" I invite experts, spiritual leaders, researchers, neuroscientists, educators, and activists to help me distill digestible applicable ways to help you tap your own climate magic.
In August of 2023 a wildfire devastated Lahaina, Maui. The next year, today's guest, 24 year old Laurel Tamayo, returned to her family home there and made a documentary film about what she saw called "Healing Lahaina."
Laurel Tamayo: To learn about all these long term issues, that’s really what motivated me to want to make a film that covered what life looked like several months after, and how they were reckoning with the event, and with what life looks like now.
The film is powerful and hopeful, intimate yet universal. It speaks of the unique place of Lahaina, the history of colonialism that created the ecological conditions for the fire in the first place as well as the unique deep relationships built over generations there upon which an extraordinary mutual aid response to the fire was built. And it speaks to the conditions all of us have on this planet.
Within months of the film's 2024 release Laurel was confronted with another disaster as wildfires tore through L.A in early 2025 where she was living. It's not just Lahaina and it's not just L.A. How will we prepare for and respond to these disasters as they come? What kind of relationships with our families, with our nonhuman kin, with our neighbors, and much less our own hearts and minds will we need to tend long before we are in extremely vulnerable survival mode that natural disasters create? Can we keep pretending that we don't need the land and each other?
Laurel's going to share her own background in our interview, but I do want to point out that she exemplifies how many young people are trying to navigate the climate emergencies unfolding in our own lives. Last semester I zoomed Laurel in to my college class called the Psychology of Climate Resilience for a screening of "Healing Lahaina,” and a Q and A with her. Laurel made a massive impact. My students really saw themselves in her and it activated I think a lot of inspiration and hope in them. Her climate magic is truly contagious, as I know you'll see.
If young people manage to avoid dropping off in to an abyss of powerlessness and despair they can lean into their climate magic as Laurel has and really resist that abyss. It is I think really courageous beyond words and although I wish young people didn't have to do this work, and I'll be the last person to say that young people are our only hope, it's just so disrespectful and pressurizing, I will say that we can't just write them off to AI, social media, and smart phone land. They're not just in crisis. They're out there. They're worrying. They're dreaming. They're packing go bags. They're creating a world that they can grow old in.
So are you ready to imagine a better world with Laurel Tamayo? Let's dive in. Welcome to the show, Laurel.
Laurel Tamayo: Thank you so much for having me.
Sarah Ray: Yay. So I'm just dying to talk to you. I have a million questions. I hope I can get through them all. And but also if something happens and we dive off in to some other path and you want to take a long time to share a story that is totally fine too. So don't feel driven by my question list here. But I will start hopefully with a long kind of question. But give us your story. I read somewhere that you didn't grow up connected to nature. And I'm curious how did you get so passionate about studying the environment? And making films about it no less.
Laurel Tamayo: Yes. I grew up in Hawaii and everyone assumes that because I grew up in Hawaii I grew up really connected to nature, but my family was not naturey, outdoorsy, at all. And so it really wasn't until my senior year of high school when I took AP environmental science, and even taking that class I actually my parents saw that as a slacker AP class at my high school. And so they didn't let me take it at first.
It was only because I did so badly in AP physics my junior year that they were like, "Senior year take whatever you want." And so I took AP environmental science and I didn't think that much of it until we watched a documentary called "Racing Extinction" which showed how different species around the world were being impacted by human activity and going extinct or endangered.
And so there was a scene in there where there was a man who played a bird recording of a bird on the island of Kauai called the o'o and he explained that it was a mating call, but it was one that would never be answered because it was the last of its species. And so like seeing that scene and just being like, "Why haven't I heard about this bird before?" Like growing up in Hawaii like why didn't anyone do anything about it? And it was a bird that like went extinct because of like climate change and like also like just more people living on the island and like deforestation and things like that.
And so I was like this bird that didn't do anything to hurt anyone, you know, like humans came in and kind of ended up killing it. And so I was like why didn't anyone do anything about it.
And it kind of reminded me of the story of my great grandpa that I grew up hearing which was that after the bombing of Pearl Harbor because he was Japanese American and he had -- he was about to be the principal of a Japanese school. He was considered a leader of the Japanese community. And in Hawaii they didn't -- they didn't put all of the Japanese people in internment camps. They only put the leaders of them because the population there's just so many Japanese people. And so like economically it didn't make sense.
But he was supposed to be taken to an internment camp, but because there was a police officer that kind of knew him and stood up for him and said like, "No. He's a good man. Like he doesn't belong in the internment camp," he was spared. And he got to stay with his family and like that probably spared my family from like generations of trauma. And so that just made me think like, "Oh. Because that one voice stood up for my great grandpa like what if I could be a voice that stood up for like species or like the environment?"
And so that film really inspired me to just start looking into different environmental issues and climate change and I got really passionate about that. And at the time I was actually had accidentally kind of gotten a job as a student producer at our video production department at my high school and so I was like, "Oh. What if I could make films like this film?" Because it had such a big impact on me. What if I could be the one that also makes more films to like inspire more audiences to take action? And so that's what like led me to end up studying environmental science and documentary film in college and kind of wanting to go on that path.
Sarah Ray: Oh my gosh. I didn't know that story about your grandfather. You know, I read up on you and I didn't catch that one so that is just so poignant too because it shows there's that question of it's one thing to see the story of the bird and feel grief for the bird and be mad at humans for doing this to the bird. Right? And just sort of think something has to happen. It's another thing entirely to think I could have some agency. I could make a difference which the story of your grandfather which you inherited showed you too.
So that sort of -- you know, one of the questions I have for you is like how did you even decide you could make a difference and go off and do all this stuff against the mountain of impostor syndrome that you describe in some of your work? And against the mountain of "I'm just one person" and against the mountain of "It's so much pressure. My whole generation's being asked to save the world." And I mean, you know, how did you -- how did you find that agency? Your grandfather's story is a wonderful explanation, but do you have other things to say about that? I'd love to hear because that's the magic. Where's that juice coming from?
Laurel Tamayo: Yeah. I mean I definitely even though I had that story I definitely felt a lot of impostor syndrome in my early -- I mean I still sometimes feel impostor syndrome. But I think --
Sarah Ray: Don't we all? You're not alone.
Laurel Tamayo: Yeah. And I just think that for me I found, because no one in my family had done any kind of creative job before they were very hesitant about me doing film and actually even doing environmental science. They didn't want me to study environmental science either because they were like, "What kind of job can you get from that?"
And so I actually -- that kind of motivated me, though, to really reach out to people whose jobs I wanted or whose jobs I thought sounded cool on Linked In. Like I would just cold message people that I would find in the credits of movies that were impact producers or things like that. And just to take a step back an impact producer is someone who typically comes on to a film after it's done and strategizes how to make a tangible impact or like get the audience to take action using the film as a tool.
And so that was also a job that I had never heard of until my sophomore year of college and at that point I had been minoring in documentary film, seeing a lot of guest speakers that were independent film makers who were telling me how broke they were and how it took them like 10 years to make their film and they hate it by the end of it.
And so I was like okay. Maybe I'm not cut out to be an independent film maker. And so that's what actually pushed me into looking into impact producing because an impact producer often uses events, social media. They create resources. And you can kind of see the impact like on a shorter term scale versus like sometimes films can take many years to make. And so that is like actually what I after college set out to do is just to be an impact producer.
And so I think just having -- like I'm so grateful that so many people answered me on Linked In actually. Like I was surprised at how many people -- I would say like 80% of people that I reached out to actually responded and got on a call with me. And I think part of that is because like this -- I guess I was reaching out to people who were at the intersection of like film and environmental issues.
And so I think because people are so driven to try to make a positive change like seeing someone who's young and naive like you want to help them. And so I'm so grateful because I've gotten so many like amazing mentors and like friends from having those like first calls.
And that's actually how I've gotten all of my jobs since college was like those people kept me in mind and recommended me or sent me job opportunities. And so I think having -- having these people who like I looked up to have faith in me like, you know, we started having for some of them I would have regular calls and they would like see my growth and kind of encourage me to go in certain directions and like having those people believe in me helped kind of like stop me from getting too much in my head about like why do I -- why am I here? Do I really deserve to be here? I'm just like faking it. That kind of mentality. And so I really think mentorship is what helped me kind of stop thinking so low of myself or like stop questioning like if I'm supposed to be here.
Sarah Ray: I'm so glad I asked because you just shared in a nutshell exactly why -- what I'm trying to teach my students all the time about the beauties of the network. You know? Not to mention Linked In. Not that we're advertising Linked In here, but yes. Thank you for that. I feel it. I feel it.
Sort of going back to Lahaina, going back to your film a little bit, your story of watching this from a distance, you were in L.A when the Lahaina fire happened? Can you kind of walk us through what happened there, how you got to that kind of light bulb moment of thinking, "I think I need to make a film about this."
Laurel Tamayo: Yes. So the Lahaina wildfire happened in August of 2023 and I was in L.A when it happened and I just remember feeling so helpless. And also like there were so many scary moments of like I would just get texts here and there that were like "We have to evacuate." And it was my grandparents, auntie, and uncle, and cousins lived in the same home. And so it was like, "We're evacuating." And then it was like, "Oh, now this evacuation site has to evacuate." And then it was like, "Oh, we got separated from grandma and grandpa." And I'm like, "Oh my god." Like now they're on their own.
And so there were these Facebook posts that people were making that were pictures of the evacuation site sign ins and like because cell service is down in most of the area like we would hear from them like maybe twice a day in the days following. And so it would be like I was scouring Facebook posts to see like oh maybe like are they there. Are they safe? And like not being able to find them was so stressful and I was like, "Oh, my god." Yeah.
And so I -- it was just such a horrible experience to go through where I'm like, "Oh, my gosh. Like is my family okay?" And then seeing the news footage of how big the fire was and starting to hear the death toll. And it was just so scary and so thankfully my family was okay. And but something I didn't realize was just how long term the effects of a disaster like this were because I had never been affected by a disaster directly. I'd never had family like affected by a disaster.
And so like for months after they were living in a hotel with a lot of other people who also lost their homes and like they just lived with so much uncertainty because they didn't know when they would get kicked out. Like some people were getting kicked out of their hotels because -- on like the very last minute, like the day of. And then they had to figure out where to go. And so it was just a very stressful time. And my grandparents' home burned down and like they were uncertain about yeah like where were they going to live until it was rebuilt. They -- this was the deadliest wildfire in modern U.S history. There were more than 100 deaths. And so like and Lahaina's not a very big town. And so like I think everyone in Lahaina knew someone who died in this fire. And so like adding the trauma of that to the uncertainty was a lot.
And so I was also hearing about how like the mental health of the community like a lot of people were struggling and in Asian American and Pacific Islander communities I think mental health is still kind of taboo to talk about. You don't want to like -- I think ***ADD NAME*** who was in my film talked about how there's a lot of pride. And so it's like you don't want to ask for help. You want to just be able to like do it on your own.
And so a lot of people were struggling with struggling in isolation because they didn't know how to talk about it and didn't get the resources they needed. And so that was something that I really wanted to do with the film. And so basically a couple months after the fire I was talking to a friend who I had made another film with called "Gen Z Mental Health Climate Stories."
And so my friend Tehya Jennett she was saying she was asking me like "Do you think you would make a film about your family's experience?" Because, you know, this disaster is something that I was also featured in "Gen Z Mental Health Climate Stories" and in that film subjects were asked like, "What is your biggest fear around climate change?" And I said that my biggest fear was like, you know, being affected by an unprecedented like fire, flood, hurricane. And so there's literally like footage of me saying that and then a year later it happened to my family.
And so I feel like this was just like something that I had - and Sarah Newman from Climate Mental Health Network they put out like new grief resources and I think it was like anticipatory grief maybe was like the term. And so I feel like I had like, yeah, anticipated something like this happening for so long because I've been working in climate, but like when it happened it was still a shock.
Like even though I thought it wouldn't be shocking it was shocking and it was so much worse than I thought it would be. And so when she asked me if I wanted to make a film about this at first I was like, "No. My family wouldn't want to be in it."
And then that night my mind was just like swirling with ideas and I was like, "Like Hawaii doesn't have as many like resources and film makers as L.A does and like here I am in L.A. I've been meeting so many other film makers who could give me advice on how to make a film." And like I felt very -- I had so much impostor syndrome about directing a film because I had not directed a film with a real budget before. And like I had not directed a film since college. And so and I have a full time job and so being a film maker was not like a part of --
Sarah Ray: Just a full time job. Yeah. On top of everything.
Laurel Tamayo: Yeah. So it wasn't like I had a goal of being an independent film maker. Like it kind of just happened because I was like, "You know what? I think that I'm kind of uniquely positioned where I think I could figure out how to make a film and show an authentic story." Because I think I was also worried about people who had no connection to Hawaii trying to exploit the story and sensationalize it and so I was like I really want to make a film that shows their real perspective and also gives them agency.
So something unique that we did was we let all of our main subjects see the film before we released it and we told them like, "If you want anything cut out, we'll cut it out." And so we actually like there was something that my uncle wanted out so we cut it out. And so we really wanted it to be something that they were proud of as well and not something that just exploited their story.
And so that's why I wanted -- that's why I really wanted to make this film. And I had already -- yeah. I guess I was already familiar with like kind of the field of like climate change and mental health and so also like seeing how this disaster was impacting people's mental health was like it was sad to see that it was actually happening, but it was also like okay this film could be an opportunity where we highlight that issue.
And so I yeah. I decided to make the film. We really wanted to like make a difference and because my background had been in impact producing where I had learned how to like may a theory of change and all of that I worked with my producer and we figured out three impact pillars that we wanted to achieve and that was supporting Lahaina wildfire survivors by raising money for organizations that were on the ground helping them. The second was to reduce the stigma around mental health and disasters.
And then the third was encouraging climate resilience in the form of disaster preparedness because obviously as climate change gets worse unfortunately these disasters are going to just become more normal. And we can't, you know -- there's something we can do about it now which is being prepared for it and planning for it. And so those were our three impact pillars.
And the film ended up coming out in October of 2024 and so I'm so happy that since then we've actually been able to achieve all of those impact pillars. We've been able to raise more than $6,000 for Lahaina orgs and then because the L.A fires happened after the film came out we also raised some money for core community organized relief efforts which helped, is still helping, L.A wildfire survivors. And then the second impact pillar about mental health we've been able to -- I've been able to speak at like more than 30 events where I talk about mental health and disasters and climate change. And we also put resources in our screening guide so anyone who does a community screening can access the screening guide on how to frame their event and what resources they can offer people.
And so I'm glad that I've been able to kind of talk about that and spread awareness about that. We also hosted a healing event after the L.A wildfires where we had a licensed therapist facilitate a conversation with people to talk about how they were feeling and how they were processing things and helpful tools to move forward. And so those are things that we did for the second pillar.
And then the third pillar encouraging climate resilience we actually had a preview event of our film in September of 2024 where we had a disaster preparedness expert talk about which emergency alerts to sign up for, how to make an evacuation plan, and how to pack a go bag.. And because of that when the L.A fires happened in January of 2025 people were reaching out to us saying, "I had a go-bag ready when I had to evacuate because of your event and because of your film."
And so I really think that film has the power to open people's hearts and minds and to do things that they otherwise would not have done. Like I think a lot of people think of disaster preparedness as like not a top priority and so like they probably never would have packed a go bag or like knew how to do any of that stuff if it wasn't for seeing my family on screen and like, you know, feeling connected to them and realizing, "Oh. This could happen to me and my family as well. Like what can I do tonight to do something about that so that I'm better prepared?"
And so we've been able to also just like raise awareness about that. And then also in September of 2025 we hosted a go back workshop where we showed our film and then we provided supplies. It was like Clif bars, backpacks, resources from core on like what to pack, what else to pack. And emergency blanket and like a whistle and like all these different things that are kind of like, you know, if you had to like, you know, maybe evacuate on foot or even in the car. Like having those things like nonperishable food, clothing, passport, like important documents, at least having like a list of that so that if you aren't going to pack it now you can pack it when something is happening. And so it was great. We got -- we had more than 50 people attend and get to take home a go-bag that I have a friend that was like, "Yeah. I have it in my car with me always." And so I'm like, "Oh. That's so cool."
And so that is how we've been able to do the third pillar. And so I think it was really -- yeah. It's been really great to see that the small crew -- like it was really just me and my producer who worked on the impact campaign and even when we were shooting it it was only me, my director of photography, my production assistant, and a sound guy. There are only four of us on the ground on Maui. And so it's been cool to see like how much we could achieve with very little resources.
Sarah Ray: Yeah. Unbelievable. I was going to ask about the L.A fires too. So yeah. First of all just huge incredible gumption to just decide, "Yeah. I think I am going to go make that film." So just I'm just sort of shocked to think about what was happening in your mind that night, that one night you just described. And how you came to that. Thank you for bringing us in to that moment because that -- I'm just stunned to think I can say no for so many reasons, but here's why I'm going to say yes. I'm in a unique position and this is a story to tell and I don't want this to be done in a spectacularized exploitative way. I just think that's just thank you for sharing that.
The L.A connection I think is just uncanny that the fires came out. The fires in L.A happened just after your film came out, just months after. And you just described that as sort of giving a big boost to what you were trying to do with your impact campaign. But I'm curious what the L.A fires might have added to your thinking or if it changed your thinking at all about this budding passion of yours as a sort of climate or environmental film maker, if you don't mind me putting those words to it.
Laurel Tamayo: Yeah. Oh my gosh. The L.A fires first of all were so scary. I remember I looked out my window and I live in Culver City which is like it wasn't affected. Like nothing in Culver City burned down. But I could see a plume of smoke from the Palisades fire from my window and then seeing on social media all these videos that were coming out that looked just like the footage from Lahaina of people leaving their cars and running on foot and like all of these horrible things I was like I can't believe this is happening again.
And it was just like I was in - I think because I had been working on this film, you know, the year prior or yeah just like several months before where I was looking at all this footage and was so deeply in to that world of disaster and fire and then it being so close I was in like fight or flight mode in my apartment. And I was on the Watch Duty app which like, that app was amazing. It shows like where the fire is, which evacuation zones are current or like which areas are evacuation zones, which ones are like warning zones. And I was just watching it as like more and more fires started popping up all over L.A County and I - yeah.
I texted a friend who lived in Orange County and I was like, "Hey, like if --" And I didn't think that it would get worse than the first day. And it was like, "Oh. Can I like stay at your place if it gets close to me?" And she was like, "Yeah. Of course."
And so I had my bag packed. And I actually had my bag packed from the night before because the night before the fire I got an emergency alert from the platform that the disaster preparedness expert had recommended and it was like, "High wind advisory. High potential for fire." And so that night I filled up my car with gas. I fully packed my go bag. And because of that I like it was so easy once I decided to leave. Like okay. I'm just bringing my backpack and going.
And I'm like if I had to think that would just be so much more stressful. I probably would have forgotten so many important things. And so I'm so glad that I was able to be prepared when I was like in a calm state of mind versus like when I was in this panic mode of like oh some of my friends are calling me that they've already evacuated and they're asking me when am I going to evacuate and I'm like, "Do I need to --" Like it's just like so much.
And I feel like everyone in L.A was on edge for weeks because that fire went on for like three weeks. Fires. Multiple fires. And it was just like yeah a lot of people posting about how every hour they're waking up to look at Watch Duty because they're like near the evacuation zone.
And everyone was just I think so filled with anxiety and like uncertainty. And like for me that was very stressful because I knew how much Lahaina was affected by it. Like I was thinking not just today, but I was thinking like, "Oh my gosh. How is this going to change L.A for in the long term?"
And it kind of sucked because I also have asthma and so even after the fires were out for -- like it wasn't until April that I finally felt comfortable like opening my windows and going outside without a mask. And like I'm so -- I was so sensitive that if I stayed outside for an hour I could already feel my chest tightening and having a hard time breathing.
And so it sucked because my outlet is bird watching. I love going outside and like taking pictures of birds and all of that. And so for months I could not do that. And I didn't even realize how much that was affecting me until I was just really struggling to enjoy the activities that I used to do and like to get up and go to my job. Like everything was just so hard. And my therapist was like, "I think you're in a depressive episode because you haven't been able to bird watch." I was like, "That's like a ridiculous sounding sentence." But then it made --
Sarah Ray: Makes perfect sense to me, but I understand what you mean. To go back to the normal right?
Laurel Tamayo: Yeah. And but yeah. Like thinking back on like oh yeah that was -- you know, I was working my full time job. I was helping organize screenings for "Healing Lahaina," my film. And I was also taking a class at the Harvard executive education program. And so I was doing a lot, but I was like, "But I've done this amount of stuff before. I understand why I'm --" She's like, "I think you're burnt out because you aren't able to, you know, go outside and [inaudible] bird." And I'm like, "Oh. Okay. That makes sense." Like I'm doing all this stuff that I could handle before when I had a way to destress, but now I don't. And so and I didn't realize that I had needed that so much. And so yeah. That was very surprising to me how much -- because like I didn't lose my home or anything in this fire.
Sarah Ray: Yeah. And I was watching Watch Duty the same way you're describing, every hour, because of my family's homes and stuff. And friends. I mean very few people don't know people in L.A and weren't on Watch Duty. It's kind of one of those cities that -- where many of us are connected to.
You know, one of the big priorities in your film was to -- you went a year after the fires or so. If that's right. Is that about right, about a year?
Laurel Tamayo: It was like five months after the --
Sarah Ray: Oh. Just five months. Okay. That's right. In the film you say that. Okay.
You went five months after the fire. You were picking around in the rubble of your family's home going through all of this kind of like five months out. What is -- what is the snapshot of life in Lahaina five months out? It was very poignant. When news media covers fires they just cover it for this very short window of the actual destruction happening. The news media, the cameras, go away. And then that's when the long haul work of recovery happens.
And we don't really ever hear about that. It doesn't make the news. And you were very explicit and intentional in your film to cover that. Right? To cover that gap or to make sure that that part had some visibility. And I'm curious. Why was that so important to you? And you've just described too a little bit of the L.A version of that, that kind of lifting up of the beauty of the human spirit of mutual aid in both those cases. But I'm curious. Was that intentional? And why for you?
Laurel Tamayo: Yes. I think because I mean -- yeah. Part of why I wanted to make the film was I was just a few months after feeling like, "Oh. No one is caring about Lahaina already." Like it was in the news and, you know, people who had no connection to Hawaii were hearing about Lahaina for the first time and then suddenly like you just think, "Oh. It's probably fine then."
Because that's what I would think when I would hear disasters on the news and then if I had no connection to the area if I stopped hearing about it. I would just think, "Oh. Everything must be fine now." And that's why we're not hearing about it. And so to learn about all these long term issues is that's really what motivated me to want to make a film that kind of covered what life looked like several months after and just the struggles that they were going through and how they were reckoning with the event and with what life looks like now.
And so I think I just, yeah, I wanted to show the reality of it and it's not all pretty. You know, like it's funny because I remember. So the fire happened in August and when I went home to Hawaii in December I had friends who lived in Hawaii asking me, "Oh, have they rebuilt already?" And I was like, "No. None of the rubble has even been cleared yet." Like when I shot the film in I think it was February of the next year, so like six months after, that was the rubble on my grandparents' property was still there.
But there were -- that was like when they had just started on some of the other houses starting to clear the rubble. And so that part too I was like that's crazy that even friends that were just on a different island, because I'm from O'ahu and the fire was on Maui -- like just friends who were on a different island they also did not know what was going on. And so I feel like that also motivated me more to want to show like the recovery is very long.
And they do still like need ongoing support. And yeah. I know a lot of people who were in Lahaina that were saying like, yeah, after they were not in the news it felt like they were just forgotten. And so I think I really wanted to show just, yeah, like a snapshot of what life was looking like for them several months after.
And for Hawaii I think the recovery time is even longer because we don't have as many resources. You know, a lot of things have to be shipped over. We don't have as many like workers as well. And so it's also been interesting to see how like with the L.A fires like I'm already starting to see a couple houses in Altadena being rebuilt and it's like Lahaina has just started I feel like kind of finish -- like there are houses now that are like complete and people have moved in, but it's not the majority of the properties for sure.
Sarah Ray: Yeah. Yeah. That long term recovery process. And then what the community learns in the process and all of that is just so impactful.
One of the things I would say I really took from your film was this many, many generations of relationships built and, you know, love of elders and a way more collectivist spirit, you know, around we need each other because we're over here in the middle of the Pacific. You know?
And also there's a little bit of this too in your film. It's sort of deep suspicion or not having faith in, I should say, whether the state itself will support you and help you in these moments. And so you really need each other. Yeah. And how that compares to L.A too and how unique that might be for different places versus others when they get a disaster. And in this moment where we're taking more and more away from FEMA and from state agencies that would not just warn us about it or take care of us after, you know, any of that stuff, it's all getting pretty dismantled. And so this sort of urgency around those relationships is something I really took from your film too.
Laurel Tamayo: Yeah. And that's something I didn't include in my film was that FEMA was really helpful to -- in that -- or like FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, they like were really helpful in that they paid for people to stay in those hotels for months after the fire. And so even though yes we need this like collective like spirit or like collective like action from the community it's like we also need government support after a disaster.
Sarah Ray: Wouldn't it be nice if we had more of it? Yeah. More of it for sure. Definitely.
Laurel Tamayo: And so yeah. Like FEMA like -- I don't think individual go fund mes would have been able to cover, you know, for all these people to stay somewhere last minute and like for so long. And so it is like it makes me nervous that so many people are like losing their jobs and they're like -- funding is getting pulled from emergency agencies because like it's -- I'm just wondering how that will change the next disaster.
Sarah Ray: If you're just joining us, on the show today is Laurel Tamayo, director of the film "Healing Lahaina."
So one thing that is often missing in mainstream conversations about wildfires is why they're happening in the first place. They just cover the disaster and then, you know, management, and then maybe a little bit of after the effect. In some sense one could say that wildfires are not wild at all. They're really human made. And I'm curious why you don't shy away from that in your film. You link the colonial exploitation of the land and native Hawaiian peoples to the disaster itself.
This is sort of a two part question for you. Can you unpack that link a little bit for us for listeners who might not know the history of Hawaii as well as you do? And maybe too did you have any hesitation including that kind of critique in your film?
Laurel Tamayo: Yes. Those are good questions. So in Lahaina, you know, it was it's funny. There's a lot of this that I actually didn't learn until the fire as well. Lahaina used to be a wetland community and it to me like growing up visiting there every year I always thought of it as just a dry hot place. And so I was shocked to hear that actually when it was in native Hawaiians' hands like that land was actually very like, you know, full of life and it was lush and yeah it was a wetland. And so it wasn't until outsiders came in and decided to grow sugar cane in Lahaina -- that was like a main -- a really big export for Hawaii.
And that was actually the reason why my great grandpa came from the Philippines was there were so many workers that came from Asia to work in these plantations in Hawaii. And so that -- once sugar cane plantations, you know -- it was like just one crop and then after tourism started getting to be more lucrative than sugar cane a lot of hotels started kind of taking over the Kanapali area and then a lot of the sugar cane plantations they were just kind of abandoned. Like the areas were just kind of like that land was not taken care of. A lot of invasive dry grasses started taking over the areas.
And so it was kind of like the perfect storm I guess of like invasive grasses, very dry, and then temperatures like reaching really like abnormal for Lahaina, but like kind of on track with climate change. Like it was like that as well as there was like a hurricane that was happening off of Hawaii that like made it super windy in Lahaina that day of the fire.
And so it was just a lot of -- and, you know, hurricanes are also something that have been worsened with climate change. And so just a lot of things combined that unfortunately made it the perfect storm for such a deadly fire. And what's crazy is that the year before -- actually no. Yeah. The year before the fire I had visited Lahaina and this is a trip that I've done every year since I was a baby because my grandparents live there. And I loved our beach days where we would just lay out in the sun talking story, eating ***DOUBLE CHECK**, all of that.
And I went in 2022 and it was so hot and I remember my like feet just burning on the sand. Like I was like "Oh my gosh. It's so hot. It's like weird. I've never experienced this." Normally I can just go barefoot and be fine. And I went snorkeling for an hour and when I came back on the shore I was like, "I can't stand it. Like let's go inside."
And as I was packing up my things I had a plastic coffee cup that had actually melted and morphed in the sand. Like I had dug it into the sand to stand up and then when I picked it up it was like morphed and I was like, "Oh my gosh. I've never seen this before." And it was really in that moment where I was like, "Oh my gosh. This place that I imagined like taking my future kids and future grand kids to one day might be a place that's too unbearably hot to enjoy as the effects of climate change get worse."
And like that month I remember looking it up later and it had broken a bunch of heat records for Maui at that time. And then yeah. I had all these worries and I remember telling some people and they're like, "You're being dramatic." And so like I literally was talking about that on panels and things and then a year later was when the wildfire happened in Lahaina.
And so it's again I guess back to that anticipatory grief idea where I was already kind of grieving the idea of not being able to enjoy that beach and then it ended up being unfortunately something worse. But yeah. I now am not even remembering what your question was…
Sarah Ray: Yeah. Oh, that's -- I mean first of all just thank you for that story. That's very, very evocative. And I often think, "Oh, we're never going to feel climate change in our bodies and that's why it's so hard to get organized around it." But that visceral description of your bare feet on the sand as a way that you came to know climate change and access all those emotions to think about it in a deeper way is just very beautiful. So thank you for that.
But yeah. My question was did you have hesitation bringing that kind of larger critique into the film?
Laurel Tamayo: I definitely did feel some hesitation about talking about that. And this is now bringing a memory back to me that I had forgotten about where I was like reaching out to alumni of my school and there was a man who actually answered, but then he was basically telling me like, "Climate change isn't real." And like native Hawaiians just complain about things. And like what -- don't talk about colonization. All these things.
And I was like, "Okay. Thank you." But it was like I think I have been in this bubble of people who like work in climate and are very aware of different social justice issues and so I felt safe talking about it, like including it in my film.
And then talking to this man who was completely outside of my circle, someone I never would have normally talked to, it was like "Oh yeah." There are probably a lot of people who would not like this.
Sarah Ray: Or like everything but that part. Right?
Laurel Tamayo: Yeah. Maybe.
Sarah Ray: That's kind of why I was asking. I was like, you know, she could have gone -- she could have walked the safe line and not included that. And then maybe had more money pour in. I don't know. I'm just saying, you know, there's that sort of, do I appease this particular population and try to make every -- make them happy? Or do I come out with this hard hitting harder truth that a lot of people don't want to hear about?
And you chose to go the latter, which I love. I love that part of your film. I was sort of waiting for it. When it came I was like, "Yes. Way to go." But it was just one of those moments. I thought, "I wonder what she was thinking there." I wonder if that was a hard decision. Yeah. Yeah. Just a film -- a director decision, you know. But yeah. It sounds like it wasn't until you heard this one guy and you thought, "Maybe somebody won't like it, but I don't care about him." So yeah. Good for you. Stay that way.
Laurel Tamayo: Thankfully I -- because I -- yeah. I was like yeah. Maybe is this going to be, you know, a red flag to people? Because in my crowd funding basically we -- I remember when I asked a friend who was more experienced in film making I was like, "About how much do you think it would cost to make a film, a short documentary film?" $50,000. And I was like my jaw was on the ground. I was like, how am I going to get $50,000? And so we actually crowd funded half of our budget and we included that. Like we said that it was going to touch on climate change and colonization. And there was part of me that was like would we get less money.
Sarah Ray: No. I'm so glad to hear that. Yeah. It's exactly what I'm asking. Yeah.
Laurel Tamayo: Yeah. I'm not sure if -- like yeah maybe some people did look at it and then was like, "Yeah no." But I don't know because we did raise our -- like we had a goal of $25,000. We got it. And so --
Sarah Ray: Yeah. Yeah. Keep moving. Keep doing it. That's what I say. Thank you for humoring that question. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So funny. Those funny memories, I love it. That's like the back side of -- the back end stories of like how do you make these decisions. What are the concessions you make? What are you really trying to argue? What can you not let go? You know, concede. And butting up against the sort of financials of it, you know. Like we got to have the money to make the thing. So yeah. Beautiful.
I am -- I have this question about, you know, when you find yourself in audiences with this film what are people's responses to it? Is there a sense of -- I'm sure they love the film. That's not the question. I guess I'm saying do you find yourself being more or less hopeful about people when you share this film and learn more about audiences? What are they presenting to you? How do they show up for you?
Laurel Tamayo: Yeah. I love this question. I don't think anyone's asked me this before. I feel more hopeful when I'm in audiences and people come up to me afterwards and tell me things like, "Oh, your grandma reminded me of my grandma." Or like, "I had never seen brown men talking about their mental health on screen before. Like this is really making me think." Or like, "I'm going to go home and make a go bag after this." Or like, "I'm going to sign up for like a certain class." Which is we had included a team disaster preparedness training in our film where they were getting certified and like learning CPR, fire suppression, medical triage.
And so it's yeah. I feel like the -- it's funny because when I was making the film people would ask me like, "Oh, what is your next film going to be?" And I would be like, "This might be my last film." Because --
Sarah Ray: I'm never doing this again.
Laurel Tamayo: Yeah. I was like this is so hard. And like so emotionally draining. And like showing it to audiences has really changed my answer now from that where I'm like, "Wow. This is so rewarding." And like, you know, this is actually touching people and like, you know, people are actually taking action after watching this film.
And so I yeah. It definitely makes me feel more hopeful and it was really cool because I got to - we had our international premier in Berlin last summer. And I went and it was so wild because I'm like this is like all the way on the other side of the world. But there were people still coming up to me and saying how much it touched them and, you know, how much it made them think about disasters and climate change.
And there are even people who were coming up to me that were like, "Oh, I actually did conservation work in Hawaii." And like a lot of people had connections to Hawaii and I'm like this is so crazy that I'm like meeting people who Hawaii is so special to them and they're all the way in Berlin. And so it was -- it was really -- yeah. It's been really cool to share it with an audience that's outside of Hawaii and outside of the country.
And yeah. I never thought that I would get to see my family on screen in Berlin. And like we also had screenings with Patagonia stores in Chicago and New York and I think what was interesting about Chicago was that was the first screening I had where a lot of people there did not really know about Lahaina. Like maybe they heard that the fire had happened, but they did not know many details about it. And so the questions they were asking me were just so thoughtful and I was like "Wow. This is really cool to bring this story to a community that, you know, is so different than Hawaii." And there aren't that many people who have a connection to Hawaii there. And so it's been amazing to get to share this film with so many people.
Sarah Ray: Yeah. That's comforting because I was thinking do you have to, you know, provide therapy to all these despairing people in your audience? You say, "No. It fills me up."
Laurel Tamayo: It does fill me up, but yes I also do feel that responsibility of like oh I just like put a lot of heaviness on people. And so I've started to do a breathing exercise for my in person screenings like when I'm -- right. Like between the screening and the panel I'm like this feels very jarring to go straight in to a panel. And so I've now started doing like a grounding exercise with audiences and a lot of people have also told me like, "Oh. Thank you for doing that grounding exercise. Like I really needed that."
Sarah Ray: Okay. Last question for you, Laurel. What are you doing now or next I dare ask. I dare not ask. And how can people support that work?
Laurel Tamayo: Yeah. That's a great question. So we are still working on or we're still having people do community screenings of "Healing Lahaina." And so if you're interested in sharing it with your classroom or coworkers or any kind of group that you're with we've even had it screen at like libraries. And so if "Healing Lahaina" sounds interesting to you and you'd want to share it with your community you can go to our website healinglahainafilm.com and fill out a community screening request form. And we'll reach out to you about that.
We also are still we just played at the Ashes to Films festival. And so we're still playing in different places and so you can also follow us on Instagram healing Lahaina film to keep up with any updates on where we'll be playing next.
Sarah Ray: Okay. You definitely skirted the question of the next project. That's okay. I'm sure you have plenty going on.
Laurel Tamayo: I do have like a dream next project, but it just has not -- it's still kind of just in my head so far which is I would love to do a documentary about local kids in Hawaii getting in to bird watching because I went to the bird festival, the Hawaii Festival of Birds, on the big island last year and, yeah, I was just learning from a bird guide about how like a lot of local kids on the island don't even like have the opportunity to go to a lot of -- because a lot of the places that have the like native forest birds are protected areas that like you need a permit to go to or, you know, you need certain permissions.
And so he was really passionate about like oh it would be cool to like get more schools in here and stuff. And yeah. I guess growing up I didn't even think of bird watching as a thing I could do. And so I think because for me now learning about birds as a hobby and like learning about how Hawaii is considered like the extinction capital of the world because of how many endemic species we have that are going endangered and extinct I'm kind of like oh if we could get kids to care about birds now like when they're kids and then like, you know, maybe they'll go in to conservation jobs or things like that that would be really awesome.
And I met a little kid at this festival who he had gotten into birds because he learned about them at his preschool. And he was like six years old and he was like, "Have you seen the **ADD BIRD***? Have you seen --" Like he was naming all these birds and I'm like, "Oh my gosh. How do you know all these things?"
And he like because I was talking to his mom and his mom was like, "Yeah. He's gotten our whole family in to birding." And so like they were actually from O'ahu and like his grandparents are in to birding now and his sister and the parents. And so like they all flew from O'ahu to the big island to come to this bird festival.
And it was like because of this that okay and I was like okay I -- like I'd love to have stories like that. And also kind of touching on like the mental health piece of for me it's really the only time where I'm fully present and not worried about work, not worried about social media or anything because I'm just locked in on trying to find birds.
And so I feel also kids, their attentions are all over the place now because there are so many different technologies that they have access to. And, you know, all these like short form videos that are so addicting and really affect your attention span. And so if we could provide an outlet for them to, you know, do something else that's like meaningful and brings them like peace and maybe makes them more curious about the world I think that would be really beautiful.
Sarah Ray: I first of all I love that idea. And I'm also just applauding you and admiring you for your courage to share a nascent idea like that. Put it out in the world. And you just modeled exactly what you just said about if you can't have the imagination for it. And if you don't kind of put it in your journal it's really hard to manifest it, you know. And you just manifested that right here. So thank you for sharing that.
Laurel Tamayo: Yes. It's going to happen now.
Sarah Ray: It's going to happen now. So really lovely to talk to you. I had goosebumps all through that. So just loving everything you had to say and all the offerings that you're bringing to the world. Just keep it up. It's wonderful. Wonderful.
Laurel Tamayo: Thank you so much. And it's such an honor to even be here talking to you. Like you've done -- like I've heard your name so much in this climate change and mental health field. And so even when you requested to screen my film I was like, "No way. This is really cool." So I'm very honored to get to talk to you and be in community with you.
Sarah Ray: Oh. We have fun. We have fun, Laurel. Thank you.
You've just listened to my conversation with gen Z film maker Laurel Tamayo, director of "Healing Lahaina." And future director of that film she described about kids learning Hawaii's bird species. I'm trying to help her manifest that too. Find show notes and listen to this and other episodes of "Climate Magic" on KHSU.org. Follow "Climate Magic" on Instagram and Linked In and wherever you find your podcasts. I'm Sarah Jaquette Ray and thanks for listening to "Climate Magic."
Produced at Cal Poly Humboldt.
