A Filipino sugar cane workers' strike in Hawai'i in 1924 becomes explosive, leading to the deaths of 16 strikers and four police deputies. A fog of fear and reprisals in its aftermath grips Filipinos, as surviving strikers are arrested, tried and many jailed or deported. As the young Higher Wages Movement  is crushed, a mass exodus of thousands of Filipinos abandon Hawai’i for California or return to the Philippines, even as thousands more immigrants stream to Hawaii seeking better lives. Virtually a forgotten history for 95 years, THE HANAPEPE MASSACRE MYSTERY documentary film is being directed by EMMY Award winner Stephanie J. Castillo. 

SYNOPSIS:

When weary striking Filipino sugar cane workers in Hawai'i make a desperate, dangerous move, their world erupts into a melee, with police killing 16 of them. Four sheriff deputies are also killed. The aftermath of the Filipino strike of 1924 on the island of Kaua'i leads to martial law, mass arrests, trials and jail or deportations for hundreds. Surviving widows and families struggle to piece their lives back together. The young sugar cane labor movement is shattered. A mass exodus of thousands of Filipinos from Hawai’i to California or back to the Philippines begins even as thousands more immigrate from the Philippines, seeking better lives. Virtually a forgotten history, THE HANAPEPE MASSACRE MYSTERY, directed by EMMY Award winner Stephanie J. Castillo, will follow researchers looking to find the unmarked mass grave and searching for the names of the striking Filipinos killed. It will explore questions about the 95-year old story of the strike and how the massacre affected life in Hawai'i and elsewhere, from the perspective of strikers, their descendants and others weighing the relevance today of such a shocking event a century ago. The completed film is slated for a 2024 premiere on the 100th anniversary of what has been called "the Hanapepe war."