Just one more example of political corruption and political correctness as enforced by "our" "public servants".

Referred from Hawaii Free-Press to the original article in Civil Beat: https://www.civilbeat.org/2018/11/filmmaker-sues-hawaii-my-film-is-not-the-history-they-want-told/

Filmmaker Sues Hawaii: My Film Is ‘Not The History They Want Told’

Tim Chey alleges the state film office withheld tax grants for his movie “Islands” because it’s about the Christian conversion of a Hawaiian chiefess.

Now an independent filmmaker who has made a movie telling a Hawaiian story, featuring what he says is a mostly Native Hawaiian and Polynesian cast, is crying foul. Tim Chey, producer and director of a historical drama about Hawaii’s Chiefess Kapiolani, an early Hawaiian convert to Christianity, says the state has refused to grant tax credits his film has earned.

Chey’s suit includes claims related to a purported breach of contract involving the tax credits. It also alleges the film office discriminated against his film because it shows how a prominent Native Hawaiian helped establish Christianity in the islands in the 1800s. According to the suit, Chey received death threats from people who objected to the film’s content, which includes a scene in which Kapiolani defies the Hawaiian goddess Pele and descends into a volcano to test her newfound Christian faith.

At one point before production, the suit says, Chey received “a strange message” from an employee of the film office expressing concerns about the movie.

“This is a complete violation of Filmmaker’s 1st Amendment rights for a government agency to inquire about the content of a movie — it’s almost unheard of,” the suit says. “Imagine a California agency calling a Hollywood studio and ‘inquiring’ about the content of the horror movie ‘The Nun.’ The outrage would be worldwide. This is no different.”

“It’s not the history they want told,” Chey said in an interview. “But I’m sorry. It happened.” [ ...the High Chiefess Kapiolani [at] Kilauea on that historic day in 1824 when she defied Pele by eating the sacred ohelo berries without first offering some to the goddess and declaring, "Jehovah is my God. He kindled these fires. I fear not Pele." https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/hawaii-notes/vol5-2i.htm]

I saw that. I am curious on what grounds the state claimed a legal denial of the tax breaks.

It's impossible to tell until the film office decides to share their side of the story. The track record of the production company is a bit shady to say the least, and it's quite possible that they burned some bridges along the way. This controversy may be part of the producer's marketing plan to bring the film to more people's attention because it's pretty obvious it's not going to win any awards. Half the trailer is drone shots and in the other half the acting is so wooden that one wonders if they did their casting calls at Honsador