Last week, the Bentonville Film Festival screened more than 100 movies, including several shorts focused on homegrown stories. One of those films, "Iakwe: Hello, Goodbye," is a fictionalized version of one man's real-life journey to discovering his family and his community. Daniel Caruth has more.
When Jacob Hawkes was just starting out his career, he had a job as a door-to-door salesman. One day, while knocking on doors in Springdale, Arkansas, he went into one house hoping to secure a sale.
"And yeah, I'm just trying to make a living, trying to make some money. So I stumbled upon this door, happened to be Marshallese. And, um, yeah, it was just like, hey, you guys are Marshallese? And they're like, yeah, like, 'Iakwe,'" Hawkes said.
Hawkes, who is adopted and grew up in Eden, Utah, is Marshallese but says he never knew his birth family or much about his background, though he did know the Marshallese greeting "Iakwe."
"And so they invite me in, and I'm thinking in my head, this is my first sale, I'm going to get these, because you got something going. And the mother was just like, so you're Marshallese, what's your birth name? And I said, it's Ajani. And she kind of, you know, gets emotional and leaves the room, um, and then ends up coming back with a photo of her and my birth mom. And so she ends up saying like, hey, I'm your auntie. And so it just was this beautiful connection," Hawkes said.
That moment, meeting his blood relatives by happenstance, changed his life. It also is the premise of a new narrative film, "Iakwe: Hello, Goodbye," which made its debut at the Bentonville Film Festival last week. Nathan Fitch, who directed and co-wrote the film with Russell Leigh Sharman, says he was struck by Hawkes' story and knew he wanted to portray this part of the Marshallese experience in the United States on screen.
"But like, representing the Marshallese community as like victims is — I think we're trying to do a counter narrative, and I think agency is really important to doing that. And I think, you know, new immigrant groups often get labeled with stereotypes that aren't accurate. And so I think representing the Marshallese as dynamic, interesting, talented people and part of the fabric of the community here, you know, that's the point for me," Fitch said.
Fitch, a former Peace Corps volunteer in Micronesia, made his directorial debut with the 2017 documentary "Island Soldiers," about U.S. military service members from the Pacific Islands, and screened it in Northwest Arkansas, which is home to the largest population of Marshallese outside of the islands.
"And it kind of opened my eyes to, you know, the large community that's present in Northwest Arkansas. And then, kind of starting during the pandemic, I was hearing the stories about Marshallese being impacted by COVID-19 and the high fatality rates. And so that kind of got me to Northwest Arkansas with a camera. So I've been coming back and forth for the last couple years, shooting for a feature documentary called 'Essential Islanders.' And kind of in the process of making that, I met Jake, who had moved to New York, and a mutual friend introduced us, and he had this incredible story, which is basically what our film is about, how he connected with his family," Fitch said.
"Iakwe: Hello, Goodbye" portrays a fictionalized version of Hawkes' story, with Hawkes playing the lead actor. Fitch says the most important part of the production was getting buy-in from the community here in Arkansas, both in front of and behind the camera. So over the course of one week last summer, Fitch shot on location in Springdale with a few of his colleagues and a group of six media production students from Springdale High School.
"So I reached out to a high school teacher at Springdale High School, Rochelle Moore, and she teaches media classes and has a high percentage of Marshallese students. And it didn't just have to be for the Marshallese community, but I went in, I met a couple times and talked to them a little bit about film production. And the idea was always to try to figure out a way to loop them in to sort of, you know, build capacity, like as a Peace Corps volunteer. That was like basically my job when I was in the Pacific. And so I think trying to extend that mission of like, you know, empowering young people so they can tell their own stories and not have outsiders have to parachute in," Fitch said.
Leland Atlan and Angel Kumtak were two of those students and are both Marshallese. They say this real-world experience was more valuable than just learning about film production from a classroom.
"It was, I guess, getting involved with the film, it was kind of really exciting, not for me, but also like, you know, just to get to feel what's it like to be like a filmmaker, get to work behind the scenes. I get to see AJ, what's it like to act. And I think it's like a first to everyone else, especially for me, because I really do like filmmaking. A lot of TikTok. Um, but it's a really good experience for everyone else, especially for the people here.”
“And yeah, getting to get that opportunity, like the teacher just comes up to you and is like, hey, do you guys want to work on this film? And we've heard of Nate before he came to our school and talked. Um, so when we got to actually be on set and actually work behind the scenes, it was really good. It's like really a way to get your foot in the door.”
The students had some prior knowledge of film and equipment before filming, but Fitch says there was little pre-training before they actually started shooting the short film.
"I mean, my day job is a professor, I teach filmmaking classes in New York. And I'm a big proponent of like learning by doing. So I think we just did it that way. You know, it's like our DP Eric would like hand them an anamorphic lens and ask them for, you know, the 85, and they'd have to like figure out which lens that was and hand it back to him without dropping it and, you know, trial by fire. I think that's the best way to learn," Fitch said.
Yulissa Martinez was another student trainee for the film.
"I think it was the end of the year before senior year, she was like, well, this director is going to come, and he wants some students to work on the film with him and, you know, just see behind the scenes. Um, so I took it as a great opportunity to kind of get my foot in the door. Um, you know, I've always been interested in film, and so to like be able to like see the actual process and experience it and be doing behind the scenes work, it was really amazing. So it was a good experience," Martinez said.
Martinez recently graduated in hopes to go into film production as a career but says before working on "Iakwe," she didn't know if that was a viable career path from her home in Arkansas. She says this opportunity has helped her and other students gain practical tools they may need for a future career.
"It was a very collaborative experience to like learn from. Um, there was some parts where, uh, you know, we were kind of like researching how to make the lighting better, the sounds. Um, and it was just really like, it was a good learning experience on how like the film industry does work, you know, how the process of making a film is. It's mostly like not what I expected, but like in a more positive manner. Um, I was just guessing it'd be like, okay, we got this shot, let's go. But like everybody's patience to remake and refilm, it was really cool," Martinez said.
Fitch says having the students from Springdale High School as his production team wasn't just valuable for them. It also helped his crew gain access to and trust of the Marshallese community in Springdale.
"And I would say, you know, from our perspective, having all the students from Springdale High School involved really brought a lot to the production in terms of — I mean, I could cite a couple of examples. We shot this scene — unfortunately, it got cut — but everyone had to jump in and be like a background actor. Um, and we shot this final, it's called a kemem, it's a big birthday party. We kind of rolled in, you know, it was a real thing that was happening, and we got permission to film. But having, you know, like Leland there to kind of take us around, suddenly the community is like, these aren't just outsiders, this is part of the community," Fitch said.
"Yeah. I mean, I would say before I came really with the camera, I met with community leaders who had kind of known — they had known my previous projects. So I had a little bit of a track record, and I asked them, I was like, do you guys want me to do a thing? Because it's a lot of work, um, and I don't want to like waste anyone's time if you don't want me here. And the piece of advice that really stuck with me is this: come back, you know? And so I think that what helped with this short, in part, was like having been back and forth for the last two years. And so people knowing me, and then obviously having Jake as a key collaborator, our Linda, our other actor, is Marshallese. So that was really critical," Fitch said.
Fitch is making good on his promise to come back. Though he lives in New York, he spends a lot of his time in Arkansas. He's currently working on a feature-length documentary about the more than 15,000 Marshallese who now reside in Arkansas, based on his 2023 short documentary "In Exile." He says, as much as "Iakwe: Hello, Goodbye" is about the actual film, the entire project is more about giving back to the community that has let him in and shared their stories.
"I mean, I think it was, you know, part of the reason we went to screen at the Bentonville Film Festival was so that folks from the Marshallese community could be present, including our awesome high school crew. Um, because, yeah, it's like we kind of felt a responsibility to — there's a lot of journalists that come in and kind of parachute in for a day and do the story of the nuclear testing and never come back. So kind of the point for us was to bring the story home and allow the community to kind of engage with it. So hopefully we'll have a good turnout of Marshallese folks today. Um, yeah, so that was special, I think, for our world premiere," Fitch said.
"And I think, you know, the hope of having the students involved was to kind of try to create a pipeline so that they can get their foot in the door. And I think being at a film festival, there's so many opportunities I've discovered just being there and meeting people. So hopefully having this here and having you all here, you can hang out afterwards and meet some people, and you just never know where that could lead. And it feels like the Bentonville Film Festival has a good reputation and a lot of great filmmakers who we've been meeting, so it seemed like a great home," Fitch said.
For Hawkes, this moment feels like a triumph — to see his story represented, but also to share it with his newfound family.
"Because I got to meet more Marshallese people that ended up being even my family members as well. So it was just kind of like a double whammy. But, um, I think for me, because like being adopted from the Marshall Islands and then being raised in Utah, you know, with the different families, it's a whole new dynamic. Um, but I just hope other people that are adopted or from the Marshall Islands or anybody really can feel like they're not alone in this. So hopefully we can all just lean on each other," Hawkes said.
"Iakwe: Hello, Goodbye" is making the rounds at other festivals, and Fitch says it will be broadcast and available to stream on PBS later this year.
Ozarks at Large transcripts are created on a rush deadline and edited for length and clarity. Copy editors utilize AI tools to review work. KUAF does not publish content created by AI. Please reach out to kuafinfo@uark.edu to report an issue. The audio version is the authoritative record of KUAF programming.
