This profile is part of our Culture Shifters series, which highlights people who are changing the way we think about the world around us. Read about film archivist Maya Cade , internet star Keyon Elkins , rapper Latash , music historian Katelina Eccleston and artist Kay Rufai .

Alika Tengan was itching to make something in 2020, after a film he was hoping to shoot that year was sidelined because of the pandemic. That fall, his friend, freelance journalist Naz Kawakami, told him some big news: He was planning to move to New York in early 2021. The two decided it would be interesting to make a movie about leaving home, and the idea for Every Day in Kaimuk was born.

That dilemma of whether to leave the familiar and take a leap into the unknown is a tale as old as time. But as Tengan explained over Zoom, that conversation is especially interesting in the backdrop of Hawaii, where both of them were born and raised.

Because hes a mixed Native Hawaiian guy like myself hes Japanese and Native Hawaiian we had similar perspectives on feeling Hawaiian but not Hawaiian enough, Japanese but not Japanese enough. I think we related a lot in that way. And he has also lived here his whole life, and so moving for him was a big deal, as it is for many of us in Hawaii, Tengan said. I think being Hawaiian and not feeling Hawaiian enough can give you a rootlessness, and it makes the decision to leave easier in some ways, and more complicated in some ways too.