Private Project

Healing Lahaina

Director Laurel Tamayo’s family lost their multigenerational home in the 2023 Lahaina wildfire, the deadliest wildfire in modern US history. Through personal recounts, this documentary paints an intimate portrait of survival, climate change, colonization, and community resilience.

Many have seen the shocking images and videos from the destruction of the Lahaina fire, but as news stories slow down many survivors are living in uncertainty. This documentary highlights the personal stories of Lahaina survivors, and how a community finds strength and resilience through healing.

  • Laurel Tamayo
    Director
    Co-Producer, Gen Z Mental Health: Climate Stories (2022); Impact Producer, I Am Greta (2020)
  • Tehya Jennett
    Producer
    Director/Co-Producer, Gen Z Mental Health: Climate Stories (2022); Producer/Writer, Out of Plastic (2024); Producer, Stomach of the Earth (2020)
  • Maxfield Biggs
    Editor
    Editor, Gen Z Mental Health: Climate Stories (2022); Director/Writer/Editor, Out of Plastic (2024); Director/Writer/Animator, Dog Years (2023); Director/Writer/Editor, Stomach of the Earth (2020)
  • Austin Alimbuyuguen
    Director of Photography
  • Reece Pottorff
    Sound Mixer
  • Amia Voluntad
    Production Assistant / Additional Camera
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Short
  • Runtime:
    35 minutes 30 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    September 5, 2024
  • Production Budget:
    51,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States, United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States, United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    1.90:1
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Hawai'i Int'l Film Festival
    Honolulu
    United States
    October 8, 2024
    World Premiere
    Nominated for "Best Made in Hawai'i" Short
  • Los Angeles Asian Film Awards
    Los Angeles
    United States
    December 7, 2024
    California Premiere
    Best Short Documentary
Director Biography - Laurel Tamayo

Laurel is passionate about communicating the climate crisis through film & TV. She was the Co-producer and Impact Producer for Gen Z Mental Health: Climate Stories (2022), a short film that explores the mental health impacts of climate change. The film screened in 15 countries, won three awards, and was nominated for the Deep Blue Environmental Shorts Award at the 2023 Hawai’i International Film Festival.

She is currently the Impact Associate at Rare, supporting writers on integrating climate on screen. She was an impact producer for I Am Greta, inspiring the audience to take action on climate change. She also worked on the Hollywood Climate Summit and the Good Energy Playbook. She was recognized in the Forbes list of 68 Climate Leaders Changing The Film and TV Industry. She is currently in the Harvard Executive Education Program working on her Public Leadership certificate, where she was awarded the Bacon Climate Leadership scholarship.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

Director Laurel Tamayo grew up visiting her family in Maui, and specifically loved visiting Ka’anapali Beach. Her and her family would lay out on the sand and talk story all day with a view of the beautiful blue ocean and coconut trees. In the Fall of 2022, she shared a story to her Harvard class about how her most recent trip felt different. The sand was so hot it stung her feet and melted her coffee cup. Maui had hit heat records 5 times that same month. She worried about the future of this beach, a place she always envisioned bringing her own kids to, not knowing the devastation that would hit the town less than a year later.

Laurel brings a deeply personal connection to this story, as well as a professional background in film and climate storytelling. In the days that followed the fire, Laurel recalls searching through list after list of names from evacuation sites, unsure of the whereabouts of her family members. She watched the news as the vibrant town of Lahaina turned into ashes. Working in the climate field, she knew the reality of increasing natural disasters and noted seeing more and more disasters on the news. She never thought it would impact her and her family so directly and so soon.

Since then, Laurel has witnessed how the fire has impacted daily life for her family and family friends. This documentary will help tell their story, while also acting as a global call to action for climate resilience and disaster preparedness.