Let us consider just for a moment that this film is one small part of a series of twenty-eight films shot by Robert K. Bonine in Hawaii between May and August 1906. Let us consider for a moment that, together - and the films were available both separately and together - those films constitute a documentary that is nearly an hour long. Let us consider for a moment that the US had annexed the islands of Hawai'i - totally illegally and for no justifiable reason - in 1898, just eight years before. Let us consider for a moment that some people in the US might be interested in knowing about the territories the peoples whose confidence they had abused and whose territory they had wrested from them. Let us consider for a moment that these films were commissioned by the Hawaiian Promotion Committee. Let us consider for a moment that this is the first substantial documentary footage to be shot in those colonised territories although Bonine had himself filmed there earlier in 1901 (for Mutoscope). Let us consider for a moment that this particular scene of surf hitting rocks is a prelude to a further film of surfboats in operation, which was (and still is) one of the principal attractions of the islands. Let us consider for a moment that the films contain information about the island's main industry (sugar), about the lives, food and customs of the people. Let us consider that it contains some very beautiful views of a place with which few USians at that time would have been familiar. Let us consider that these films were shown in many different venues, sometimes accompanied by lectures, and subsequently re-released by George Kleine Productions, who had a particular interest in educational films. Let us, above all, consider........
Unsurprisingly, Bonine decided to throw up his job with Edison, leave the US and settle in Honolulu, where he died in 1923.
Unsurprisingly, Bonine decided to throw up his job with Edison, leave the US and settle in Honolulu, where he died in 1923.