‘August at Akiko’s’ replicates Chris Yogi’s Hawaii bloodline

Filmmaker Christopher Makoto Yogi was on the Big Island scouting for locations suitable for a period piece film about his grandfather when he discovered Akiko’s Buddhist Bed & Breakfast in Wailea — a collection of old-time plantation-era houses that reminded Yogi of his grandfather’s home. He found operator Akiko Masuda “really interesting,” as were the town and its inhabitants.

“Something about it all spoke to me on a deeply spiritual level that I didn’t understand at the time, but I thought, ‘Some day I’m going to make a film here,’” Yogi said. He learned several months later that both sides of his family traced their roots back to ancestors who had lived in that part of the Big Island.

“That place had something to do with my family, with my history and the unknown history,” Yogi explained. “It was the confirmation that this is the place where I need to be.”

That feeling was the genesis of Yogi’s latest film, “August at Akiko’s,” which touches on hidden stories from the past, and on reconnecting with a history that may be unknown. The film screens Nov. 14 and Nov. 16 as part of the Hawaii International Film Festival, which opens Thursday and runs through Nov. 18. Yogi’s film has been nominated for the festival’s Made in Hawaii Feature Film Award and its Kau Ka Hoku Filmmaker Award for emerging directors.

ALEX ZHANG Hungtai, an experimental musician and actor who has released albums as Dirty Beaches, stars as a Hawaii-born musician named Alex who arrives in Wailea looking for information about his deceased grandparents and their extended family.

Alex’s years on the mainland have left him detached from his island roots, but the gentle guidance he receives from Akiko (Akiko Masuda), the proprietor of the Buddhist bed and breakfast he takes a room at, helps him slow down and reconnect with Hawaii.

“We had an instant connection. I felt like Zhang was my cousin,” Yogi said.

Zhang, born in Taiwan, lived in Hawaii as a child, but Yogi didn’t know that when they met.

“When I decided to go to Hilo and make something with Akiko in this small town, my producer — Sarah, who’s my wife — said Alex should be the guy in it. At first it didn’t make sense to me, but then the more I thought about it the more I thought that it would be amazing.”

Yogi shot the film from an outline and welcomed suggestions from the cast and crew.

The film incorporates musical sounds, including saxophone solos by Zhang and Buddhist bells by Masuda.

“I was really interested in exploring an improvisational style within film-making,” Yogi said. “I wrote a 10-page treatment evoking moods that I wanted to capture, evoking emotions I wanted to capture. We used that as our guiding light, but I also left myself room to abandon it at anytime if something better came along. We left ourselves open to the experience and then all these ideas just starting flowing from everyone.”

“It was like we were riding this river where we didn’t know where the film was taking us — but it was fun. It made me fall in love with filmmaking again.”