Steve Sue, founder and chairman of nonprofit ID8 (ide•ate), recently received a $25,000 donation from the 100th Infantry Battalion Veterans organization, or Club 100, for his latest storytelling project about the unit of soldiers from Hawaiʻi who fought in World War II.
ID8's mission is "to foster ideation and expression to create positive impacts." Currently, it is producing a documentary called, “The 100th: Seeds of Aloha.”
The film’s trailer, which includes an original song by Harold Payne titled “They Gave Their All,” was screened June 28 at a gathering commemorating the 83rd anniversary of the formation of the 100th Infantry Battalion.
“The 100th: Seeds of Aloha” is the second part of the Aloha Spirit film trilogy that launched “Shaka, A Story of Aloha” in 2024 and will conclude with “Ono: Foods of Aloha,” which is slated to start production by the end of the year.
Sue told Aloha State Daily that the film is “a story about soldiers going beyond the typical heroism, valor and sacrifice of war to share aloha. … The trilogy of Aloha Spirit films that ID8 is producing begins with Shaka, goes to the 100th and finishes with Ono, which is a food history of Hawaiʻi. All these films are immersive experiences for audiences that convey define and pass on the DNA of the aloha spirit.”
ID8 is continuing to raise funds for “The 100th: Seeds of Aloha,” which he said is intended for audiences from second grade and up. Sue said that the seed money from Club 100 will "help us with our domestic interviews that started at Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum. Marketing already captured 25 interviews but plan to capture at least 50 domestically.”
In the fall, ID8 will travel with a full film crew to Italy, France and Germany "to collect gratitude and connection stories," he said. "The concept of is very key to this film in that we're 80 years past the conflict and wish to create a story of healing and aloha.”
The film’s budget is “$500,000, of which we’ve raised 18% so far,” he noted.
“Our nonprofit does have recurring income on a quarterly basis from the Shaka license plate program but for the most part, we intend to raise the funds by donors who wish to share aloha spirit with the world, particularly given that 2026 is the 250th anniversary of the United States of America.”
There’s still much work to be done to compile content for the film, Sue said, adding, “We have a tremendous amount of archival content to pull, interviews to integrate, animated, maps, timelines and special effects to integrate.”
The film's postproduction budget is "significant," since ID8 aims to "pay living wages to both our traveling production crew [and] postproduction team," he said. Sue and the nonprofit's board members are unpaid volunteers.
The overall goal of the Aloha Spirit film trilogy is to “share aloha and help others make the world a better place through aloha," Sue said.
“Shaka, A Story of Aloha” has entered into a distribution contract, which will soon become public, he added.
“The estimated date of streaming release on a large scale will be November or December of this year. We have retained the theatrical rights to the film and will do platform and education releases on our own. All our films are created to be film classics with evergreen appeal.”
While there are many organizations helping to make this project possible, Sue highlighted a partnership with the Jesse Lewis Choose Love Movement based in Connecticut, “which has created a curriculum based on our Shaka film." According to Sue, the curriculum "uses seven- to 13-minute clips as icebreakers in classroom sessions, followed by experiential exercises for students" in grades seven through 12.
Now, the curriculum is "being converted to elementary school level," he said. "The first pilot has been through the entire Hawaiʻi [Department of Education] system and from there, potentially, can go out to Choose Love Movement’s 20,000 schools nationwide and schools in 121 participating countries.”
“The 100th: Seeds of Aloha” film will also likely be distributed in a similar fashion, Sue said, with the end goal to be streaming on airlines, cruise ships and more.
“I am most excited about our being able to bottle the concept of aloha and share it with the globe,” he said. “Aloha and the concept of paradise are simply a choice. We can choose to create a living hell around us or a living paradise. And everything we do is a nonprofit we underscore that principle.”
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Kelsey Kukaua Medeiros can be reached at kelsey@alohastatedaily.com.
