Ann Marie Kirk was given her grandfather's military ID tag when she was 12. She holds the chain in her hands now and says, "I guess that was already planting the seeds."

What has grown over the years has come to fruition in the beautiful "Homealani," a film by Kirk about her grandfather's remarkable life and enduring lessons.

Col. Oliver Homealani Kupau was a man respected and loved by his soldiers, his family and his community. The kupuna generation fondly remembers Col. Kupau of the famed Hawai'i's Own 298th Regiment.

"They were so admired, the 298th," says Beadie Dawson in the film. Dawson's father, Col. Kanahele, served with Col. Kupau. "They had such prestige and esteem in the community.

"If you said you were a member of the 298th Infantry, it was a wonderful compliment to you. Oh, my goodness, people were really impressed with that."

At home, Kupau was father to 13 children, including two hänai and any number of friends and relatives who came to stay at the family's big house on Rose Street in Kalihi.

He was born in 1899 and graduated from Kamehameha Schools in 1918. He became one of the highest ranking Native Hawaiian officers in the Army of his time. He was an expert marksman and he trained and prepared the 298th for battle during World War II at Schofield Barracks.

THROUGH HIS EYES

His life story is fascinating enough to be the subject of a film, but what makes "Homealani" truly astounding is the archival film and photographs Kirk found and included.

"There are hundreds of pictures, from when he was a child in 1904 with his grandparents to photos of his funeral at Punchbowl. I have never seen a life was so well documented," Kirk said.

In each photo, from childhood to old age, Kupau is strikingly handsome, the perfect leading man for a film. Kirk also has copies of speeches her grandfather wrote, ledgers he kept and letters his grandmother wrote to him in Hawaiian when he was a boarder at Kamehameha Schools.

When Kirk was in film school at UCLA, her mother sent her 16mm film her grandfather had shot. Kirk had no idea her grandfather had been interested in film and it suddenly made sense to her where her own interest came from.

The footage showed the family home in Kalihi, Waiahole and parts of O'ahu in the 1940s and 1950s; joyful, easy scenes of backyard parties and family life in an old-style Hawai'i home.

There was also footage of many military parades and images of hibiscus flowers, which the quiet, disciplined Col. Kupau loved.

"I always wanted to put his film together to tell a story but I didn't know what the story would be," Kirk said.

The focus became the man himself. Over the years, Kirk gathered interviews with family members and people who knew him or served under his command and she sifted through the hundreds of photographs and pages of letters and documents. "Homealani" is the story that emerged.

" I see the world through his eyes," Kirk said in the narration of the film. "Through the lens of the camera, I see the things that were important to him."

Some of the anecdotes that emerge about his life are unforgettable, like the ledger Kirk shows where her grandfather kept track of his money.

The day after graduating from Kamehameha, he started work at Pearl Harbor for $2.32 a day. "From that day until the day he died, he logged every penny he made and every penny he spent," Kirk said in the film. It is how he took care of his large, extended family.

Another story is of the last year of his life. He was ailing, and though he had hundreds of hours of sick leave to use, he refused to stay home from his job at Barbers Point Naval Air Station. He couldn't bend over to tie his own shoes, but he kept going to work because he wanted to stand as proof that Hawaiians are hardworking.

A RETURN TO ROOTS

Col. Kupau died in 1963 when his granddaughter Ann Marie was just a few months old.

In August of this year, she held a private screening for the children and grandchildren of Col. Oliver Kupau, which still totaled an audience of 90.

"One cousin brought my grandfather's shooting jacket," Kirk said. "We took it in front and put in on the back of a chair."

"There were tears, people cried. I think it brought everyone back to center and reminded us where we come from."

Now, after sharing the piece with family, Kirk is holding a public screening Dec. 13 at Kamehameha Schools Kapalama Campus.

She's funny about promoting the film, in that she has none of the self-promotional hype of most filmmakers. She's not even comfortable being called a filmmaker even though she's one of the best in town.

She said she's a storyteller and this is just a simple story. "It's just small. It's not funded," she said. "I funded it." But you will not find another homemade and heartfelt documentary more cleanly and professionally made.

She jokes about shooting things by herself with a handheld video camera and no lighting or sound crew, but the footage is perfect to the material, and when a rooster crows during her backyard interview with Uncle Sonny and Uncle Dukie, it's as if a sound crew put in the cock-a-doodle-doo on cue.

Kirk has such a sure touch with the story, and she is able to make a deeply personal story have transcendent appeal.

"It's a very quiet film, but it's reflective of who he was. His type of leadership. He believed you spoke by your actions," she said.

Kirk hopes the piece will encourage other families to document their stories and other grandchildren to ask questions about the generations that came before them.