Hawaiian, The Legend of Eddie Aikau

1.  The documentary was named Hawaiian, The Legend of Eddie Aikau, because Eddie Aikau embodied the Hawaiian culture.
2.  This film's "thesis" is that the Hawaiian culture isn't dead because of Eddie Aikau's surfing carreer and how he drew surfing back to Hawaii.
3.  Since ESPN made this film, they understood that their viewers wanted to be entertained rather tha informed about the Hawaiian culture and Eddie Aikau's personal life.  So, they showed images and videos of him surfing with voice overs covering his surfing career.
4.  If PBS or History made this film they would have focused more on his personal life, the Hawaiian culture, nature, and how the culture is dying.  They love to focus on how specific cultures are dying.

If I were a documentarian I would document the annexation of Hawaii.  My focus would be the effects of annexation on the Hawaiian economy.  The angle would be that large corporations that made profits off of the cheap labor from sugar plants and tourism killed the local Hawaiian economy.

Eddie Aikau