By Pam Woolway
The Garden Island Newspaper

Last month, Wailua resident and film maker Nadya Wynd spent four days with an all-volunteer cast and crew filming the trailer for what she hopes becomes a block-buster family feature film, “Secret of the Crystal Skulls,” the premise of which is fictional adventure against the backdrop of Hawaiian culture and natural beauty.

“This is not a Kaua‘i documentary,” said the six-year Kaua‘i resident. “It’s a film that I hope portrays an authentic and respectful spirit along with my imagination to create a feature film with commercial and family elements.”

The “Secret of the Crystal Skulls” is a story built around the magic of a life-size crystal skull care-taken by menehunes for Hawaiian kahunas who consult the skull as an oracle. The movie is set in 12th century and present day Kaua‘i in the throes of a hurricane where the life of an ambitious archeologist on the hunt for the crystal skull intersects with two teenagers and the menehunes seeking to protect it. The “Secret of the Crystal Skulls” is a story that weaves mythology, teenage rights of passage and magic into an adventure story.

Dozens of Kaua‘i residents were involved — from KPAC participants in the high schools on spring break, to Hawaiian cultural practitioner, Puna Dawson, Pu‘u Wai Canoe Club, as well as theatre veterans, Poppy Shell and Fredan Alonso.

A far cry from Shell’s 16 years of work on the Kaua‘i stage, for the filming of this trailer she volunteered as wardrobe manager dressing and fitting costumes. “An incredible moment for me was while we were shooting the village scene,” she said. “You got a glimpse of the joyfulness of what Kaua‘i village life might have been like.”

Over the four full days weather was brisk while filming in Haena, Kapa‘a, Wailua and Anahola. “What was really fun though was re-creating the hurricane,” Shell said. “It took 10 of us to throw leaves and mud and shake trees. The kids had a blast.”

The story line came to Wynd in 1992 the first time she lived on Kaua‘i. “After Hurricane Iniki I read about hikers stuck on the Napali,” she said. “In 1993 I wrote a film treatment inspired by that.”

Two films and over a decade later Wynd had an experience that made her return to her original Iniki inspired plot line. On a trip to Glastonbury, England she had a chance meeting with the keeper of a genuine crystal skull. “I thought, this would be a great sub-plot with a crystal skull as part of the story,” she said.

She expanded the first concept to include the skull set in the 12th century with menehunes. Wanting to include attributes only found on Kaua‘i she developed a spiritual side to the story and set it against the backdrop of the Napali.

“There’s been movies made here but not about Kaua‘i,” she said. “Either movies are set here like Indiana Jones or Tropic Thunder as other places or Kaua‘i is shown as a tourist destination. I want to show the culture, the people and the landscape where Kaua‘i becomes a character. In “Secret of the Crystal Skulls” she’s a major star.”

The opportunity to bring a big budget film to be shot on Kaua‘i means money for the local economy and jobs for Kaua‘i residents. Wynd is seeking investors and a producer, but hopes to retain some leverage since her intent is to preserve Kaua‘i’s authenticity. Wynd received invaluable insight form the many parents on the set. “Hawaiian mothers were often my cultural consultants,” she said. “They’d correct me when a prop was misused or a scene staged incorrectly.”

Aulia Ventura, mother of two menehunes in the film, said there was a palpable feeling of unity and aloha on the set. Daughters Kehela, 7 and Makala, 5, never sighed a word of complaint on their long days of shooting. “The menehunes are very serious,” Ventura said. “They had to work on keeping a serious face.”

Seasoned actor, Kaua‘i High School senior, Toby Riggle was in awe of the whole film making experience. “This is what I want to do with the rest of my life,” said the Lihu‘e resident. “Now I watch movies differently — wondering what’s going on behind a scene.”

To learn more about the movie visit, secretofthecrystalskullsmovie.com

• Pam Woolway, lifestyle writer, can be reached at 245-3681, ext. 257 or pwoolway@kauaipubco.com

Nadya Wynd began a transition from a career as a counselor, social worker and teacher in 1982 when she began studying acting in Austin, Texas. In 1983 she coordinated Plays for Living, a program of plays about social issues, which was produced by the Family Service Association of America. During this time she also wrote and directed a play about teenage pregnancy.

In 1983 Nadya entered the Graduate Program in Film Production at the University of Texas. In 1986 she moved to Los Angeles where she worked as an actress and in production positions in film, television and theater. She also began work on her first spec screenplay, an adaptation of a six hundred-page epic novel about the beginnings of modern medicine by a best selling, American author.

After moving to Kauai in 1991, this novel became a record-breaking best seller in Germany and Austria. After a bidding war between several companies she was hired as writer/co-producer by one of the most successful and well-respected film companies in Germany. After a three-year development odyssey in both Germany and the United States, the film was ultimately not produced.

Upon moving to Santa Cruz, California in 1993, Nadya taught drama and creative writing and wrote, produced and directed original musical theater for several years.

Nobody’s Boy, her most successful production, premiered at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium in 2002 to near sell-out audiences. Set in the passionate, magical world of a Gypsy circus family traveling through France in 1889, it was inspired by the classic French novel, Sans Famille by Hector Malot. The production was staged as theater in the round and featured lots of live Gypsy music and dance, circus performances and a real draft horse pulling a Gypsy wagon on stage.

In 1999 Nadya wrote, produced and directed The Beautiful Illusion, a short film starring De Lane Matthews (co-star of “Dave’s World” and “From the Earth to the Moon”) and Tyrone Power Jr. (“Cocoon” and “Cocoon, the Return”.) It was an official selection of the New York Independent Film Festival and the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival. It also screened in Berkeley and Santa Cruz, California and Miami and Hollywood, Florida and aired on PBS television.

Returning to Kauai at the end of 2002, Nadya has focused her energy on writing the screenplay for Secret of the Crystal Skulls and several magazine articles.