Jeannette Lee Butts was born in Portland, Oregon, on May 23, 1940 and was raised there by her father Leo, a firefighter and union organizer; her mother Lucille, a homemaker; and her younger sister, Sheilah.[1] In 1958, she graduated from Jefferson High School, where she had been elected 'outstanding girl leader.'[1] She later earned her undergraduate degree in education at Chaminade University in Honolulu and eventually her MA in American Studies from the University of Hawaii, Manoa in 1984, with a focus on American reception of Asian film.[2][3]
Independently of her work with ETV, she co-produced and co-wrote The 'Āina Remains, a community-based video about the history of Pāhoa Valley. The project was created in cooperation with the Nu'uanu-Punchbowl Neighborhood Board and funded by the Hawai'i Committee for the Humanities. This video is known for its reenactment of Queen Lili‘uokalani’s garden club picking flowers for the imprisoned Queen in her Uluhaimalama garden and wrapping them in newspapers for the Queen to read[1].
From 1980 to 1990, Hereniko was hired by the East West Center as its Community Relations Officer and Educational Specialist.[1][3][4]
Also in 1980, Hereniko proposed the creation of a public film festival as a public outreach campaign, which led to the establishment of the Hawaii International Film Festival.[5][6] During its first 15 years under the East-West Center, HIFF became internationally recognized for fostering cross-cultural dialogue. Hereniko directed HIFF from 1981 to 1996, developing it into an internationally respected organization.[5][7]
Also in 1990, she helped to start the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC) and served on its executive board for 15 years. She also founded the American branch, NETPAC/USA. Hereniko curated and distributed packages of Asian films with assistance from Asian filmmakers and scholars and distributed them to universities. This job was later taken over by the East-West center.[8]
Also in 1996, she was appointed by Dr. Elizabeth M. Daley, who was the director the University of Southern California's Annenberg Center for Communication, to incubate a digital database of Asia Pacific films. This database became the predecessor for her business, AsiaPacificFilms.com.[9] In October 2009, Hereniko sold AsiaPacificFilms.com, a digital distributor of Asia Pacific films, to Alexander Street Press.[10]
In 1997, she and her husband, Vilsoni Hereniko, established Te Maka Productions LLC[11] as a creative business partnership. Their first joint project, Fine Dancing, was produced by Jeannette and written/directed by Vilsoni. It premiered on August 7, 1997, the day of their wedding at Ala Moana’s Magic Island Beach. Te Maka Productions has since produced Salisi, Woven, and the internationally acclaimed feature film The Land Has Eyes, written and directed by Vilsoni and produced by Jeannette. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and won Best Feature Film at the ImagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival. Two new projects are currently in pre-production with plans for production in 2026.[1]
She has served on film festival juries in Berlin, Rotterdam, Pusan, Singapore, Mumbai, Brisbane and New Delhi. She is also a rotating member of the Asia Pacific Screen Awards Nomination Council since 2007.[12]
Personal Life
In 1960, Hereniko changed her name from Jeannette Lee Butts to Jeannette Paulson.
Hereniko got her start in professional storytelling when, from 1970 to 1975, she was appointed "Storyteller in the Schools" in Southern Oregon by the Southern Oregon Regional Educational District. After moving to Hawai'i, she was appointed to a similar role from 1975 to 1978, "Artist in the Schools", by the State of Hawai'i Department of Education, telling stories in schools across the state.
In 1997, Hereniko married Vilsoni Tausie Hereniko, a professor and playwright from Rotuma, Fiji, and changed her name from Jeannette Paulson to Jeannette Paulson Hereniko. Their friendship began seven years prior, after Hereniko's appointment to the HIFF international jury.[1]
From her first marriage, she has three children. She also has seven grandsons.
She wrote and performed two autobiographical one-woman shows, called Wild Wisdom (2017) and When Strangers Meet (2019), which she performed in Oregon, California, and Hawai'i over a three-year period.
While her children were young, she started telling stories at the Jackson County library in Southern Oregon. Because there were no public kindergartens in Southern Oregon at the time, she and other young mothers organized the storytelling guild, with Jeannette acting as the first president in 1963. Under her leadership, the guild also organized a childrens' festival based around storytelling starting in 1964, attracting thousands of attendees each year. Both the guild and the childrens' festival are still active.
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