A portrait of an musician whose mastery on the ukulele has transformed all previous notions of the instrument’s potential.

Through intimate conversations with Shimabukuro, this film reveals the cultural and personal influences that have shaped the man and the musician. On the road from Los Angeles to New York to Japan, the film captures the solitary life on tour: the exhilaration of performance, the wonder of newfound fame, the loneliness of separation from home and family.

A 30-something, fourth-generation Japanese American, Shimabukuro was born and raised in Honolulu, the child of parents who both loved music. Shimabukuro’s mother, Carol, played the ukulele and began to teach him at age four, as soon as his fingers were big enough to reach the chords.  Archival footage of Shimabukuro’s performances from his teenage years to the present shows the evolution of an artist. Shimabukuro discusses his musical influences, starting with traditional Hawaiian music and performers such as Eddie Kamae, whose interpretations of musical genres outside the standard repertoire encouraged Shimabukuro to experiment on his own. He began to compose and play rock, pop, jazz and classical music on the ukulele, an instrument that, outside Hawaii, was mostly viewed as a novelty.

In those early years, Shimabukuro was interested in playing everything as fast as he could, changing the sound with distortion pedals and amplifiers. But, over time, he came to believe that trying to make the ukulele into something else was disrespectful. He decided that if he were going to manipulate the sound of the instrument he would do it with his hands.

While on tour in New York, Shimabukuro revisits the site in Central Park where a video was made of his soulful rendition of While My Guitar Gently Weeps. Uploaded unbeknownst to him, it became one of the first YouTube videos ever to go viral. His career exploded.

In addition to Shimabukuro’s performances at concerts before sold-out crowds — where incredibly one man and one small instrument can hold huge audiences spellbound — the film captures his appearances at schools, providing glimpses of a man at ease with himself and happy to introduce children to the joy of music.

Run time: 57 min.