Talking Tiki is a film about what’s driving a resurgence in Tiki now. Our plan is to focus 95% on contemporary people, places, and issues and 5% on Tiki’s storied past. We are actively following a new wave of Tiki, featuring the new guard of Tiki connoisseurs, artists, bartenders, authors, and purveyors who are reclaiming Tiki and reimagining it their own way.

Like so many great ideas, Talking Tiki started with a dream and a basement. Asali started thinking about making a film about Tiki when she started redecorating her basement. She and her partner hung bac-bac matting, found a working talking parrot, and started stocking up on rum and limes. But there was a nagging question: was making a Tiki bar even okay in 2023? Dozens of interviews and countless tropical drinks later, Talking Tiki seeks to answer these thorny questions.

We are midway through production. We’ve been entirely self-funded up until this point and have had the great pleasure of filming at bars, homebars, and conferences in New Orleans, Los Angeles, the Bay Area, San Diego, and Salt Lake City. We’ve met some amazing people along the way – and we’ve had some darn good cocktails, too.

We hope to be fully in post production by late Spring 2024 and plan to premiere the film early 2025.

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