I have just watched the documentary The Donn of Tiki, which is available for rent on Apple TV on August 21, 2026. It runs 1 hour and 40 minutes and is really well done. It mixes interviews with animation and lots of film/photos from the original era.
What’s very interesting given conversations around 2020 about tiki and appropriation is that this documentary shows Donn Beach promoting indigenous Hawaiian culture in Hawaii at a time when it wasn’t popular to embrace it.
But there’s a whole lot more to it than that. I really enjoyed it, and may have teared up a little at the end.
If you preorder it you get a discount on the Blu-ray when it’s available. Here’s the website.
Here’s the description from the website:
THE DONN OF TIKI is a documentary about Donn Beach, also known as Don the Beachcomber, whose iconic bar sparked the global tiki movement. But his story reaches far beyond the creation of a trend. Donn was an American original, a restless inventor of his own mythology, a man who repeatedly reinvented himself, and someone who became as famous for embellishing his past as he was for shaping 20th century cocktail culture.
This film sets out to untangle the truth from the tall tales, tracing the real life behind Donn’s legendary persona. Within his stories are kernels of truth: a youth spent in Jamaica, running rum during Prohibition, tracking down cigars and liquor for troops during World War II, and introducing the world’s first commercial lū‘au to Hawai‘i.
Interviews with historians, scholars of Indigenous politics, and members of the tiki community reveal a complex portrait of an optimistic Texan who ultimately became a champion of authenticity, both in his craft and in his personal evolution. Blending hand-drawn and stop-motion animation, the film brings Donn’s journey to life with humor, warmth, and a touch of the fantastical spirit he carried throughout his extraordinary life.
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