For those folks who have a passion for music and a tendency to root for the underdog, the Guild Theater will offer a unique experience in commemorating a four-stringed instrument that has more than served its time outside of the spotlight: the ukelele.

Rock That Uke, a documentary on the mystical allure of the ukulele and its gradual evolution into the mainstream music world, features artists such as Camaig de Forest, Sounds from a Random House, Janet Klein, as well as many others. The film will be shown on both Friday and Sunday night at 7 p.m., with a live performance by Ukulele Loki's Gadabout Orchestra beginning at 8 p.m. following Friday's showing.

Academy Award-winner Holly Hunter will be narrating the introduction for the one-hour film, which took seven years of research and editing from 1996 to 2003 to complete. In making the documentary, director William Robertson traveled across the United States talking to people who played the ukulele to hear their stories of how they were drawn to the formerly unpopular instrument. He then searched for parallels in their lives in an attempt to further understand the depth and meaning behind such a decision that might go beyond the instrument itself.

"I was a ukulele player myself," Robertson said. "And when the '90s and the Internet came along, I started discovering these garage bands in punk culture, or single performers, writing their original music," Robertson said. "But all of them were identifying with the ukulele in a very self-conscious way, and they were all using it in a similar way as I had as not just an instrument, but with an iconographical identity, as well."

Robertson said that it didn't take long for him to discover the bridges between the ukulele musicians, all of which were outsiders in one way or another, and many of whom were raised with a punk rock influence in their lives. Through these conversations, he discovered that the ukulele held a strong appeal to those in society who felt outcast or distant in some fashion, and that its ability to produce sad or happy rhythmic sounds fairly easily drew many of these people to begin playing the soulful instrument.

"A lot of the people were not post-punk, but every one of them was an outsider and very interesting people," he said. "It was people who were either rasied on punk music or fringe artsists in some way and looked at the ukulele and said, 'There's something here, it's speaking to me,' and have had a voice with it. They were all doing the same thing at the same time and were not aware of it, and maybe that's somewhat reflective of something going on in larger society.

"A lot of it is just conversation," he said. "We traveled around the country just talking to this people and contrasting the threads in what all of them were saying. So it becomes this profile of extraordinarily fascinating people, many of which had only been playing for a short time."

Following the documentary on Friday night only is Ukulele Loki's Gadabout Orchestra to give the audience on original style of music emphasizing the ukulele. The Denver-based orchestra consists of a six-piece chamber-pop band featuring the ukulele, tuba, trombone, clarinet, glockenspiel (a metal xylophone), drums and synthesizer. The band offers a sound lead singer Aaron "Loki" Johnson, described as a mix between sepia-chord, indie-pan alley and Brechtian carnival rock, but he admitted even that description has trouble defining the band's unique sound.

The ukulele has grown in popularity in recent years, which is reflected in manufacturers' sales of the instrument actually increasing throughout the country despite the slumping economy, according to honoluluadvisor.com. Johnson said that there has always been an interest in the ukulele, but it might have been more scattered until now. Films such as Rock That Uke and other methods of awareness, like instructions on how to play the ukulele posted on websites such as iamhawaii.com and the Facebook group called "Ukulele Movement," have educated and encouraged people to pick up the tiny guitar.

"There's been these little pockets of people that are getting bigger now, where now there are bunch of little puddles forming into a lake," Johnson said. " I think films like Rock That Uke help the cause, showing me that there is this other world of ukulele weirdos that are drawn to the instrument for a variety of reasons."

Although the band defines itself as more of a contemporary rock group, those in attendance on Friday night will get a slightly different performance then the band is used to. Because of the acoustics in the Guild Theater, the concert is geared toward more of an acoustic and low-key sound, with some time for open discussion between the film and performance.

"We'll play a full set, but it'll be really different because we'll play a lot more acoustically than we have recently because the theater isn't built for rock music," Johnson said. "It may be more than people expect, with the movie followed by a concert and gathering. It should be a great show."

The band will also appear on the radio show "Insight" on Capital Public Radio Thursday from 10 to 11 a.m. Tickets for both the concert and the film are $5 at the Guild Theater, located on 2828 35th St.

Photo credit: Frank Döring