The Orator

Flying Fox in a Freedom Tree

Pepe is the son of a successful Samoan businessman, who rejects his father's world and his Christianity. Although he becomes rebellious, anti-social and engages in criminal activity, as well as being expelled from school, he manages to establish himself in business. However, when he gets his girlfriend pregnant, he takes on the responsibilities of a family. Through his close association with half-cast dwarf, Tagata, he enters the supernatural realm of his traditional ways and begins to find some peace and meaning to his life.

Rain

Due to a possible cholera epidemic onboard, passengers on a ship are forced to disembark at Pago Pago, a small village on a Pacific island where it incessantly rains. Among the stranded passengers are Sadie Thompson, a prostitute, and Alfred Davidson, a fanatic missionary who will try to redeem her.

Three Wise Cousins

Adam is a 22 year old New Zealand born Samoan guy who falls for Mary. On a 'chance' encounter he learns that Mary only wants to go out with a 'real island guy' - not a plastic one. Adam realizes that to get rid of his 'plastic' ways and impress Mary, he'll have to travel to Samoa and have his cousins teach him how to be a real island guy. Three Wise Cousins is a feature length comedy, that will have you laughing from start to end; it's a film unlike any other that will surprise you with it's endless amount of 'wisdom'.

Sacred Spaces

Taro planter Lui's grief for his dead wife has infected his whole life. A chance meeting with a stranger, a widow bound in anger to the grave of her husband now drowning in their cyclone devastated village, inspires Lui to reach out to her. This releases him from his own pain and allows his wife to rest.

Atali'i O Le Crezent (Sons of the Crezent)

Raids

Based on the treatment of Pacific Island families during the New Zealand Dawn Raids of the 1970’s, this short is an intimate look into a police raid, as told through the eyes of a young girl Losa and her father Lupematasila.

Banana with Coconut Milk

Two boys in the process of making a Samoan dish.

The Samoa Deal

Imagine being a young, upwardly mobile executive successfully making your way in the world. You’ve got a great job, some good friends and have been tasked by the boss to close a do-or-die deal. Now, imagine that closing the deal takes you to a country where you don’t speak the language, you don’t understand the culture and, if the deal falls through, it will cost you your career. Well, that’s exactly the situation Henry faces. Henry has never known family or loyalty. Now, he has to convince the Matai of a village that these are exactly the characteristics he and his company embody. Further, his growing attraction for Tua, the Matai’s daughter, is making him question if his career is really what’s most important to him. If he can’t balance all these competing interests, Henry may lose it all: his job, his career and, most importantly, his one true chance at love and acceptance.

Take Home Pay

Two brothers; Alama and Popo, arrive for the first time in NZ as Seasonal Workers, making plenty of money to take back home to their family in Samoa. But things take a turn for the worst when Popo steals Alamas' money and runs away. Alama is determined not to return home empty handed, but the only relative that answers his call for help is Bob Titilo; an aspiring private investigator in his 40s. Alama begins to doubt his decision when Bob's unconventional methods take them on a wild goose chase. This New Action Comedy is brought to you by the Makers of hit Comedies; Three Wise Cousins and Hibiscus and Ruthless.

The Tattooist

American tattoo artist Jake Sawyer wanders the world, exploring and exploiting ethnic themes in his tattoo designs. At a tattoo expo in Singapore, he gets his first glimpse at the exotic world of traditional Samoan tattoo (tatau), and, in a thoughtless act, unwittingly unleashes a powerful angry spirit. In his devastating journey into Pacific mysticism, Jake must find a way to save his new love, Sina and recover his own soul.

Voice of the Islands

A behind-the-scenes look at the creation of Walt Disney Animation Studios' MOANA, as aided by the Oceanic Story Trust.

Tales of the Diaspora

Tales of the Diaspora is the debut film from xxiivanu productions, and was conceived as a love letter to Pasifika youth around the world, as they navigate the sometimes tumultuous waves of finding and retaining cultural identity whilst growing up away from their homelands.

Polynesia in America

A look at the then brand-new Polynesian Cultural Center in Oahu, Hawaii . Established by the Mormons, the Center attempts to explain the indigenous cultures of Polynesia, New Zealand, Tonga, Fiji, Samoa, Tahiti, and Hawaii.

Monica in the South Seas

Finnish filmmaker and artist Sami van Ingen is a great-grandson of documentary pioneer Robert Flaherty, and seemingly the sole member of the family with a hands-on interest in continuing the directing legacy. Among the materials he found in the estate of Robert and Frances Flaherty’s daughter Monica were the film reels and video tapes detailing several years of work on realising her lifelong dream project: a sound version of her parents’ 1926 docu-fiction axiom, Moana: A Romance of the Golden Age.

Moana

Robert J. Flaherty’s follow-up to Nanook of the North shifts from the Arctic to the South Seas, portraying Samoan village life with a painterly eye. Blending ethnographic detail with a romanticized “Gauguin idyll,” the film celebrates daily rituals, communal traditions, and the passage into adulthood, suffused with what Flaherty called “pride of beauty, pride of strength.”