European Society for Oceanists 2025 Conference

Back to Conference session list

Session Detail (parallel)

Short Films and Documentaries

Coordinator(s)

Tobias Schwoerer, Mike Poltorak

Session presentation

If you have recently produced a short film, feature film or documentary, and would like to show it at the ESfO conference, please enter the title, the running time and an abstract of the content of the film to this panel.

Film screenings will be held parallel to panel sessions in the afternoon, and the schedule will be published in the conference timetable.

Paper submissions are closed

Accepted papers

Instruments of the Moana

Alpha Maiava

'Instruments of the Moana' is an 8-part docu-series written, co-directed and hosted by Tauiliili Alpha Maiava.
Each episode explores each of the eight instruments that were once the heartbeat of the Moana Pacific:
conch, mouth harp, lali, nose flute, panpipe, pātē, stamping tube and the mouth pipes of Vanuatu. From the
shores of Rarotonga to the vibrant Solomon Islands, we meet knowledge holders, craftsmen, musicians and
cultural experts who have kept these sounds alive. Through the stories of these cultural custodians, we learn that these instruments are a truly vital
part of the Moana Pacific's living legacy.

Instruments of the Moana will take you on a journey across the Pacific, where the sounds of the islands tell
stories of life, connection and identity. You’ll ascertain knowledge about the indigenous sounds and
instruments of the Moana as told, shared and recalled by the peoples whose arts, sounds and expressions of
creativity add vibrant colour to the tropical nations of the Moana Pacific. You’ll also learn why the
preservation of these instruments — many of which are already endangered or extinct — is crucial for the
future.

It is a tribute to the heritage of the Moana people and a call to revive these cultural treasures.
Instruments of the Moana builds upon the success of the acclaimed Sounds of the Moana podcast series, co-
produced & hosted by Tau’ili’ili Alpha Maiava, which won Gold at the prestigious New York Festivals Radio
Awards (NYFRA) in 2022.

Matava'a, filming the staging of a festival?

Mélissa Kodituwakku (EHESS - Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales)

For the Short Films and Documentaries panel, I would like to present a film of approximately 15 minutes focusing on the preparations for the Matava’a o te Henua Enana, a festival of arts and culture which took place in July 2022 on the island of Fatu Hiva in the Marquesas Islands.

The film will be a ‘teaser trailer’ based on images captured between September 2021 and March 2023 during field research in the islands. Trained in visual anthropology, I conducted nearly all of my ethnographic research with a camera, aiming to explore and document the narratives shared by the inhabitants of this French Polynesian archipelago.

Now, almost two years after returning from the field, I find myself reflecting on the way this research material which is central to the development of my thesis manuscript can be used to offer another perspective on the fieldwork experience. In the film, I begin to explore how raw data, such as filmed interviews and observations, can be transformed into a scientific production which remains evocative of place and people. By showcasing how the inhabitants of the small island of Fatu Hiva prepare for the event—from crafting costumes to composing, learning, and practicing songs and dances—the film explores a distinctive form of storytelling.

On behalf of the living

Ton Otto (Aarhus University)

On behalf of the living is about the ways human beings relate to their dead. By immersing himself in daily life and religious rituals among family and adopted kin in the Netherlands and Papua New Guinea, anthropologist Ton Otto seeks to understand how people in very different cultures deal with the universal question of the existence of an afterlife. In continuous dialogue and confrontation, Ton Otto and his co-filmmaker Christian Suhr explore the limits of their knowledge and of filmic representation.

Indigenous Aesthetics in Three Shorts

Vilsoni Hereniko (University of Hawai'i)

Philipp Schorch (LMU Munich)

The three short films to be shown are Sina ma Tinirau (9 mins; about the spiritual origin of the coconut tree), A Niu Way (7 mins; about the removal of coconuts from niu to serve the interests of the tourist industry and developers) and Woven (12 mins; about an indigenous artist’s struggles to perpetuate the tradition of coconut basket weaving in urban Honolulu). All three films are informed by indigenous aesthetics and concepts (such as vā). They are examples of how indigenous filmmaking today within Oceania is complicating and even challenging Hollywood’s blockbuster representations in hit movies such as Moana and Avatar: The Way of Water. Indispensable to the creation and production of these three unique and original short films is a collaborative research project titled “Indigeneities in the 21st Century” funded by the European Research Council: https://www.indigen.eu

Tuan Ta Pesao: Writings in the sand and with a string on Ambrym Island

Eric Vandendriessche (National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS))

This film takes place in the North of Ambrym Island, in the archipelago of Vanuatu, Melanesia. Two graphic practices - referred to locally by the same vernacular term - attract our attention: drawings drawn with a continuous line with a finger on the dusty ground of the villages or the sandy beaches, and ephemeral figures made from a loop of vegetal string. What do these "writings" of sand and string tell us about the North Ambrym society? Experts in these procedural and geometric activities, traditional chiefs, and Vanuatu teachers speak to us about these practices in their links to the environment, mythology, rituals, magical practices, and mathematics of this small corner of the world.

Duration: 00:49:22
Production year:2024

https://images.cnrs.fr/en/video/7850

A Slice of Life - Opena Gosalo (42min)

Regina Knapp (Friedrich Schiller Universitaet Jena, Germany)

A Slice of Life – Opena Gosalo is the pilot film of a telenovela from Papua New Guinea by the same name. It plays in Lopatena, a community of subsistence farmers and warriors in the Eastern Highlands. A Slice of Life combines fiction/drama with ethnographic footage of twenty-five years and is based on true stories. The script has been developed on site by the filmmakers/anthropologist and the community members, who also became the actors of the film.

The village of Lopatena had been destroyed in a long-lasting tribal warfare. Now, in 2019, at a fragile peace, the scattered community members have returned to their land and are rebuilding their homes. Social and economic life begins again, but differently. Economical hardship brought by cultural changes and cash economy are increasingly affecting the community members. The land disputes with a neighbouring tribe have not been fully resolved yet, tensions remain in spite of a cease-fire agreement, and the danger of a new outbreak of violence is present.

The series draws the audience into the realities of characters from two families in Lopatena who are re-starting their village lives. We see the personal challenges they face, feel their joys and humour and we share their hardships – treason, adultery, family issues, economic problems. Above all, we accompany the community on a quest for peace.
By revealing strategies of re-inventing personal and community life in face of cultural changes, the film follows the Lopatena on their strive for self-empowerment.