24 Jan 2011

French Polynesia gears up for film festival

6:20 am on 24 January 2011

People from across the world have been arriving in Tahiti for the eighth annual Fifo or Pacific Documentary Film Festival.

The event which begins tomorrow will showcase 37 documentaries based on the Pacific, from more than 230 entries from mostly Australia, New Zealand and New Caledonia.

The Director of the House of Culture in Tahiti and Vice president of the film festival Heremoana Maamaatuaiahutapu says the event grows each year and hopes it'll attract wider attention to the talent of film makers in the Pacific.

"If we have more festivals like this one in the region, we can also help the film makers. We can help them to have a place that they can show their film and also more chance for the main TV to look at those films and probably to show those films on their channels."

Heremoana Maamaatuaiahutapu says he expects the event will attract more than 20,000 people.