Star navigators feature in Pacific Film Festival

Transcript

The Pacific's only film festival focusing on the region drew to a close in French Polynesia yesterday.  

Now in its 13th year, the Pacific International Documentary Film Festival, or Fifo, had eleven films vying for top spot.
 

The Australian film 'Another Country' won the top prize, with others getting recognition as Bridget Grace reports.  

The film 'Tupaia' focuses on the story of the explorer Captain Cook's Tahitian navigator, who skillfully guided the ship Endeavour to New Zealand from French Polynesia.  

He was an arioi, or high priest, known for his navigational skills and geographical knowledge.

The producer, Eliane Koller, says she was moved to make the film because the South Pacific has been celebrating European explorers for too long. 

ELIANE KOLLER: "But what people forgot is that the Pacific was actually discovered much earlier by star navigators, who were much better at navigation. Who managed to find all the islands in the Pacific, which the Europeans didn't at all, lots of them died on the way because they didn't know how to find their way."

She says Tupaia explained to the Europeans where many islands in the Pacific were, and because of this some in Tahiti view him as a traitor.  

The film won one of three special jury prizes and Mrs Koller says the selection this year was astonishing.  

ELIANE KOLLER: "It was a lot of films with political issues, issues from society, history, they were concern films.  People who really wanted to pass a message, that's beautiful.  And they were well-done, all of them, I can't explain why some years are weaker and other years are stronger but this year was definitely a really big year."  

The General Director of Fifo, Marie Kops, says a focus of this year's festival was to  provide opportunities for professionals to exchange ideas.  

MARIE KOPS: "I think making a film is difficult, even more in the Pacific because there is not enough money to make movie.  So I think it's also difficult to make film with other countries, so that's why we are trying to propose meeting to encourage co-production."

Jury Member and Film Producer, Julia Parnell, says it's extremely important for filmmakers in the region to connect.

JULIA PARNELL: "So stories can be told by the people from those countries, rather than so often over the years we've seen other filmmakers going into these places to share and explore stories but we need to hear more voices from the communities."

Ms Parnell says many countries in the Pacific have problems accessing equipment, and this can impact on some films.

The quality of the cinematography might not be as great, but certainly the stories were still as strong and the characters.  

Eliane Koller says there's a reason why the festival just focuses on the Pacific.

ELIANE KOLLER: "For us it's really, really important for us to give all the Pacific nations a scene, where they can tell their stories and where they can be heard."

The festival drew 8,000 people this year with the Jury Grand Prize going to New Zealand film, The Ground We Won.