Moana
In the South Seas, Samoan village life is portrayed 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 pride of beauty and pride of strength.
Sky Pirates
Air force Lieutenant Harris starts for a flight to Boa Boa, on board Reverend Mitchell with a box containing a part of a top-secret extraterrestrial key. They get lost in a supernatural storm and find themselves after an emergency landing in kind of a Bermuda triangle, 5,000 miles off their course. Home again, no one believes Harris' story, and his crew suspiciously denies it too. Harris is thrown in jail, but manages to escape. Together with Mitchell's daughter he seeks the lost part of the key and its secret.
Southern Peaks
Second part of the film 'River of ice', a mountaineering tour on Franz Josef Glacier in New Zealand. After spending the night in the Deficance Hut, two women and a mountain guide ascend up to Mount Moltke. From Defiance Hut, past the Unser Fritz Falls, across the Franz Josef Glacier, past Castle Rock, to the Summit. On the way, they encounter a friendly Kea, New Zealand's mountain parrot. Finally, the group reaches the summit and admire the magnificent vistas. The films are part of a series of films produced at the end of the twenties by the New Zealand Government Publicity Office to promote the beauty and attractions of the country.
The Glacier's Secret
"In this film of the 'Vagabond Adventure Series', Tom Terris takes us to New Zealand in a kind of travelogue film. We accompany a client and a mountain guide on a treacherous, icy trek across a glacier. At night they camp and the old man tells him how he lost his love in an accident fourty years ago during their honeymoon. In the morning the old man has disappeared, but client finally finds him in a cave admiring the body of his frozen lover, captured on ice. The film conveys a feeling that is rarely identified with travel films, and contains a tender, tragic note that is genuinely touching."
Outrageous Fortune: The Movie
It's Christmas 2006. Wolf's in prison to stay, Judd's in prison and trying to get out. The family is going to Tutaekuri Bay, where they go to every year — only some things have changed. Who is that in "their" spot? Who put a gate up stopping access to "their" beach? Who will win the bet on when Pascalle will give it up? And why do they always come here in the first place?
Yesterdays in Samoa
Travelogue produced by Burton Holmes. Released on the 17th of June, 1918.
The Tonga Isles
Travelogue produced by Burton Holmes. Released on June 14th, 1918.
Nauru, an Island Adrift
A quiet island, lost in the pacific ocean. Nothing worth of interest, until the day a stroke of luck, phosphate, provided by the island's coral core, led the country to incredible heights: in 1975, it became the second richest country per inhabitant in the world after Saudi Arabia... Only to plunge into ruins a few years later.
Snowdrift
A winter vintage ascent to Mount Ruapehu by a large group of mountaineers composed of about 11 men and women. Mount Ruapehu, 2797 meters high, is an active stratovolcano at the southern end of the Taupo Volcanic Zone in New Zealand, in the North Island. The film follows the march of the group through the vast snowfields up to the top of the mountain and shows magnificent vistas of the adjacent peaks. The film is part of a series of films produced at the end of the twenties by the New Zealand Government Publicity Office to promote the beauty and attractions of the country.
Sebastopol
A mountain guide and a young woman make an ascent to Mount Sebastopol in New Zealand's Southern Alps. The couple leave from Mount Cook's Hermitage Hotel and after following an easy path by foot, they rock climb a sheer rock face. After reaching the top of the rock pinnacle, they follow by snowy terrain up to the top of Sebastopol, completing a precarious passage across the steep snowfield. The film is part of a series of films produced at the end of the twenties by the New Zealand Government Publicity Office to promote the beauty and attractions of the country.
Westland
Government travelogue depicting New Zealand's West land's scenery: Lake Manapouri, Fox Glacier Hotel, and Franz Josef Glacier. From the Fox Glacier Hotel, mountain guide Vic Williams takes two women up the glacier. The team progress, unroped and cutting steps on the ice, through the glacier formations. This film was part of a series of films produced at the end of the twenties by the New Zealand Government Publicity Office to promote the beauty and attractions of the country.
River of Ice
A mountaineering tour on the Franz Josef Glacier, on the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand. After leaving the Fox Glacier Hotel, two young women and a mountain guide take the route up to Waiho River to reach the glacier terminal face. Then, already in the ice, the women are instructed in ice climbing. The group ascends roped through the serrated pinnacles of ice and after a lunch break with teacups, they climb up to the Defiance Hut, on the glacier moraine, to spend the night there. The story continues in the film 'Southern Peaks', where the party climbs Mount Moltke. The films are part of a series of films produced at the end of the twenties by the New Zealand Government Publicity Office to promote the beauty and attractions of the country.
Franz Josef Glacier
An alternative version of the film 'Southern Peaks', shortened in this case to be included in an episode of the series 'Glimpses of New Zealand'. 'Southern Peaks' continues the story of 'River of ice', a mountaineering tour on Franz Josef Glacier in New Zealand. In the film, two women and a mountain guide ascend up to Mount Moltke. From Defiance Hut, past the Unser Fritz Falls, across the Franz Josef Glacier, past Castle Rock, to the Summit. On the way, they encounter a friendly Kea, New Zealand's mountain parrot. Finally, the group reaches the summit and admire the magnificent vistas. 'Glimpses of New Zealand' were a series of films produced at the end of the twenties by the New Zealand Government Publicity Office to promote the beauty and attractions of the country.
To Mt. Aspiring With the Camera
A group of men shows the 'before and after' physical effects of a journey upon the Mount Aspiring area. Mount Aspiring (9,960 ft.), known as the Matterhorn of New Zealand, together with Mount French, mark the end of the Otago and Westland regions. The movie does not show scenes of the climbing itself, but collects the testimonies of the members of the group, led by Jack Aitken. The other members are Bill Young, Stewert J. Macdonald, Victor Bowden, and Roland Ellis.
Sacred Vessels: Navigating Tradition and Identity in Micronesia
A 1997 documentary by Micronesian scholar, Vicente M. Diaz, that follows a new generation of traditional outrigger canoe builders and navigators from Polowat, Central Carolines, Federated States of Micronesia, and Guam in their respective efforts to continue and resuscitate an ancient tradition of outrigger canoe carving and sailing in the late twentieth century. Like the motif of water that flows through the documentary and blurs lines between surface and depth, and between water, land and air, an indefatigable tradition and aesthetic of seafaring is shown to also challenge pat and problematic distinctions between past and present, tradition and modernity, indigenous and Christian religiosity and spirituality, that prevail in conventional understandings of Micronesian culture and history.
Lights and Shadows
A black-and-white short film about Heiva, a Tahitian folklore festivity.
Sons from Afar
New Zealand hip-hop artist Che Fu and his father Tigi Ness travel to their island homeland Niue for the first time to unravel the shared histories. There they also wow the locals with a performance at the Niue Arts and Cultural Festival.
Shaping Bamboo
For the 'Are'are people of the Solomon Islands, the most valued music is that of the four types of panpipe ensembles. With the exception of slit drums, all musical instruments are made of bamboo; therefore the general word for instruments and the music performed with them is "bamboo" ('au). This film shows the making of panpipes, from the cutting the bamboo in the forest to the making of the final bindings. The most important part of the work consists in shaping each tube to its necessary length. Most 'Are'are panpipe makers measure the length of old instruments before they shape new tubes. Master musician 'Irisipau, surprisingly, takes the measure using his body, and adjusts the final tuning by ear. For the first time we can see here how the instruments and their artificial equiheptatonic scale-seven equidistant degrees in an octave-are practically tuned.