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Pacific Island Nations
Documentaries and feature films by Pacific island filmmakers, and films about Pacific island nations and their history, culture, politics and society.
BLACKBIRD
2016 (PG) 13 min
Blackbird is a short narrative drama which sheds light on a little known part of history - Australia's notorious "blackbirding" era when some 60,000 Pacific Islanders were brought to Australia, often by force and kidnapping, between 1863 and 1904 to work on sugar cane farms of Queensland. more
CALL ME MUM
2006 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 76 min
Set in the recent past, the AFI award-winning Call Me Mum is a series of interlinked monologues where five characters unravel a complex tale of mothering, race relations and family in Australia. more
CRACKS IN THE MASK
1997 (G) 56 min
A century ago the Torres Strait Island were the subjects of the famous Cambridge Anthropological Expedition - the resulting depletion of their cultural artifacts left them with nothing but a history of remembered loss. The only people in the Pacific to make elaborate turtleshell masks have none left - they are all in foreign... more
EVER THE LAND
2015 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 93 min
EVER THE LAND explores the bond between people and their land through the landmark design and construction of a unique "Living Building" by one of Aotearoa New Zealand's most passionately independent Maori tribes, Ngai Tuhoe. more
FORGOTTEN BIRD OF PARADISE
2009 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 27 min
A rare and moving insight into West Papua's struggle for freedom. more
HUNGRY TIDE, THE
2011 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 90 min
A film about a nation on the front line of climate change: the central Pacific nation of Kiribati is one of the countries in the world most vulnerable to rising sea levels. DVD includes 2 versions of the film: 53 mins abridged for television and 90 mins full unabridged version. more
OPHIR
2020 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 97 min
Voiced entirely by the Indigenous people of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville in Papua New Guinea, Ophir observes the colonisation of the land and its people, who at the end of the 1980s were left with no choice but to revolt for their right to exist. more
ROAD TO HOME, THE
2015 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 55 min
A portrait of the West Papuan Benny Wenda, now in exile in England, and his on-going fight for the right to self-determination for his people. more
SIGNED, THEO SCHOON
2021 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 100 min
A superb portrait of the Dutch émigré artist, Theo Schoon (1915 – 1985), raised in the East, trained in the West, and replanted in the South. He rocked the New Zealand cultural world and built a strong liaison with Māori communities and the landscape. more
SINCE THE COMPANY CAME
2000 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 52 min
A Solomon Islands community struggles with some unexpected consequences of a logging operation. The men of Rendova Island embrace the chance to be part of the modern economy; but the women are concerned for the forests and traditions that sustain their families. As Rendova's forest rapidly disappears, the loggers set their... more
TUPAIA'S ENDEAVOUR
2020 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 119 min
A first contact story, told from a Pacific point of view. Tupaia was a Polynesian high-priest, star-navigator, and artist who joined Cook's Endeavour expedition in Tahiti in 1769 as a navigator, and had a profound impact on Cook's journey and survival. This film cements Tupaia's role as a central figure in Pacific history. more