Islands in the World Oceania International Film Festival inaugurated at USP
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 | Panelists at the Film Festival held at the Japan-Pacific ICT Centre: filmmakers Marie-Helene Vilerme and Andrew Williamson with University of Hawaii Academy for Creative Arts Professor and former USP Director of Oceania Centre for Arts, Culture and Pacific Studies (OCACPS) Vilisoni Hereniko, SPC culture advisor and former USP Lecturer Dr Elise Huffer, and Fiji Film Acting CEO Florence Swamy
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The staff and students at the University of the South Pacific’s Laucala Campus in Suva were treated to around 46 short films and documentaries on a range of issues faced by people in the Pacific.
The Japan-Pacific ICT Centre hosted the inaugural Islands in the World Oceania International Film Festival (IWOFF) from 15 to 20 April, 2013.
The IWOIFF was supported by the Faculty of Arts, Law and Education (FALE) at USP, the Rochefort Pacific Film Festival in France, the French Embassy, the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) and Film Fiji.
The Dean of the FALE at USP, Dr Akanisi Kedrayate, said the Film Festival is expected to encourage and support young and aspiring filmmakers.
“While we may lack the technical skills, we do not lack stories. In the Pacific, we have many stories and we want to share those stories with the rest of the world because too often there is lack of the Pacific voice, the Pacific story in the global film world,” Dr Kedrayate said.
She said many stories are told about the Pacific but are from the perspectives of non-Pacific islanders.
“It is about time that Pacific Islanders began telling their stories through their own point of view. The film industry in the region is almost non-existent and apart from Fiji, many Pacific countries do not really have a film commission,” she said.
“We hope this festival will serve as a catalyst for those interested in filmmaking in whatever form to come and listen to international filmmakers, watch their films and engage with them and learn and be inspired,” Dr Kedrayate added.
IWOFF showcased international films with an Oceania focus throughout the six days of the festival, and also featured panel discussions and question and answer sessions with film makers and producers.
“This is really a wonderful opportunity for Fiji to start to experience and enjoy films that don’t often make it to the commercial cinema and see that that there is a huge variety of films that are fascinating and amazing and tell stories that we can learn from and be educated and inspired,” Festival Director, Larry Thomas said.
“It is my hope audiences will go away a little more broadminded and appreciative of the great films that will be shown but also to listen to filmmakers talk about their experiences in making their films. And I hope they will take much more, each person will of course take away something that no doubt they can relate to,” Thomas added.
The festival was launched by the French ambassador, H.E. Mr Gilles Montagnier, and was attended by renowned filmmakers like Alfred Lot who helped create the Jason Statham starrer Transporter and Jet Li’s Kiss of the Dragon.
Some films shown were O Le Tulafale (The Orator), seen as the first full-length Samoan feature, filmed and set in Samoa and directed by a Samoan, The Tongan Ark a documentary on Atenisi University created 45 years ago by Tongan Professor Futa Helu, Children of the Bomb, the winner of the grand prize at FIFO (the Oceania Documentary Film Festival) in Tahiti, and The Forgotten Colonization, a 2010, documentary on West Papua which will be introduced by Film maker Damien Faure.
Former USP academic and Chair of the Academy for Creative Media (ACM), University of Hawaii at Manoa Professor Vilsoni Hereniko also introduced 13 short films from ACM students, while the winning films from the last 8 years of the Kula film awards in Fiji were also screened.
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