PACIFIC CINEWAVES: SITES OF MEMORY IN OCEANIA
- Pacific Cinewaves, Shorts Programs
- 70 mins
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shareFilmmakers in attendance. Film program will be followed by Q&A.
For this year’s LAAPFF’s Pacific Cinewaves program, we invite you on a journey to witness the cinematic narratives of six Pasifika storytellers as they grapple with themes of family, grief, identity, dispossession and memory. In countering the monolithic view of the vast Pasifika community, these films highlight the diverse ways in which storytelling enacts cultural sovereignty. As we move through various sites of memory, we are faced with pivotal questions that allow us to reflect on our own relationships with the past and the ways we must tend to our dispossession wounds to survive the present.
In this program
CHamoru A Lost Language
Directed by Brian Muna
Brian Muna discovers self-identity through CHamoru language revitalization efforts.
First Horse
Directed by Awanui Simich-Pene
In 1826 Aotearoa, a small girl in an isolated setting comes in first contact with two facets of colonisation: a foreign infectious disease and the first horse she’s ever seen.
KÜĪ
Directed by Kahu Kaiha
In the face of her mother’s absence and her father’s alcoholism, 12 year old girl, Küī, rises above her age, caring for her brothers and confronting life’s harsh realities. Inspired by a true story.
Not A U.S. Citizen
Directed by Gabby Alafagamalufilufi Faʻaiʻuaso, John Niko Pātū
The film follows the perspectives of American Samoans, who navigate the complexities of being “non-citizen nationals” of the United States and reflect on the impacts of citizenship on a U.S. territory and its Indigenous lands and legal rights.
Vahaʻa | The Distance Between
Directed by Pingi Moli
After his mother’s death, a boxer struggles with grief and a strained relationship with his father, who coaches him in the ring but remains distant outside of it, forcing him to fight both opponents and inner demons.
Dates & Times
Directors Guild of America
May 2, 2025
6:00 pm
