Filmmaker Robert J. Flaherty presents a docufictional account of a family living in a Samoan village in the early 1920s.Filmmaker Robert J. Flaherty presents a docufictional account of a family living in a Samoan village in the early 1920s.Filmmaker Robert J. Flaherty presents a docufictional account of a family living in a Samoan village in the early 1920s.
Fa'amgase
- Moana's Fiancé
- (as Fa'angase)
T'ugaita
- Moana's Mother
- (as Tu'ugaita)
Emma Hudson
- Extra
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe word "documentary" was first applied to films of this nature in an anonymous review of this movie written by John Grierson, aka "The Moviegoer", in New York Sun, 8 February 1926.
- GoofsDespite Robert and Frances Flaherty's commitment to showing Samoan life as it had been rather than what it had become after the islands were discovered by Westerners, there's at least one Western industrial product in the film: the knife Moana uses to shave a wood stick to serve as a harpoon.
- Alternate versionsBeing made in the early 1920s, the film initially had no soundtrack. In 1975, the youngest daughter of the filmmakers, Monica Flaherty, returned to Samoa along with Richard Leacock and Sarah Hudson thanks to a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, in order to record location sound and folk songs to create a synchronized soundtrack to the film, with dialogue recorded in Hawaii based on what was put together by Samoan lip readers. The sound version premiered in July 1978 under the title "Moana with Sound" and became widely available after its 2K restoration in 2014.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Monica in the South Seas (2023)
Featured review
Another ethnographic documentary from Robert Flaherty...
...this time focusing on Polynesian islanders, specifically the island of Savai'i in the Samoans. Most of the film depicts the gathering and hunting of foodstuffs, be it trapping a wild boar, fishing, catching a large sea tortoise, pulling up taro root, and in one famous scene, watching a young boy climb a perilously tall tree to gather coconuts. Everything leads up to a rite of passage ceremony involving dancing and tattooing.
Flaherty and his wife lived among the islanders for two years gathering footage. As in other films by the director, Flaherty staged some scenes, although ironically it was during a review of this film that the word "documentary" was first used to refer to movies. The version I watched was the beautiful 2014 restoration supervised by Flaherty's daughter Monica. It's known as Moana with Sound, as Monica went back to the islands and recorded ambient nature sounds as well as the chit-chat of natives in their own, non-subtitled, tongue, as well as some of their singing. This new soundtrack was placed over the silent footage from '26. After watching it, I would think the original film would be a bit less enjoyable without the sound. This movie was a hit on the exploitation circuit, where they played up the topless native girls.
Flaherty and his wife lived among the islanders for two years gathering footage. As in other films by the director, Flaherty staged some scenes, although ironically it was during a review of this film that the word "documentary" was first used to refer to movies. The version I watched was the beautiful 2014 restoration supervised by Flaherty's daughter Monica. It's known as Moana with Sound, as Monica went back to the islands and recorded ambient nature sounds as well as the chit-chat of natives in their own, non-subtitled, tongue, as well as some of their singing. This new soundtrack was placed over the silent footage from '26. After watching it, I would think the original film would be a bit less enjoyable without the sound. This movie was a hit on the exploitation circuit, where they played up the topless native girls.
helpful•10
- AlsExGal
- May 12, 2023
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Details
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $2,993
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $2,274
- Nov 15, 2015
- Gross worldwide
- $2,993
- Runtime1 hour 25 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
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