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ES 260: Pacific Islands Studies

This guide supports ES 260: Introduction to Pacific Islands Studies

Film and TV

Pacific Media Centre
Informed journalism and media research contributes to economic, political and social development and AUT University's Pacific Media Centre – Te Amokura – seeks to stimulate research into contemporary Māori, Pasifika and ethnic diversity media and culture production.
The Coconet
thecoconet.tv is a hub for Pacific moving image content online.
New Zealand Film Commission Film Library
The New Zealand Film Commission is a government agency that invests in New Zealand feature films and short films.
Pacific Islanders in Communications
The mission of Pacific Islanders in Communications (PIC) is to support, advance, and develop Pacific Island media content and talent that results in a deeper understanding of Pacific Island history, culture, and contemporary challenges.

Radio

Asia Pacific (ABC Australia)
ABC Pacific is the trusted voice in the Pacific, connecting our neighbours with news, music, sport and conversations for all ages.
Fiji Broadcasting Corporation
The Fiji Broadcasting Corporation today operates a network of six radio stations; two in each of the three major languages (i-Taukei, Hindustani and English).
KSBS FM-92, American Samoa
KSBS-FM began commercial broadcast service on April 14, 1988 as the first FM Radio Station in the Samoas.
Pacific Beat (ABC Australia)
This program brings interviews with Pacific Island leaders, newsmakers and people who make the Pacific ‘beat.’
Pacific Mornings (ABC Australia)
Provides a fresh take on what is happening in the region.
Pacific Wave
Pacific Wave plays the newest songs from talented Pasifika artists and keeps you up to date on events around the 4K.
Radio Polynesia
Sorenson Media Group
Sorensen Media Group (SMG), a privately-held media and entertainment company, in the Mariana Islands with holdings in television, radio and internet broadcasting.

Films you can stream through OSU

Act of War: The Overthrow of the Hawaiian Nation This hour-long documentary is a provocative look at a historical event of which few Americans are aware. In mid-January, 1893, armed troops from the U.S.S. Boston landed at Honolulu in support of a treasonous coup d'etat against the constitutional sovereign of the Hawaiian Kingdom, Queen Lili'uokalani. The event was described by U.S. President Grover Cleveland as "an act of war." Stylized re-enactments, archival photos and film, political cartoons, historic quotes, and presentations by Hawaiian scholars tell Hawaiian history through Hawaiian eyes.
In Football We Trust An insightful and moving documentary feature film exploring in rich detail the remarkable story behind the Polynesian Pipeline to the NFL. A contemporary American story, the film transports viewers deep inside the tightly-knit and complex Polynesian community in Salt Lake City, Utah, one of the chief sources for the modern influx of Pacific Islander NFLers. With unprecedented access and shot over a fouryear time period, the film intimately portrays four young Polynesian men striving to overcome gang violence and near poverty through the promise of American football. Directed by first time feature filmmakers Tony Vainuku and Erika Cohn, IN FOOTBALL WE TRUST takes us into the lives of these high school athletes and their families: Harvey Langi – The second eldest of nine children and starting running back for Utah’s best high school team. He has scholarship offers to play football in nearly every top Division I school in the nation, but family expectations combined with early media attention ultimately lead to a crossroads. Leva and Vita Bloomfield – These two brothers are struggling to live up to their father’s legacy, a former Brigham Young University running back who also founded the first Polynesian gang in Utah. Despite efforts to disaffiliate, the original family ties make it nearly impossible for the brothers to stay away from gang life. Fihi Kaufusi – A two-way lineman who lives in his ultra-religious aunt’s crowded twobedroom apartment with eight other children. Despite Fihi’s apparent talent, a terrible knee injury makes it difficult for Division I coaches to seriously consider his potential. As a result, he is faced with the decision of whether to give up the sport he loves in order to serve a religious mission. Viewed as the “salvation” for their families, these young players reveal the culture clash they experience as they transform out of their adolescence and into the high stakes world of collegiate recruiting and the dream of continuing their community’s legacy of producing NFL stars.
Kapaemahu (part of Shifting Lines: New Queer Animation)
Kumu Hina Imagine a world where a little boy can grow up to be the woman of his dreams, and a young girl can rise to become a leader among men. Welcome to Kumu Hina's Hawai'i. During a momentous year in her life in modern Honolulu, Hina Wong-Kalu, a native Hawaiian māhū, or transgender, teacher uses traditional culture to inspire a student to claim her place as leader of the school's all-male hula troupe. But despite her success as a teacher, Hina longs for love and a committed relationship. Will her marriage to a headstrong Tongan man fulfill her dreams? An incredible docu-drama that unfolds like a narrative film, KUMU HINA reveals a side of Hawai'i rarely seen on screen.
Nuclear Savage Featuring recently declassified U.S. government documents, survivor testimony, and unseen archival footage, Nuclear Savage uncovers one of the most troubling chapters in modern American history: how Marshall islanders, considered an uncivilized culture, were deliberately used as human guinea pigs to study the effects of nuclear fallout on human beings. Between 1946 and 1958 the United States tested 67 nuclear weapons above ground on or near Bikini and Enewetok atolls. One hydrogen bomb was 1000 times larger than the Hiroshima bomb. Entire islands were vaporized and populated islands were blanketed with fallout. As the film shows, the heavily exposed people of Rongelap were then enrolled as human subjects in the top-secret Project 4.1 and evacuated to a severely contaminated island to study the effects of eating radioactive food for nearly 30 years. Many of the Marshall Islanders developed cancers and had babies that were stillborn or with serious birth defects. Nuclear Savage follows the islanders today as they continue to fight for justice and acknowledgement of what was done to them. Despite recent disclosures, the U.S. government continues to deny that the islanders were deliberately used as human guinea pigs. The film raises disturbing questions about racism, the U.S. government?s moral obligation to the people of the Marshall Islands, and why the government is continuing to cover up the intent of the tests and Project 4.1 after several decades.
The Navigators: Pathfinders of the Pacific Over 1,000 years ago, the islands of Polynesia were explored and settled by navigators who used only the waves, the stars, and the flights of birds for guidance. In hand-built, double-hulled canoes sixty feet long, the ancestors of today's Polynesians sailed across a vast ocean area, larger than Europe and North America combined.
Then There Were None More than half a million native Hawaiians were living in the islands at the time of European contact in 1778. Within 50 years, that population was cut in half as Western diseases claimed thousands of lives. A litany of events followed: American missionaries preached unfamiliar ideas and customs; sugarcane and pineapple plantations absorbed individual farmlands; waves of immigrant workers arrived, making Hawaiians a minority in their own land; and WWII brought a lasting military presence. University of Hawai'i sociologists estimate that the extinction of full-blooded Hawaiians could come within the next 45 years. To millions of travelers the world over, Hawai'i is an alluring picture postcard paradise. But to its Native Hawaiian people, nothing could be further from the truth. Their compelling story, of a race displaced and now on the verge of extinction, is brilliantly told in this award-winning documentary created by the great-granddaughter of Hawaiian high chiefs and English seafarers.
There Once was an Island: Te Henua e Nnoho What if your community had to decide whether to leave their homeland forever and there was no help available? This is the reality for the culturally unique Polynesian community of Takuu, a tiny low-lying atoll in the South Western Pacific. As a terrifying tidal flood rips through their already damaged home, the Takuu community experiences the devastating effects of climate change first hand. In this verite-style film, three intrepid characters Teloo, Endar and Satty, allow us into their lives and their culture and show us first hand the human impact of an environmental crisis. Two scientists, oceanographer John Hunter and geomorphologist Scott Smithers, investigate the situation with our characters and consider the impact of climate change on communities without access to resources or support. Intimate observational scenes allow Teloo, Endar and Satty to take us on their personal journeys as they consider whether to move to an uncertain future in Bougainville or to stay on Takuu and fight for a different, but equally uncertain, outcome. This film gives a human face to the direct impacts of climate change in the Pacific, challenging audiences everywhere to consider their own relationship to the earth and the other people on it.

Last Updated: Dec 16, 2024 1:57 PM
URL: https://guides.library.oregonstate.edu/pacificislands
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Subjects: Ethnic Studies