Australian documentaries and short fiction films can be submitted to the tenth International Oceanian Film Festival in Tahiti up to October 1 and filmmakers wanting to be part of the pitching forum have until November 14 to apply.
“We want films that speak about the identity of Oceania,” said the festival’s Eliane Koller, who expects to accept about 40 films, some of which will be in competition and judged by an international jury.
The Australian films Murundak: Songs of Freedom, The Hungry Tide, Contact, Kuru, the Science and the Sorcery and Bastardy have won prizes in the last three years. Films about indigenous communities are particularly popular in the program.
Koller, a German-born Tahiti resident who works closely with festival co-ordinator Miriama Geoffroy, spoke to IF Magazine during a recent visit to Australia to meet with filmmakers and partners.
She said the festival was particularly valuable for networking because of its size and pan-Pacific nature. Tahiti’s links to France also means that European commissioners are likely to be present.
The festival is developing as an important media and communications forum for broadcasters and filmmakers in the region, she added, in part because of the Oceanian Television Dialogue conference held alongside.
One of the aims of this meeting is to redress the fact that news and current affairs are beamed in from the rest of the world but not from neighbouring nations. A positive recent outcome was that coverage of last year’s South Pacific Games, held in New Caledonia, was broadcast throughout the region for the first time.
A partnership was signed at this year’s festival that lead to the establishment of an image bank, which Pacific broadcasters big and small contribute to and draw on, including public broadcasters in Australia and New Zealand. Training programs for filmmakers, to be provided in part by the Australian Film, Television and Radio School, are now on the drawing boards.
“The Pacific Ocean covers one-third of the world’s surface area,” said Koller. “When I tell people in Europe that I now live in Tahiti they say ‘Isn’t it dangerous because of the earthquakes?’ That’s Haiti! No-one ever talks about us and we are trying to shine a light on this part of the world.”
The festival is schedule for February 4 to10, 2013, in Papeete, Tahiti.