Jean-Philippe Joaquim

Mara V

This film takes the form of an investigation into the life and work of the sculptor Vaiere Mara, born in 1936 in Rurutu, in the Austral Islands (French Polynesia) and died in Arue in 2005. Mara sculpted wood, coral and stone and his production was remarkable and noticed from the 1960s. Many local personalities placed orders with the man whom some considered the first contemporary Polynesian artist. The film traces the director's journey in search of Mara's works, scattered across islands and continents, and the personal story of this exceptional artist. Combining testimonies from those close to him, reconstructions of the founding moments of his career and documentation of the works found, this film appears as an investigation that is at once human, artistic and detective... which allows us to reconstruct the context of Vaiere Mara's creation.

Samson art and combat

Portrait of Sanson, a young Tahitian artist passionate about roosters. Cockfighting was introduced to Polynesia by early Chinese immigrants. It took place everywhere, on all the islands. Wherever there was a Chinese trader he organized a cockfight, to the extent that he had fighting cocks. But this is not a particularly Chinese cultural trait. It doesn't come from China. Cockfighting is extremely old in the Mediterranean and throughout southern Asia, and in particular the Philippines where it was very organized.

Miko the clairvoyant chef

Michel Toofa Pouira Krainer, known as Chief Miko (born 3 April 1959) is a French Polynesian speaker, sculptor, traditional navigator, musician, singer, customary chief and activist. He played a major role in the Polynesian cultural revival, particularly in the revival of Polynesian tattoos. We accompany Chef Miko to choose good wood. This is an opportunity to hear the testimony of his Dusseldorf counterpart, Andreas Dettloff. Dettloff is a German visual artist living in Tahiti for around twenty years, who works on popular culture. The meeting with Chief Miko goes so well that a few days later we go to visit Dettloff at his home.

Loulou the former

Louis Lalanne, known as Loulou, entered the world of canoeing quite by chance, through Gilles Maitere. Gilles had a science, an art. He had been introduced to canoeing by old Tahitians. For him the canoe was a way of life, an art and a cult. At first Loulou didn't really understand. The canoeist holds an ancestral oar, the canoe was used to immigrate. At the time when Europeans were still using sextants, Polynesian navigators were reading nature. They navigated by the stars, the positioning of the moon and reading the winds and currents. The chop of the sea and the position of the clouds.

Patu tattoo culture

The first time Patu joined a tattoo shop was in 2004 with Tavae Norbert. Wanting to deepen his knowledge of Polynesian history and culture, which he did not know at all, he then joined the Tahiti Art Craft Center. At the Center Patu is lucky to have Philippe Aukara as a sculpture teacher. This new guide teaches him a lot about composition and patterns. The legends, the traditional songs, the design of the nasal flutes, the canoes, the instruments, the percussion. The language too. Today Patu has his own salon and makes a living from tattooing. He dances and fully lives what he loves to do. When you love what you do, you can only be smiling and feel good about yourself... For the young people who know him in his neighborhood and who see him evolve today, he is a very good example.

Barthélémy the last kaina

Coming from a long line of singers, since his father, his grandfather and even his great-grandfather were known for their musical talents, Barthélémy Arakino was born in 1956. He grew up among the Tuamotu and its district of Outumaoro, in Tahiti. The boy learned to write songs from his father, in the Paumotu language of Hao. At nineteen, he went to France for the first time with the army. The success of his first song recorded in the studio, On my return from metropolis, opened the world to him. He was thus able to travel in Europe and the United States, performing on various stages. Barthélémy has long been the only singer to make a decent living from his royalties in French Polynesia. Filmed just before his death in 2015, this film is the only documentary dedicated to this sacred monster.