From Po to Ao: A Historical Analysis of Filmmaking in the Pacific

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1997

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University of Hawaii at Manoa

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Abstract

The Pacific islands have long been at the heart of European and American imaginations. Since 1898 these isles, real and imaginary, have been the background for every kind of ethnological inquiry, moral play, idyll, and adventure on film. Today, on the cusp of the centenary of Pacific filmmaking, for those not living in it, the Pacific is known almost exclusively through the cinema. This thesis investigates this century's Pacific films to reveal a tension between the factual and fictional. This interplay is not without meaning in an age of decolonization and is mirrored in the frequent disparity between non-indigenous visions of the Pacific as fantasy and alternate visions of islands as home. The persistence of such concerns over time and space suggests that this body of film be understood as an oceanic cinema which maintains and transforms our perception of the Pacific and of Pacific Islanders. Thus, this cinema has a currency in the political economy of Pacific places, and my analysis opens a window on our contemporary situation and a perspective on the past.

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Pacific Islanders--Foreign public opinion, Motion pictures, Motion Pictures--Oceania, Pacific Islanders--Foreign Public Opinion., Oceania-Foreign Public Opinion., Oceania--In motion pictures.

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vi, 70 pages + 1 CD

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Oceania

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Related To

Theses for the degree of Master of Arts (University of Hawaii at Manoa). Pacific Islands Studies; no. 2663

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Table of Contents

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