Monica in the South Seas

July 1975. Monica Flaherty, daughter of Robert and Francis Flaherty, cinéma vérité pioneer Richard Leacock and Sarah Hudson – Ricky's student at MIT –travel to Samoa, to the island of Savai'i. Monica's aim is to create "an authentic" sound version of the silent feature film Moana (1926), directed by her parents in her childhood paradise. Being alien to Samoan culture, Monica, Sarah and Ricky are soon pulled in a complex dynamics of gifts, exchange and honoring.

"Monica Flaherty spent part of her childhood in Samoa, where her parents, film pioneers Robert and Frances Flaherty, shot their groundbreaking silent film Moana, Son of the Sun (1926). Fifty years later, she returns to realize her own artistic dream: a soundtrack version of the film. Together with the population, she embarks on a meticulous hunt to recreate the sounds and songs that shaped her childhood memories. When Finnish filmmaker Sami van Ingen, great-grandson of Robert and Frances, finds the documentation of Monica's ambitious expedition, he creates, together with Mika Taanila, a fascinating behind-the-scenes work that raises burning questions about authenticity and artistic colonialism."
(Annie Karlsson)