Wayfinders: A Pacific Odyssey

La Voie arctique - Trois hommes à travers les glaces

The life and times of sailor and adventurer Sir Peter Blake, one of New Zealand's favourite sons.

A feature length documentary film following Larry Ellison's 10-year quest to bring the oldest trophy in international sport, The America's Cup, back to the United States.

"Kon-Tiki" was the name of a wooden raft used by six Scandinavian scientists, led by Thor Heyerdahl, to make a 101-day journey from South America to the Polynesian Islands. The purpose of the expedition was to prove Heyerdal's theory that the Polynesian Islands were populated from the east- specifically Peru- rather than from the west (Asia) as had been the theory for hundreds of years. Heyerdahl made a study of the winds and tides in the Pacific, and by simulating conditions as closely as possible to those he theorized the Peruvians encountered, set out on the voyage.

This Sportscope series entry highlights sailboat races in Holland.

In hand-built, double-hulled canoes sixty feet long, the ancestors of today's Polynesians sailed vast distances using only the waves, the stars, and the flights of birds to navigate. Anthropologist Sanford Low visits the Caroline Islands of Micronesia to meet Mau Piailug, the last navigator initiated on his island and one of few men still practicing this once-essential art. He demonstrates his skill by sailing a replica canoe 2500 miles from Hawaii to Tahiti with no modern navigational instruments.

Stories of maniac sailors, anarchist castaways, and the voyage of the S/V Pestilence: a video zine three friends and I made about finding a derelict sailboat, fixing it up, and sailing from Florida to Haiti.

The story of the 2008/2009 Vendée Globe race. 30 skippers embark on a quest to be the fastest to sail 27000 miles around the world, non stop, without assistance and alone on 60 foot sailboats. This is one of the most extreme challenges a human being can face. The sailors are alone at sea for months and physical and emotional strength are essential. Growlers (Icebergs), sea mammals, and massive waves are a constant danger. On any day the forces of nature can bring an end to the best sailor's well made plans. They harness the wind, hope for safe passage over the sea and push hard to win. They are a testament to the audacity of the human spirit.

Under 30

First-time feature filmmakers Heretu Tetahiotupa, Christophe Cordier delve into the ritual art of Marquesan tattoo, sharing its cultural and historical significance by reenacting the past and challenging the present.

Elderly sailor Sven Yrvind takes on a daring solo voyage from Ireland to New Zealand. What seems like a reckless journey on the unforgiving seas is also inner journey that prompts the thought - how do we wish to lead our lives?

The odyssey of a Tuamutu fisherman who sets out from his atoll-only coral island to procure fertile land in the "distant" archipelagos. Lost in the vast South Pacific, he finds the atoll from which he had departed now doomed from atomic experiments.

Girt By Sea is a cinematic love letter to the coastline of Australia - a poetic celebration of our connection to the sea as documented through archival footage over the past 100 years.

A quiet island, lost in the pacific ocean. Nothing worth of interest, until the day a stroke of luck, phosphate, provided by the island's coral core, led the country to incredible heights: in 1975, it became the second richest country per inhabitant in the world after Saudi Arabia... Only to plunge into ruins a few years later.

Le monstre

The Work completes the "quadrilogy" of South Seas seen over a twenty-year period. This film, tells the choral story of an island that in the short time of a generation loses its identity.

A 1962 West German documentary film directed by Hermann Leitner and Rudolf Nussgruber.

Kua and Teriki will soon get married. They live on the distant Tureia island in the French Polynesia, Pacific Ocean and have just been told that something is wrong with their son Maokis heart. It is a consequence of living only 100 km away from the island of Moruroa, where France has tested 193 atom bombs for 30 years. Several of their family members are sick and Moruroa can soon collapse, which can lead to a tsunami likely to drown all of them. Vive La France is a personal and intimate story about harvesting the consequences of the French atomic program.

Under the Hull takes viewers behind the scenes as the Newport, Rhode Island based team lines up against the masters of the sport of offshore sailing – the French – in the build-up to the double-handed race across the Atlantic. From the building of a brand new, state-of-the-art 60-foot foiling race boat, to the physical, mental and onboard training, the film gives unrivaled insights into the highs and lows as the four sailors, supported by an international shore team, prepared their two entries – Mālama and Alaka’i – for the race of the year.

This 1981 NFU film is a tour of the contemporary world of Aotearoa’s tangata whenua. It won headlines over claims that its portrayal of Māori had been sanitised for overseas viewers. Debate and a recut ensued. Writer Witi Ihimaera felt that mentions of contentious issues (Bastion Point, the land march) in his original script were ignored or elided in the final film, and withdrew from the project. He later told journalists that the controversy showed that educated members of minority groups were no longer prepared to let the majority interpret the minority view.