Filmmaker Robert J. Flaherty presents a docufictional account of a family living in a Samoan village in the early 1920s.Filmmaker Robert J. Flaherty presents a docufictional account of a family living in a Samoan village in the early 1920s.Filmmaker Robert J. Flaherty presents a docufictional account of a family living in a Samoan village in the early 1920s.
Fa'amgase
- Moana's Fiancé
- (as Fa'angase)
T'ugaita
- Moana's Mother
- (as Tu'ugaita)
Emma Hudson
- Extra
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe word "documentary" was first applied to films of this nature in an anonymous review of this movie written by John Grierson, aka "The Moviegoer", in New York Sun, 8 February 1926.
- GoofsDespite Robert and Frances Flaherty's commitment to showing Samoan life as it had been rather than what it had become after the islands were discovered by Westerners, there's at least one Western industrial product in the film: the knife Moana uses to shave a wood stick to serve as a harpoon.
- Alternate versionsBeing made in the early 1920s, the film initially had no soundtrack. In 1975, the youngest daughter of the filmmakers, Monica Flaherty, returned to Samoa along with Richard Leacock and Sarah Hudson thanks to a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, in order to record location sound and folk songs to create a synchronized soundtrack to the film, with dialogue recorded in Hawaii based on what was put together by Samoan lip readers. The sound version premiered in July 1978 under the title "Moana with Sound" and became widely available after its 2K restoration in 2014.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Monica in the South Seas (2023)
Featured review
A typical Flaherty reconstruction of the past
Customs of Polynesian natives on a Samoan island, centered on the daily life and on the coming of age ceremony of the young man Moana. It reconstructs Polynesian culture before the coming of Western culture, though iron blades are used. Daily tasks like cooking, fishing, hunting and gathering are most of the picture.
Mainly interesting for the material settings. Flaherty treats the Samoan life as almost that of a paradise - the only discomforts being wild boar and the pain of tattooing.
Mainly interesting for the material settings. Flaherty treats the Samoan life as almost that of a paradise - the only discomforts being wild boar and the pain of tattooing.
helpful•186
- psteier
- Sep 11, 2000
- How long is Moana?Powered by Alexa
Details
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $2,993
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $2,274
- Nov 15, 2015
- Gross worldwide
- $2,993
- Runtime1 hour 25 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
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