FILM MAKERS

Shared passion for world music and Marquesan culture brought Heretu Tetahiotupa, a native Marquesan, and Christophe Cordier, a Frenchman, together in Taiohae, Nuku Hiva. Together they would found the archipelago’s first music festival, celebrating local artists, a nearly annual event which attracted musicians and audiences from across the South Pacific. Career paths temporarily separated the two from each other and from the Marquesas. After years apart from their beloved islands, their mutual return to Nuku Hiva brought a renewed admiration and drive to share the Marquesan story and its gifts with the world. The two musicians decided to change mediums, taking their understanding of musical art and structure and translating it to visual storytelling. Patutiki, the uniquely Marquesan ritual practice, the visual art, and the holistic lore surrounding this evolutionary Polynesian tattoo practice seemed a fitting subject to tackle. Little did they realize the challenges before them.

Pre-production required travel to each and every remote bay within the six inhabited islands of this remote French Polynesian archipelago, halfway between Panama and Australia. Hundreds of villagers, young and old, where interviewed in search of the story of Patutiki, both past and present. Through ministerial grants, cultural associations, and private funding, Heretu and Christophe purchased a 4k digital camera, a microphone, and a laptop editing system. YouTube tutorials became their film school.

Two years later, the fruits of their labor produce an award winning documentary that fills its micro-nation’s people with pride. As part of their budget, the filmmakers purchased a large portable outdoor public cinema and screened their original language movie in each of the remote villages that they previously interviewed. For some villagers, it was the first time they’d experienced a cinema of any kind. For all, it was the first time they’d experienced a film in their language, with their people, depicting their culture in an honest and respectful way.

Christophe Cordier and Heretu Terahiotupa”