Meeting with traditional tattoo artist Moana Heitaa. Moana uses the combs. Born in Tahiti, he learned with his Hawaiian mentor Heizea of Soul Pacific Signature, before traveling to the Pacific to deepen his knowledge and rediscover this ancestral art which has continued in Samoa and Tonga.
Polynesian culture has been booming in mainland France as elsewhere in the world for around ten years. Brittany is one of the regions where Polynesian associations are most active: out of the hundred associations present in France, 32 are domiciled in Brittany. Since 2013 Morgane Le Meur has been president of the Polynesian dance association Tipani Tahiti in Penmarch, in Finistère. The film will allow us to discover who practices what activities, while focusing on the ongoing Breton Polynesian cultural exchanges with Bagad Cap Caval and the Celtic circle Ar Vro Vigoudenn. Indeed, Tahitian dance as we know it and bagadou both emerged in the 1950s, to revitalize traditions that were losing momentum.
Chronicle of the first tattoo festival which was held at the end of March and beginning of April 2017 at the town hall of Faa'a in Tahiti. With Moana Heitaa, Pai Aritai, Patu, Tuatini Tamata, Tana Tokoragi, Estelle Anania miss Ink Girl France 2017 godmother of the festival and around fifteen young tattoo artists for whom it was the first festival.
In Tahiti, Vaininiore has the reputation of being a red-light district. However, while walking there, we will meet young people full of joie de vivre, smiling, a little rowdy... They spend their days playing football on the field, and at five o'clock every evening they have training with Hentz Tinomoe, the neighborhood colossus, three times Polynesian Thai boxing champion in the super-heavyweight category. His club, Team Arupa, is one of those fairly tight sub-groups: to be admitted you must first run to the dike, then put on gloves and exchange blows. Unknown to the general public, they chose pragmatism.
A red-haired man walks in the courtyard of the Louvre Museum. He holds a large shell and hides his face with it. The shell is sculpted with a neutral face. The man walks towards the statues which adorn the Tuilleries promenade. A curious dialogue begins.
Semetua was Sem Manutahi, master of ceremonies and central figure of the "Tipaerui Valley" association. His role in the association was to find legends, and to set up traditional activities or ceremonies, in the upper valley of Tipaerui in the heart of the island of Tahiti. "This valley has a soul, a spirit that we always respect when we come. He said. It is animated by the spirit of the Mamaia. These people that we rarely met, that we feared and respected also, in the days of royalty. Some say they were healers, others say they were seers." Speaker on several occasions for troops at Heiva i Tahiti, master of ceremonies for the Tipaeui Valley association, Semetua has made his voice resonate on numerous occasions, to tell stories, protect a valley or quite simply defend his convictions.
Tatak ng apat na alon tribe, is better known in English as Mark of the four wawes tribe. Made up of just over 150 members, this collective based in Los Angeles popularizes traditional Filipino tattooing around the world. At its head for more than twenty years, we find the famous artist Elle Festin and his wife, Zelle Festin.
How at the beginning of 2022, while doing research in France on Henriette Lorimier and the women painters of the early 19th century, in a cellar in Bagneux Jonathan Bougard came across a bust signed Muta Mayola, the most important Congolese sculptor of the twentieth century, of which we thought all the works had disappeared. At the same time as on a set of works by his students and nephews Grégoire Massengo, Benoit Konongo and Edouard Malonga. The fathers of modern Congolese sculpture, main representatives of the Muta Mayola school.
The return of the enfant terribles of direct action, Guillaume Tel4 and Gilles Broussaud. Very active on the French alternative scene in the 1990s, they seem to have disappeared from the landscape for around twenty years. Jonathan Bougard found them and filmed a new performance, in the heart of Montreuil in Seine Saint Denis.
Collector Gilles Broussaud opens his doors to us and talks about the disturbing phenomena linked to his collection of Congolese statuettes.
Roonui Anania, Chimé and Purotu started tattooing themselves and tattooing in the street, by snatch, that means with sewing needles attached to match sticks, then electric razors. Indian ink in a beer cap and off we went. Then Tavana Salmon brought back the first pig tooth combs, which they were not able to use for long due to hygiene. Impossible to sterilize. We had to go back to the electric razor, look for solutions. This film tells the story of the rebirth of Polynesian tattooing, then its expansion, told by the three greatest masters of Polynesian tattooing.
Portrait of a silent old man, with a life full of drama. Moussake comes from the remote Tuamotu archipelago in French Polynesia. He makes a living from picking Tahitian tiaras and performing musical events at the Papeete market. The film follows him along the congested roads of the Tahitian capital, then into the cabin where he makes flower crowns and receives visits from his children.
JR show on November 12, 2023 on the facade of the Palais Garnier. Chiroptera in the cave. Darkness holds the grace of the light
In 2023, the Patutiki kakiu festival was held in Paris, the very first major international festival dedicated to the culture of the Polynesian archipelago of the Marquesas.
Almost all young people in Vaininiore are into sports. Some in the dugout, others in football, volleyball, but most are in boxing. Thai boxing. Behind the Eastern Bridge fire station in Papeete, the Vaininiore district has the reputation of being a red-light district. This is where a hard core of around twenty fighters trains in the evening, but there are new ones arriving all the time... Not all of them last long... Team Arupa is Hentz Tinomoe. He is a good coach, patient, a little tough when it comes to training... There is a good atmosphere, good understanding, a good spirit of cohesion at Vaininiore, VNR for the young people... A united team. In this film, Team Arupa VNR goes down to the Vairao peninsula for Team Black Devil.
Boxer, fisherman, murderer, jailbird, Terii Lenoir does not mince his words. Aged 65, this former boxer still beats up the little thugs who come to hang out a little too close to his cabin, at the foot of a mango tree, on the edge of the Tahiti lagoon.
When the name Hikueru is mentioned, all the other surrounding islands shudder with fear. Because in the story, when someone from Hikueru says anything it comes true. In Hikueru speech is sacred. Tapu was born in Hikueru. Until the age of nine, he grew up with his grandfather in Reka Reka. There is no better place in the universe than the Tuamotus, Tapu tells us. Tapu Bonnet descends from the great names of French Polynesia. He can recite his genealogy over several centuries. Forty years ago he was one of the seeds, one of those who renovated and restored this culture which was prohibited: walking on fire, tattooing... Incredible the flowering that there has been since that time of eighties.
Gastineau Massamba is a painter, sculptor and poet. It is constantly renewing itself.
Everyone is versatile, which explains the success of Théo who has represented Tahitian dance all over the world for 36 years. Nobody is idle at Théo Sulpice, yet always in a good mood.
A Heiva in Tahiti with the poet John Mairai as troop leader.
