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.
Tefana Tufaimea is a figure from the commune of Faa'a, on the island of Tahiti. He is the champion of traditional Maohi sports in the aito category (stone lifting, fruit carrier race and canoe). He is also a dancer and Mister Mini Heiva. Portrait of a discreet man who deserves to be known.
Almen Gibirila is a fashion icon, founder in 1980 of Black Experience, the first black modeling agency in Paris. Congolese journalist Nzoumba-Lissa invites us to discover her creations during the Top Model Africa Paris casting.
Play by Hakim Bah directed by Thales Zokène.
For several years, Annabel Guérédrat and Henri Tauliaut have presented the performance Nus descending the stairs.
Hui Tarava is a Tahitian dance company based in San Franscico. Led by Angélique Bannag and Justin Froogie Atangan, a troupe of forty people responded to the invitation to Farereira'a launched by Coco Hotahota. Farereira'a is a gathering in Tahiti of international dance troupes practicing Tahitian dance. The film follows them throughout the week of the festival, from the Arahurahu site to the Grand Théâtre of Papeete.
This film is the sequel to the film Coco Hotahota Te Maeva. It chronicles the exchanges between Coco Hotahota and the San Francisco troupe Hui Tarava, from the last Farereiraa organized in Tahiti to the first Farereiraa in San Francisco. A film dedicated to the memory of Coco Hotahota, the major choreographer of Tahitian dance.
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.
JR show on November 12, 2023 on the facade of the Palais Garnier. Chiroptera in the cave. Darkness holds the grace of the light
This film takes the form of an investigation into the life and work of the sculptor Vaiere Mara, born in 1936 in Rurutu, in the Austral Islands (French Polynesia) and died in Arue in 2005. Mara sculpted wood, coral and stone and his production was remarkable and noticed from the 1960s. Many local personalities placed orders with the man whom some considered the first contemporary Polynesian artist. The film traces the director's journey in search of Mara's works, scattered across islands and continents, and the personal story of this exceptional artist. Combining testimonies from those close to him, reconstructions of the founding moments of his career and documentation of the works found, this film appears as an investigation that is at once human, artistic and detective... which allows us to reconstruct the context of Vaiere Mara's creation.
Roland Tiaipoi is a Thai boxing trainer in Tahiti. He takes care of the young people in his neighborhood of Tipaerui, he channels them. It's long-term work, as Roland Darrouzes, president of the Tahitian Federation of Thai Boxing and associated disciplines, says. Roland is not alone, Polynesia has around fifteen clubs. Unknown to the general public, he chose pragmatism.
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.
A day in the life of the painter Mériadeg Courtet, from the Pont des Arts to the Beaux-Arts in Paris. Mériadeg Courtet opened the biggest Parisian artistic quats during the golden age of this movement, between the 80s and 2000. He still practices raw and uncompromising art and has not calmed down. Far from there. From squats to zones to defend, often interned in psychiatric units, he is perhaps the last dinosaur of punk still active.
Unanimously considered the greatest choreographer Polynesia has known, Coco Hotahota is a dance master. He is one of the rare group leaders, if not the only one, to actually take care of the entire production chain of a show, whether it is writing the theme, writing the songs, composing. , costume creation, choreography. In 1962 he created his troupe, Te Maeva, which in 55 years of existence will have been the most successful troupe in the history of Heiva i Tahiti, and also the largest troupe in terms of number, more than 150 dancers in peak, in the 80s. Today we have the impression that Coco, who has long represented modernity, has become a bit of a reference for tradition. It's the whole contradiction of the character that we also admire for that. This film traces the long history of Te Maeva.
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.
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.
Gastineau Massamba is a painter, sculptor and poet. It is constantly renewing itself.
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.
Vincent Greby is a French artist who divides his life between Kathmandu and Seoul. While passing through his family home in Gournay, he received a visit from his friend Jonathan Bougard who was returning from Polynesia. They haven't been seen for twenty years. Vincent presents him with some Putali from the Jajarkot district, ex votos of primitive Himalayan art, as well as a large African mask signed Grégoire Massengo, and then some of the paintings which made him known in Asia.
Sampaguita Jay is one of the black and gray tattoo specialists in France. With the Mark of the Four Wawes Tribe collective, she popularized traditional Filipino tattooing, where she was originally from.
