Film on atoll wins major prize

CHALLENGING SITE: Producer Lyn Collie on Takuu atoll.

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A former Southland woman has produced a film that has been awarded a major prize at an international food festival.

The film, There Once Was An Island, was awarded the Jury Grand Prix Prize at the Fifo International Pacific Film Festival 2010 held in Tahiti, which started on January 26.

It was the seventh edition of the Pacific International Documentary Film Festival (Fifo Tahiti). The festival is open to all those who have produced a documentary in Oceania during the past three years.

Documentary producer Lyn Collie, formally from Isla Bank in Western Southland, said to win the grand prize was wonderful.

Te Henua E Nnoho: There Once Was An Island follows the lives of Teloo, Endor and Satty living in the Polynesian Community of Takuu, a tiny low-lying atoll in the southwest Pacific, as they face the first devastating effects of climate change first-hand, including a terrifying flood.

"We began fundraising for the film four years ago and have shot twice on the atoll since then, first during December 2006 and February 2007 and again in November- December 2008. We have spent the last year in post-production."

Collie started producing the film after director Briar March read an article in the Auckland University Alumni magazine. In it Richard Moyle, an anthropologist who has worked on the atoll on and off for 16 years talked about how the people would soon have to relocate because of the effects of climate change. He secured permission to shoot from the island's ariki (chief), Collie said.

The filming crew had no electricity and very few resources on the atoll, making the project very challenging.

"We didn't create the film as activists but I think it illustrates the human face of climate change by allowing audiences to connect with people in a difficult situation and one which is likely to be shared by many people in the coming years," she said.

The film will also screen at the Big Sky Documentary Festival in Montana, in the United States, on February 15.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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