Sina ma Tinirau
Fiji | 9 min. | Guam Premiere
Animation, Cultural, Family, Environmental | GIFF Guide: General Audiences – material suitable for all ages
Synopsis
When a prince is cursed to become an eel and has to win the love of a beautiful woman to become human again, he gifts her with his body in the form of a coconut tree.
Screenings and Awards
Best Short – Berlin Independent Film Festival
Made in Hawai’i Film Festival
Black Panther International Short Film Festival
Los Angeles International Film Festival
Beyond Border International Film Festival
Vilsoni Hereniko (Writer/Director)
Vilsoni Hereniko was born and raised on the Polynesian island of Rotuma in Fiji for the first sixteen years of his life. The youngest of eleven children, he learned to tell stories from his father who gifted him with the oral tales of his island. Today he makes a living teaching his students how to tell indigenous stories for the screen.
His first feature film titled “Pear ta Ma ‘On Maf: The Land Has Eyes” was set on his home island and had its world premiere at Sundance in 2004. Seventeen years later, he tells another story set on his island about the origin of the coconut tree which his people, and many others in Oceania and other parts of the world, regard as the tree of life.
Website: Vilsoni Hereniko
Vilsoni Hereniko
Co-Producer: Philipp Schorch
Animation Director: Gavin Arucan
Animation Producer: Laura Margulies
Editor: George Wang
Associate Producer: Ida Yoshinaga
Sound Editor/Design: Alexis Nelson
Animators: Sophia Whalen, Molly Tapken, Mirren Hollison, Danae Naone, Jewel Racasa, Angela Isidro, Alex Narimasu, and Samuel St. John
Funding has been provided to Guam International Film Festival, Inc. from Humanities Guåhan and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) as part of the federal ARP Act of 2021.