The aiff and Coming Attractions Theatres present the first “best of the ashland independent film festival” event.  The 2005 audience award finalist, The Land has Eyes returns to the Varsity Theatre, in Ashland Friday June 17^th.  All proceeds from the Friday evening, June 17^th  6:00p and 8:15p screenings will directly benefit the non-profit  aiff and assist in the production of the 2006 festival (April 6-10).  Tickets for the benefit screenings are available now at the Varsity box office. Tickets are $5 for aiff members and $7.50 for the general public with no senior discounts for two benefit screenings. More information is at ashlandfilm.org.   

The message of the ancient rotuman proverb “the land has eyes and teeth and knows the truth” is a natural lead into World Wellness Weekend.  The film was written and directed by Fijian island native Vilsoni Hereniko and the cast is from Rotuma as well. In the weeks since The Land has Eyes had its West Coast debut at the ashland independent film festival, it was at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Smithsonian, and the Hanoi and Singapore film festivals. It will open the Maui Film Festival on June 15 and in competition during the Shanghai Film Festival June 10 to 20.

Jeannette Paulson-Hereniko, the Producer of The Land has Eyes, as well as the founder and former director of the Hawaii International Film Festival and the Palm Springs International Film Festival was impressed with the aiff when she visited with the film and wanted to help the festival. “The Ashland Independent Film Festival is a coup,” she said.  I just thought it was an astonishing event on it’s own and when I found out they did for so little resources comparatively - with such a lack of staff, I believe it is a miracle. I felt Ashland was more exciting for a film festival than even Park City (home of Sundance.)

This film was made on a small island, 300 miles from Fiji (although part of Fiji). Vilsoni Hereniko is a world renowned playwright - in 1997 he was presented the prestigious Elliott Cades Writing Award for his "significant body of work of exceptional quality."   His wife, Jeanette,  is a former Oregonian , born and raised ,  who spent ten years living in Southern Oregon  and started the Children's Britt and the Storytelling Guild .  So he writes this script, they go back to his island (no hotels, many people have never left the island or even SEEN a film) and they use  her connections in the film world for crew, one professional actress, who plays a small non-speaking role, and every other person in the film was a non-actor, native of the island, including the girl star, and the result is nothing short of amazing. See http://www.thelandhaseyes.com/production.html  The whole  cast went to the Sundance Festival....many the first time they ever left the island.

Hawai'i contingent helps heat up Sundance festival   

"The Land Has Eyes," by University of Hawai'i-Manoa professor Vilsoni Hereniko, made its debut Friday at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

PARK CITY, Utah — A blast of Arctic air plunged temperatures into the low teens for the opening of the Sundance Film Festival in this Utah ski resort, but the weather didn't chill the enthusiasm of a Hawai'i contingent at the 20th annual event, presented by Robert Redford. Friday   saw the premiere of University of Hawai'i-Manoa professor Vilsoni Hereniko's "The Land Has Eyes," set on the Fijian island of Rotuma, Hereniko's birthplace. Six years in the making, this film tells the story of a girl who must defend her family's name after a false charge is made against her father.

Fijian musicians serenaded the audience as they arrived at the theater for the Friday-afternoon screening. Pacific Islanders in Communications director Carlyn Tani and program director Annie Moriyasu had ginger lei ready for director/writer Hereniko, producer Jeannette Paulson Hereniko and the star of the film, Sepeta Taito, looking radiant in a mother-of-pearl necklace. Not only had the 17-year-old native Rotuman never seen snow before (and she got enough for a lifetime on this trip), she had never heard of Sundance or Robert Redford.   Cinematographer Paul Atkins, just off the plane from an MTV shoot with Cameron Diaz in Chile. 

 ROTUMA
Nine miles by two, Rotuma is an isolated island in the South Pacific, inhabited by 2,500 Polynesians who speak a distinct language. Rotuman culture shares many similarities with the rest of Polynesia - Tonga, Samoa, Hawai‘i and Aotearoa (New Zealand). However, Rotuma is politically part of Fiji: From 1881 to 1970, Rotuma was a colony of Great Britain, administered from Fiji. When Fiji became independent of Great Britain in 1970, Rotuma opted to remain under Fiji’s jurisdiction.

IT TAKES A VILLAGE
Vilsoni Hereniko grew up in Rotuma until he was 16 when he left for Fiji to further his education. In 1999, while a professor at the University of Hawai‘i, Hereniko returned to Rotuma to discuss with the islanders his dream to make a feature film, The Land Has Eyes, a story he wrote that is loosely based on his life growing up in Rotuma. Hereniko went from village to village to tell the story and to receive their permission and blessing to film it there. The people of Hapmak warmly embraced their native son and promised to be his partners in producing the film. For a year, they cleared land and built a set with homes, a community hall, a traditional boys’ house and a garden for Viki, protagonist of the story. 

HONOLULU ADVERTISER:  Sunday, March 20, 2005
A 'go see' movie that leaves you feeling good

By Lee Cataluna
Advertiser Staff

Audience members stood in line to shake filmmaker Vilsoni Hereniko's hand after the movie.

"And how did you hear about this?" he asked each one.

Every person said it was someone from work who told them they HAD to see this film, or a cousin who saw it and couldn't stop talking about it, or an auntie who laughed and cried and insisted every family member get to the theater.

'The Land has eyes'

What: "The Land Has Eyes"

Where: Dole Cannery theater complex

When: Daily noon, 2:30 p.m., 5 p.m., 7:30 p.m., 10 p.m. Held over through Thursdaywww.theland
haseyes.com Hawai'i is still small enough that word-of-mouth is the most trusted endorsement. It is also the most difficult honor an artistic effort can win. If people are telling their friends and family to go see a movie, that supersedes all hype. It's the real deal.

So pretend you're not reading this in the Sunday paper. Pretend you're hearing it in the "order here" line at Zippy's or at your kid's baseball game or at a family pa'ina.

Go see "The Land Has Eyes."

The story is about a girl on the island of Rotuma who finds a way to right an injustice done to her beloved father. The girl gets strength and guidance from the Warrior Woman, an ancestor and the first inhabitant of the island.

The film has been compared to "Whale Rider," but it was actually shot before the Maori movie came out. The films are similar in that the protagonist is a young girl connected to her spiritual ancestry. They differ in the culture, in the central conflict and in the message of the film. "The Land Has Eyes" is about justice. Hereniko quotes the ancient Rotuman belief:

the land has eyes
the land has teeth
and knows the truth

This was a grueling labor of love for Hereniko, his wife, Jeannette Paulson Hereniko, and his family in Rotuma. The movie was shot on the island over 40 days for less than a million dollars, money gathered here and there from dozens of sponsors and a number of achy credit cards.

Some days, the crew trucks had to be pushed, physically pushed, to a new location. At one point, they ran out of water. Hereniko's sister planted a garden, a crucial set piece, months in advance of shooting so that it would be just right for the scenes. A calf was brought over from Fiji and raised expressly to feed the cast and crew involved in the large wedding and funeral scenes. Cast members constructed the houses used in the film, and moved into them after the shooting was over.

It just doesn't get more homegrown than this.

All but two cast members were recruited from Rotuma. Most had never seen a movie before, much less acted in one. When the film was finished, Hereniko brought it back to Rotuma, borrowed a sheet from the hospital to use as a screen, and showed it eight times around the island.

"Oh, they loved it," Hereniko says. "They came back to see it more than once, because people were so excited laughing and talking the first time that they couldn't hear the movie."

This little movie shot on a little island premiered at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival last year. The lead actress, Sapeta Taito, accompanied the film to Sundance in Park City, Utah. It was her first trip off the island.

It also was screened at the Moscow International Film Festival, the Rotterdam International Film Festival and the Hawai'i International Film Festival.

Right now, you can see it at the Dole Cannery theater complex on the big screen. It's not quite the same as seeing it projected on a hospital sheet, but the filmmakers are there during weekend showings and will talk story with you after the credits roll.

Hereniko is a professor at University of Hawai'i Center of Pacific Island Studies. He teaches literature, theater and film. He is also a playwright and author. He grew up on Rotuma, was educated in Fiji and went on to study in England.

Hereniko has taken his education, his talent and his steadfast work ethic back home to Rotuma to tell the stories of his people. In his biography, he wrote:

"In making this film, I was faced with great obstacles. If I know that fellow Pacific Islanders realize they, too, can be producers of their own images as a result of this work, I will feel that every challenge will have been worth it."

Go see this movie if you have ever cringed over an outsider's misinterpretation of island culture.

Go see this movie if you have ever cried over the systemic injustice visited upon poor, honest families.

Go see this movie if your heart needs to hear that justice can prevail and that a force greater than all of us is watching and keeping score.

Go see this movie if you want to be reminded that hard work leads to success.

The Director

Vilsoni Hereniko was born in the village of Mea, Hapmak, Itu'ti'u District on October 13, 1954. He is the youngest of eleven children born to Hereniko Hapati and Reui Olovie. Hereniko received his schooling in Rotuma before winning a scholarship to complete his secondary education in Fiji at Queen Victoria School. From there he went to the University of the South Pacific where he graduated in 1977 with a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Graduate Certificate in Education. Hereniko was then awarded a Commonwealth scholarship to study drama-in-education at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in England, where he completed a Masters degree in Education.

It was while at the University of South Pacific that he started writing plays; his work immediately became widely produced and popular throughout the Pacific, notably Don't Cry Mama, A Child For Iva, Sera's Choice and The Monster. It was also during this time that Hereniko experimented with film, making a documentary, The Rotuman Clown.

In 1991, Hereniko was awarded a PhD by the University of the South Pacific. The same year, he joined the faculty at the Center of Pacific Island Studies at the University of Hawai’i where he is currently a full professor, teaching literature, theater and film.

While in Hawai‘i Hereniko continued to write plays, several have been produced internationally including The Last Virgin In Paradise and Fine Dancing. He also published extensively, including a book based on his doctoral research titled Woven Gods and an illustrated children's book about the legend Sina And Tinilau. In 1997 he was presented the prestigious Elliott Cades Writing Award for his "significant body of work of exceptional quality."

Serving on the jury and the selection committee of the Hawai‘i International Film Festival gave Hereniko an opportunity to witness the most outstanding film works coming out of Asia and the Pacific. A desire to visually express his original stories, Hereniko evolved into making films himself, shortly after marrying Jeannette Paulson, Founding Director of the Hawai‘i International Film Festival. Together, they established a film production company, Te Maka Productions, and produced a short film, Just Dancing, based on his play, Fine Dancing. Soon thereafter, Hereniko won the Hubert Bals Fund award (International Film Festival Rotterdam) to write what would become the first film from Fiji – The Land Has Eyes. This film is Hereniko’s feature debut.

Director’s statement: A story has the power to transform people’s lives.

Growing up on Rotuma, Fiji, I was filled with stories about the island, Greek mythology and the Bible, which nourished me with inspiration and hope. I see myself as a storyteller who recognizes that film is the most powerful medium for telling a story, a medium that has historically not been accessible or available to Pacific Islanders.

In making this film, I was faced with great obstacles. However, if I know that fellow Pacific Islanders realize they too can be producers of their own images as a result of this work, I will feel that every challenge will have been worth it.

It is my hope that audiences everywhere will not only be entertained by this story, but will walk away with a precious sense about Rotuma, its culture and its people. More than ever before, may we all recognize that we need the wisdom of our ancestors. With this film, I want to express the ancient Rotuman belief that:

the land has eyes
the land has teeth
and knows the truth.

May justice prevail, not just in film, but also in real life.Vilsoni Hereniko 

On October 24, 2004 in Toronto, Canada, The Land has Eyes won the "Best Dramatic Feature Film" at the world's largest indigenous film festival, the ImagiNATIVE Media Film & Media Arts Festival. A month earlier, Vilsoni Hereniko, director/writer of The Land has Eyes, was named the "Best Hawaii Filmmaker" (the Hale Ki`ioni`oni Award) during the Cinema Paradise Film Festival in Honolulu.

Land Has Eyes