The doors will open for this new edition from Monday 6th to Sunday 12th February 2012 in the Maison de la Culture grounds. This annual gathering, a true hub of Pacific images and expression which has become essential over the years for professionals and the public, places French Polynesia at the heart of Oceania for several days.

This year the president of the jury is the producer, director and script-writer Elie Chouraqui (France). He will be joined by prestigious local and international personalities: Chairwoman of the Tjibaou Cultural Centre, Marie Claude Tjibaou (New Caledonia); Deputy Director for diversity with the director of broadcasting for France Télévisions, Mariejosé Alie (France); editor Cushla Dillon (New Zealand); Director of the ‘Tahiti Ora’ dance school, Tumata Robinson (French Polynesia); script-writer and director, Yann Samuell (France); head of programmes ABC2 Australia, Stuart Menzies (Australia); General Manager of the news channel ‘Hawaii News Now,’ Rick Blangiardi (Hawaii); 3D special effects specialist, Jacob Luamanuvae (Samoa); General Director of FIFO from 2004 to 2011, Pierre Ollivier (French Polynesia), and Chief Executive of the Natural History Museum in Paris Thomas Grenon (France).

They will have the delicate task of choosing from amongst documentaries of ever increasing quality to award the Jury Grand Prix and 3 special prizes. The public will also vote to issue its prize amongst the 36 films screened.

FIFO’s 4th Digital Encounters chaired by Michel Paoletti hosts a melting-pot of thought, not only to address what 21st century Oceania will be, but also to draw up an intermediary assessment of the huge digital changes that Polynesia is going through. Distinguished national and local personalities will discuss and analyse these upheavals in the digital world and their repercussions on Polynesian society. Daily debates will take place, uniting professionals, specialists, decision-makers and users around essential themes like Polynesia’s place in the digital world. The public will have free access to a cyber area and free Wi-Fi throughout the whole of FIFO.

As well as being a link between Polynesian, Micronesian and Melanesian worlds, FIFO is also a special place for meetings and debates. Many directors will be present at FIFO to meet, discuss and debate with the public. The 6th Pacific Television Conference will also take place during FIFO in partnership with France Télévisions, allowing a promising audiovisual market to be generated.

Over these 6 days, meetings with directors and free introductory shot-taking, script-writing and audiovisual editing workshops will be available to the general public, whilst professionals will be able to take part in OCEANIA PITCH, led by Nicolas Zunino.

Finally FIFO confirms its opening-up to fiction with expanded ‘alternative’ offerings consisting of 3 evening events: the Gala evening at Liberty, for the presentation of the film ‘Balibo’; the special ‘Cabourg’ evening where award-winning films from the 25th edition of the Cabourg Festival will be screened, and lastly, the much-awaited Pacific Short Film Night.

Press contacts:
Mirima Geoffroy: + 689 79 33 34 / + 689 70 70 16 - organisation@fifotahiti.org
Vaiana Giraud – Communications assistant: + 689 544 536 - communication@fifotahiti.org

From Polynesia to Papua New Guinea, from New Zealand to the Samoan Islands, the story of the Samoan Circus, and it’s magic Big Top put up here and there, with Bruno, its creator and director who has been back and forth across the Pacific for 25 years with his group of artists.

4 Kanak women; 4 artists: the ‘events’ and fulfilment of women artists rooted in Kanak culture and spirituality. Their relationship with contemporary art. Through the course of their lives and their work, the story of an artistic, historical and social revolution takes shape as well as the outline of a changing Caledonia.

This story is a search for identity following exile, and the continuation of cultural transmission from one generation to another. A family living in New Zealand questions its Rotuman origin, so, for the dying father who never returned to the country, his daughter must make the journey to Rotuma, an island in the Fijian archipelago, towards the culture and family. She tries to resolve the problem of belonging, one which defines humans.

The bust of Pierre Loti, erected more than 70 years ago in Papeete has been thrown into the Fautaua River… Who
still knows about the work and life of Pierre Loti today, his enthusiastic interest for countries other than his own, distant horizons and foreign cultures? Far from being a cliché, this portrait allows us to understand how, given the period, he was brought to create images of an exoticism which certainly characterise nuanced thinking.

The documentary maker, Phoebe Hart, has made a film about her voyage of self-discovery which has allowed her to clear any previous shame, to clear the family secret surrounding her bodily condition known as hermaphrodite and envisage her future. In spite of the clear refusal of her mother to be present in the film, Phoebe decides that she must complete her research, to find out more about her family, and to make contact with other people like herself. With the help of her sister and the support of her husband, she leaves in search of her real identity, in order to discover and accept herself.

They have their own language, waves and rules. Deaf to surf business mermaids, these "modern day knights" defend their waves like we capture territory. They brave the four corners of the world by crashing waves. In Tasmania, Hawaii, Tahiti, California or Basque Country, each wears the colours of his clan proudly.

A charming portrait of a ‘European New Caledonian’ farmer, images of his meetings with his Kanak friends all over the Grande Terre and an account of his relationship with them. Gritty anecdotes and sensitive comments from a Caledonian ‘bushman’ about ‘living together’ in Caledonia today.

‘NA KAMALEI: les Hommes du Hula’ stages the journey of a legendary hula master, a Hawaiian dance. The teacher, Robert Cazimero shows men the graceful gestures involved in this dance. The film promotes Hawaiian artistic pride and interrogates the memory as well as today’s Hawaiians to retrace the importance of the role of masculine dancers in the culture of the Hawaiian Islands, today like in the past.

‘Life Force’ is an animal film with superb images which show us New Zealand’s turbulent geological past. It is a country where amazing creatures live: running rather than flying birds, nocturnal animals and living fossils. The evolution of the species ran riot on this isolated land, producing some of the most astonishing animals in the world…which exist nowhere else for that matter.