Wayfinders: A Pacific Odyssey

Pacific High

January 1980 •English

In April 1978, the annual Ensenada Yacht Race from Newport Beach, California, to Ensenada, Mexico, occurred over the course of twenty-four hours. More than 600 yachts and sailboats competed in the 200-mile race. In the final stretch into Ensenada Harbor, the winds calmed, leaving the boats moving slowly to the finish line.

Die Flotte der Römer

October 2024 •German

Surf Sail

September 1978 •English

A documentary following the attempt by three young people to be the first windsurfers to cross Cook Strait.

The Camino Voyage

February 2018 •English

A crew including a Writer, two Musicians, an Artist and a Stonemason embark on the Camino by sea, in a traditional boat that they built themselves on an inspiring, and dangerous, 2,500 km modern day Celtic odyssey all the way from Ireland to Northern Spain.

William F. Buckley Jr.'s Celestial Navigation Simplified

Invalid date •English

Join this world-renowned personality for the most unique program on celestial ever. Teaches the theory and practice of Celestial Navigation and also teaches the noon shot. Using computer graphics, he illuminates the finer points of GP, GHA, and GMT. Worth twelve weeks of night school.

30 Years of National Geographic Specials

January 1995 •English

Celebrates 30 years of televised specials by The National Geographic Society.

Kon-Tiki

January 1950 •Norwegian

"Kon-Tiki" was the name of a wooden raft used by six Scandinavian scientists, led by Thor Heyerdahl, to make a 101-day journey from South America to the Polynesian Islands. The purpose of the expedition was to prove Heyerdal's theory that the Polynesian Islands were populated from the east- specifically Peru- rather than from the west (Asia) as had been the theory for hundreds of years. Heyerdahl made a study of the winds and tides in the Pacific, and by simulating conditions as closely as possible to those he theorized the Peruvians encountered, set out on the voyage.

Mergui

November 2018 •English

Using nature shots with narration and a musical score, this documentary tells the story about the Moken, Myanmar's last sea nomads.

Māori

July 1981 •English

This 1981 NFU film is a tour of the contemporary world of Aotearoa’s tangata whenua. It won headlines over claims that its portrayal of Māori had been sanitised for overseas viewers. Debate and a recut ensued. Writer Witi Ihimaera felt that mentions of contentious issues (Bastion Point, the land march) in his original script were ignored or elided in the final film, and withdrew from the project. He later told journalists that the controversy showed that educated members of minority groups were no longer prepared to let the majority interpret the minority view.

The Wind Gods

April 2013 •English

A feature length documentary film following Larry Ellison's 10-year quest to bring the oldest trophy in international sport, The America's Cup, back to the United States.

Water Sports

October 1935 •English

This short film showcases water sports activities such as sailboat racing and surfboard riding, including Christian Peterson doing a human surfboard at 45 mph.

A Dream of the Mediterranean

April 1991 •Finnish

A documentary about Göran Schildt and his relationship with the Mediterranean.

The Navigators: Pathfinders of the Pacific

September 1983 •English

In hand-built, double-hulled canoes sixty feet long, the ancestors of today's Polynesians sailed vast distances using only the waves, the stars, and the flights of birds to navigate. Anthropologist Sanford Low visits the Caroline Islands of Micronesia to meet Mau Piailug, the last navigator initiated on his island and one of few men still practicing this once-essential art. He demonstrates his skill by sailing a replica canoe 2500 miles from Hawaii to Tahiti with no modern navigational instruments.

Oceano

November 1971 •Italian

The odyssey of a Tuamutu fisherman who sets out from his atoll-only coral island to procure fertile land in the "distant" archipelagos. Lost in the vast South Pacific, he finds the atoll from which he had departed now doomed from atomic experiments.

Vive La France

August 2014 •English

Kua and Teriki will soon get married. They live on the distant Tureia island in the French Polynesia, Pacific Ocean and have just been told that something is wrong with their son Maokis heart. It is a consequence of living only 100 km away from the island of Moruroa, where France has tested 193 atom bombs for 30 years. Several of their family members are sick and Moruroa can soon collapse, which can lead to a tsunami likely to drown all of them. Vive La France is a personal and intimate story about harvesting the consequences of the French atomic program.

Holland Sailing

December 1956 •English

This Sportscope series entry highlights sailboat races in Holland.

Girt by Sea

February 2014 •English

Girt By Sea is a cinematic love letter to the coastline of Australia - a poetic celebration of our connection to the sea as documented through archival footage over the past 100 years.

Moana

January 1926 •English

Robert J. Flaherty’s follow-up to Nanook of the North shifts from the Arctic to the South Seas, portraying Samoan village life with a painterly eye. Blending ethnographic detail with a romanticized “Gauguin idyll,” the film celebrates daily rituals, communal traditions, and the passage into adulthood, suffused with what Flaherty called “pride of beauty, pride of strength.”

Call Me Captain

July 1961 •English

The Norfolk Broads tourist film promotes the pleasures of boating.

Kekaiulu Hula Studio

November 2022 •English

Kekaiulu Hula Studio follows the Proclaimed Hula Halau of the same name, showcasing their twist on what the real reason for hula is and what life as a dancer in the halau is really like. Something previously unseen in the public eye.