PACIFIC FILM DIALOGUES

Join us for Pacific Film Dialogues, featuring a conversation with Pacific filmmakers and cultural practitioners Dr Letila Mitchell (Rotuma/Fiji) and Leonardo Pakarati (Rapa Nui/Chile).

This free event brings together perspectives from across the Pacific, exploring Indigenous storytelling, cultural revitalisation, environmental futures, memory, and the role of film in sustaining ancestral knowledge and community connections. The dialogue will be followed by screenings of two remarkable films:

Armea (2024, 20 min) Directed by Letila Mitchell

A visually rich and deeply moving journey into Rotuman culture, ARMEA follows the return of the Rako Pasefika collective to Rotuma as they reconnect with elders, cultural custodians and ancestral stories inspired by the sacred Armea bird. The film is an ode to Indigenous knowledge, artistic practice, and cultural continuity.

Ŋa Hinarere [The Children] (2026, 72 min) Directed by Leonardo Pakarati

Through inherited memories of a pivotal moment in Rapa Nui history, Ŋa Hinarere reflects on dignity, resilience, and the transmission of ancestral knowledge. The film revisits the restoration of the first moai erected in modern times and explores questions of identity, cultural survival, and collective memory.

Dr Letila Mitchell is a practicing artist, arts administrator, producer, academic, and champion of Rotuman and Indigenous cultures. A self-described mother, artist, and dreamer, Letila is the founder and artistic director of Rako Pasefika, a multidisciplinary collective of Indigenous Oceanic storytellers whose performances and digital art are informed by Rotuman culture and identity. Recent performances by Rako Pasefika have taken place at the Sydney Opera House, the 2018 Commonwealth Games, the Pacific Arts Festival, and the Quandamooka Festival. Letila served as director of the Fiji Arts Council, as founder of the Pacific Arts Alliance, and as a member of the Commonwealth Group for Culture and Development. She recently completed a Doctorate of Creative Industries at Queensland University of Technology, that explores Rotuman creative practice in the context of Indigenous Oceanic knowledge with the goal of deepening knowledge and strengthening creative practices that link Indigenous knowledge, cultural activism, and biodiversity conservation.

Leonardo Pakarati is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and founder of Mahatua Producciones. He has dedicated his career to documenting Rapa Nui culture, heritage, and contemporary social realities through film. He grew up in Easter Island and then moved to Santiago to complete his studies. In 1992 he graduated in Audiovisual Communications and Film Directing from the ARCOS University in Santiago de Chile. In 1992 he worked as photography assistant to National Geographic photographer Bob Sacha. In 1993 he was invited to work in the long feature film “Rapa Nui”, produced by Kevin Costner and Tig Production, as the Making Off cameraman and as the film’s Still Man. He has made two documentary films about “Tapati”, the biggest traditional feast in Easter Island, directed the short film “Ka oho koe”. In 2010 he created the first newspaper in Easter Island, “El Correo del Moai”, of which he is the director until now. He is the press correspondent for TV channels like Channel 13, TVN, Chilevisión and CNN Chile. His first feature documentary “Te kuhane o te tupuna” (The spirit of the ancestors) 2015, is a journey from Easter Island to London, in search of the lost Moai Hoa Haka Nanaʻia, a statue of significant cultural importance for Rapa Nui. Ŋa Hinarere [The Children] is his second feature length documentary.

Paula Rossetti holds a degree in History and works as a poet and photographer. She joined Mahatua Producciones in 2004 as researcher and producer. She is also editor and journalist at the newspaper El Correo del Moai, which she co-founded with Leonardo Pakarati. She serves as director of the Aukara Rapa Nui Foundation and curator of the Aukara Museum of Sculptures. In 2022 she founded Editorial Aukara, a publishing platform for Rapa Nui people wishing to write and publish their own projects. She is currently pursuing a doctorate in Anthropology, researching audiovisual productions made on Rapa Nui since 1935.

Iane Tavo Atalifo is a Rotuman/Fijian artist, dancer, drummer, choreographer, photographer and videographer known for his work with Rako Pasefika, a dance and arts collective that highlights Rotuman culture, heritage, and storytelling.

Support for this event is provided by the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University, Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS), the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, and the Sydney School of Architecture, Design and Planning at the University of Sydney.

Contact the host of PACIFIC FILM DIALOGUES