Stuff We Like

Chuck Boller, Executive Director of the Louis Vuitton Hawaii International Film Festival describes their mission as "helping international understanding by increasing and promoting cultural awareness." Pacific Island countries contributed a number of documentaries, features and shorts to this year's event. In A Slow Boat to Somewhere directed by Jon Bowermaster, a Polynesian tramp steamer covers 3,000 miles and some of the South Pacific's most isolated atolls. An Island Invaded presents first hand accounts of the 1941 Japanese invasion and occupation of Guam. Archival footage of the hardships and horrors of the Japanese occupation before liberation by U.S. troops is interspersed between seven local interviewees. Carmen Artero Kasperbauer, only 6 years old in 1941, described it as "…you feel like your soul is invaded and your life is invaded; our whole island was invaded." An Island Invaded is produced by Jim Bannan of Pacific Resources for Education and Learning (PREL) and Ester Figueroa of Juniroa Productions, Honolulu, Hawaii. Thanks to funding from the U.S. Department of Education, An Island Invaded is available upon request to askprel@prel.org for $20 to cover shipping and handling.

Direct from "The Rock" (website)

Niue Weekly News is one of our new favorite web resources. Founded by long-time Niue media identity, Stafford Guest, www.niuenews.nu provides timely updates and analysis from "The Rock." The photo gallery is worth a visit and there is a terrific interactive Niue map, where you can find information about individual villages. The most recent issue had strong coverage and commentary on Helen Clark's visit to Niue and the victorious homecoming of Miss South Pacific, Sinahemana Hekau. In winning that pageant Hekau talked about the potential of the Internet to effectively and efficiently market isolated island nations. This website does that, while also providing a virtual meeting place for Niueans around the world. www.niuenews.nu

House Music Tongan Style (cd)

Tongan Soane Watkins started his nightclub career as a bouncer, but his debut release Tongan Chic confirms his place in the VIP room. Auckland-based Watkins says the album "maps his current musical tastes,..(and) features everything from soul to hip hop to R'n'B to house to Latin." We've been listening to it late at night as a sort of lounge album, but there are tracks to get you up and dancing as well if this is your style. Most tracks are instrumental although "All I Need" has vocal attitude. www.inmusic.co.nz

Happy Landings

Colorful chapters in the history of Pacific aviation are being written every day across the region. But it was the early days, when pioneers blazed trails across the Pacific Ocean in small, noisy aircraft, which have provided some of the most gripping tales of heroism, adventure and courage. Jon Krupnick is an aviation buff and historian who has made significant contributions to our understanding of one pioneering airline, Pan American Airways. His first book on Pan Am’s Pacific exploits, Pan Am’s Pacific Pioneers, came out in the late 1990s. His companion history, Pan Am’s Pacific Pioneers – The Rest of the Story, is as thorough and colorful as the first book. This pictorial history traces the development of Pan Am’s pan-Pacific routes, from San Francisco to Hong Kong via Hawaii, Midway, Wake, Guam and Manila. He also covers the pioneering work – deadly, as it turned out – involved in established air service between Hawaii and New Zealand via Kingman Reef and American Samoa. This was the era of the Pan Am Clipper flying boats, Sikorskys initially, later the famous Martin M-130s and the last of the breed, the Boeing 314s, perhaps the most beautiful and certainly among the most luxurious U.S. flying boats ever flown. For anyone interested in the development of Pacific aviation, both of Krupnick’s works are required reading. Pictorial Histories Publishing Co. $59.95. Contact Jon Krupnick at jonpac@aol.com.