Hidden Bibliographic Details
Varying Form of Title: | Building Mauloa : a Pacific Island outrigger canoe
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Other authors / contributors: | Evenari, Gail, director, producer.
Alapa'i, Shawna, narrator.
Maiden Voyage Productions, production company.
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Digital file characteristics: | video file
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Notes: | Title from resource description page (viewed December 13, 2019). Narrator, Shawna Alapa'i. In English.
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Summary: | TIMELESS CRAFT documents three generations of Pacific Islanders -- from Micronesia, Hawai'i and the Marquesas -- as they construct a coastal outrigger sailing canoe using traditional tools, methods and materials. The film weaves an atmosphere of quiet beauty and reverence. No visible trappings of the modern world appear in the unfolding scenes that evoke pre-contact Polynesia, a time when master carvers sharpened their rudimentary tools on whetstones and crafted vessels that carried them to neighboring islands and to the far corners of the Pacific. The building of Mauloa was filmed in semi-slow motion. The altered speed and golden images that unfold on the screen create a unique sense of timelessness. Nothing of the modern world exists in the footage - no power tools, t-shirts or sunglasses. All of the scenes evoke pre-contact Polynesia; from sharpening the stone adzes on a whetstone, to staining the koa hull with kukui nut oil. This method of filming carries viewers back to the time when the ancestors of today's Polynesians crafted their canoes with grace and artistry, while respecting solemn ritual and ancient tradition.
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