Moana (1926)

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.”

• Release Date: 1926-01-07
• Runtime: 1h 38min
• Directors: Robert Flaherty, Frances H. Flaherty.
• Writers: Robert Flaherty, Frances H. Flaherty.