Pacific Island Film Festival: Dance Celebration Through the Pacific Islands

The Library for the Performing Arts hosts the opening for the Pacific Island Film Festival: A Celebration of Dances From the Pacific Islands, a series taking place around the city.

In this screening, two short films showcase Pacific Island dance and culture along with a live performance by Dancers Unlimited principal dancer Keala Fung and a  panel discussion about the importance of dance, film and art in the indigenous environmental activists space . Screenings include the short films Vakariataka and Pō'ele Wai. 

As a four-part cinematic poem,  Vakariataka combines the landscape of Fiji, the contemporary style of the traditional Fijian dance meke and language, and the linkage between the body, the water, and the land. 

Pō'ele Wai is a narrative short film that combines magical realism, dark fantasy and horror within a classical narrative to tell a visceral story of the effects of poisoning in a poetic homage to sacred waters.

Photo Credit: Film still from Vakaraitaka. Photo by Only Ideas Studio.

SEATING POLICY | Programs are free and open to all, but registration is requested. Check-in line forms 45 minutes before the advertised start time. Registered guests are given priority check-in 15 to 30 minutes before start time. Five minutes before the advertised start time, all seats are released, regardless of registration, to our patrons in the stand-by line. If you arrive after the program starts, you will be seated at the discretion of our front-of-house staff.

STANDBY LINE | If registration is sold out or has ended, do not fret! We welcome you to come to the Library regardless of registration status and wait in our standby line, which forms 45 minutes before the advertised start time. Five minutes before the program starts, all remaining seats are released. While this is not guaranteed, we will do our best to get you into any of our programs.

ASSISTIVE LISTENING AND ASL | ASL interpretation and real-time (CART) captioning available upon request. Please submit your request at least two weeks in advance by emailing [email protected].

BRUNO WALTER POLICY | Please note that any unoccupied seat will be released five minutes before the show begins and holding seats for anyone beyond that is prohibited. There is no food or drink allowed inside the venue.

AUDIO/VIDEO RECORDING | Programs may be photographed and recorded by and at the discretion of the Library for the Performing Arts and will post signs indicating as such. If you would prefer your image not be captured, please let us know and we can seat you accordingly. Attending any program indicates your consent to being filmed/photographed and your consent to the use of your recorded image for any and all purposes of the New York Public Library.

PRESS | Please send all press inquiries to Alex Teplitzky at [email protected]. Please note that all recording, including professional video recordings, are prohibited without expressed consent from the Library.

Host or Publisher New York Public Library for the Performing Arts