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.”

Released Jan. 7, 1926 98 min 7+

Genres: Documentary

Keywords: tmdb.south-seas, imdb.coconut, tmdb.tattoo-art, imdb.dance-ritual, tmdb.native, tmdb.indigenous, tmdb.samoa + 27 more, tmdb.polynesia, tmdb.polynesian, tmdb.1920s, tmdb.ethnographic-film, tmdb.docufiction, mdblist.has-trailer, imdb.character-name-as-title, imdb.year-1926, imdb.f-rated, imdb.one-word-title, imdb.forename-as-title, mdblist.ext.2k-blu-ray, tmdb.coconut, tmdb.oceania, tmdb.dance-ritual, imdb.south-seas, imdb.native, imdb.1920s, imdb.20th-century, imdb.tattoo-art, mdblist.fresh, imdb.native-people, imdb.lie, imdb.pre-code, imdb.robert-louis-stevenson-quotation, imdb.family-relationships, aspectratio.1-33-1