Moana

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.”

Director: Robert Flaherty, Frances H. Flaherty

Cast: Ta'avale, Fa'amgase, Tama, T'ugaita, Pe'a, Leupenga

Audience-only score — full critic data not yet in the ReelXO vault.