Self
This feature length documentary tells the story of Mahani Teave who grew up on Rapa Nui (Easter Island) and left at age 9 to pursue her dream of being classical pianist-a journey that takes her from mainland Chile to The Cleveland Music Institute to Berlin and the great concert halls of Europe. At the age of 30, on the brink of international success, Teave gives up her career to pursue a new dream, coming back full circle to Rapa Nui to found a free music school for the island's children. The resulting school-named Toki, after the basalt tool once used to shape Easter Island's iconic sculptures-is a model of sustainability, incorporating tons of tires, bottles and Pacific Ocean plastic; surrounded by agri-environmental gardens to grow food. With Toki, Mahani hopes to shape a bold new future for Rapa Nui and inspire hope and change on Earth, our island home.
Music
Twin Cities filmmaker Sergio M. Rapu sets his gaze on his homeland in Eating Up Easter, where the Rapanui community faces an environmental collapse due to overwhelming tourism and industrial progress. Rapu himself serves as a narrator, describing to his son the depth of Easter Island's plight and the dilemma of the people who live there. Struggling to keep up with a land that refuses to slow down, the film features other locals making the best of an impossible situation: an ecologist who attempts to temper the rising waste crisis that affects both the island and the shores that surround it, a pair of musicians trying to establish a free music school that may help to preserve cultural traditions, and finally, Rapu's father, the island's former Governor, who is caught between responsibility to generations of culture and the ever-growing demands of industry.
