Even before the doors opened, adults and families with children were already gathered at the theater entrance so that Park Ranger Susan Fishman-Tudor and American Memorial Park staffers had to add more chairs for the audience.
Fishman-Tudor said they had to control the capacity to just over a hundred persons and may have to schedule a second screening.
“The Navigators: Pathfinders of the Pacific” which was shown in celebration of the National Arts and Humanities Month, was an instant hit among members of the audience who were given a glimpse into the ancient navigational heritage of the people of the Pacific.
In the movie, anthropologist/filmmaker Sanford Low interviewed the late Dr. Piao Malug from the tiny coral atoll of Satawal in Micronesia’s remote Caroline Islands. He discussed how his hand-built double-hulled canoes sailed across the Pacific following only the movement of stars, waves, swell of the waters and flights of birds for guidance.
Maug’s children and family members who were among those who watched the movie answered questions from the public afterward.
NMI Humanities Council representatives said the movie was chosen to bring back to the viewers the importance of preserving Pacific cultural heritage which is in danger of becoming extinct and forever forgotten.
“The Navigators: Pathfinders of the Pacific” was shown in cooperation with the NMI Council for the Humanities, the Tan Siu Lin Foundation, the Division of Environmental Quality and the National Park Service.
The First Friday Films are free to the public.
