Documentary Feature
Editor
Director: Sergio M. Rapu (Mara Films / Kartemquin Films)
AWARDS & DISTINCTIONS:
Winner | Mallku Feature Film Competition | 2019 Arica Nativa Film Festival
Best Environmental/Outdoor Feature | 2019 BendFilm Festival
Jury Grand Prize | 2019 Arkhaios Film Festival
Audience Favorite | 2019 Arkhaios Film Festival
Sustainability Award | 2019 Portuguese Surf Film Festival
Eating Up Easter is the first documentary of its kind to break from sensationalizing the “mysteries” of Easter Island’s past, a remote Pacific island known for its massive stone statues. Instead, this film explores the raw realities of a modern indigenous community transformed by the globalizing effects of tourism. Native filmmaker, Sergio M. Rapu’s own intimate knowledge of island life and unprecedented access to the community provides an insider’s look into the contradictions and complexities his people face as they rapidly develop.
The film follows MAMA PIRU, a passionate hard-headed Rapanui who, as the head of the recycling center, is struggling to find ways to minimize the growing problem of trash. Pursuing change in the social realm are MAHANI and ENRIQUE, musicians devoted to re-uniting the community through their music school. The island itself becomes a character as the complexities of development slowly unfold through these members of the community. Eating Up Easter follows their struggle as they draw on lessons from their past about reuse and resilience to find solutions for the problems they face today, and work to address the universal issues of development with local solutions in order to re-cultivate a sustainable island life.