Moana

Moana is a (1926) documentary film directed by Robert J. Flaherty, the creator of Nanook of the North. Trying to repeat the success of his earlier project, in Moana, Paramount Pictures sent Flaherty to Samoa to capture the traditional life of the Pacific islanders on film. Unlike Nanook, however, Flaherty was always one step behind Western influences. Finally ending up in the village of Safune on the island of Savai'i, he found that the missionaries had already been there before him, and the native population had alread abandoned their traditional clothing for Western styles. Furthermore, the island was a virtual paradise so that unlike Nanook, he could not build on the theme of "Man against Nature" for the storyline of his film. Therefore, while the film was visually stunning, it failed at the box office, leaving Flaherty to attempt to find other locations more like the treacherous Arctic for his next film.