The Insular Empire: America in the Mariana Islands

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Images

Guam license plate, 2002

Chamorro citizens of Guam, c. 1910

Lino Olopai at 2004 Liberation Day parade

Carolinian traditional canoe sails in Saipan lagoon

Typical sign posted in Guam public spaces through the mid-1980's

US President Gerald Ford signing Covenant with the Northern Mariana Islands

Budget

Raised to date: $432,993.00
Estimate to complete: $15,000.00
Total Estimated Budget: $447,993.00
The budget numbers above are accurate as of 06/01/2010

Status

Distribution

Media Type

Video

Project End Use

Key Personnel

Vanessa Warheit
Producer/Director/Camera/Writer

Vanessa Warheit has worked as a director, producer, editor, and cinematographer of non-fiction video since 1999. Her independent film credits include Producer/Director/Editor for Constructing Experience: The Many Lives of Treasure Island, a short documentary which aired in the San Francisco Bay Area on PBS and NBC; Associate Producer for the national PBS documentary Great Wall Across the Yangtze; and Additional Cinematography for the award-winning ITVS documentary Daddy and Papa. Vanessa edits, produces, writes and directs for TV and corporate clients, and she lectures at the university level on documentary film theory and practice.

Vanessa holds a Master's in Documentary Film & Video Production from Stanford University, and a BA with honors from Bryn Mawr College. She lives with her husband and 3-year-old son in Vancouver, where she sits on the board of the BC Chapter of the Documentary Organization of Canada (DOC). The Insular Empire is her first feature project.

Laurie MacMillan
Editor

Laurie MacMillan is an award-winning documentary editor. She wrote, produced, and edited Crossing Arizona, story edited the documentary feature Four Seasons Lodge (executive produced by Albert Maysles), and edited the award-winning one-hour documentary Odd Ones Out. Laurie’s work has screened at the Sundance and Tribeca Film Festivals, and on Sundance Channel, AlJazeera, NHK and TV2 Danmark. She is also the co-founder of the Coney Island Film Festival, where she served as the festival’s program director from 2001-2006. She has an MFA from Concordia University in Montreal and a BFA from the University of Victoria. Laurie currently divides her time between New York and Vancouver.

Todd Boekelheide
Composer
Todd Boekelheide is an award-winning sound and picture editor (Star Wars, Black Stallion, Amadeus),and an award-winning composer of film scores (Dim Sum, Hearts of Darkness, Kidsof Survival). Up-to-date credits information can be found at www.tobomusic.com.

Outreach/Engagement Plan(s)

We are working on an outreach campaign to raise public awareness and bring true self-determination to the people of America’s Mariana Islands. The US Dept. of Defense' plans for a massive military buildup of the islands means that time is currently of the essence, and we are working with three different Chamorro grassroots organizations that are using the film as a tool for their organizing efforts. Components of the outreach plan include:

Public Screenings - in the US and throughout the Pacific. Screenings have occurred so far in Seattle, Olympia, San Francisco, Oakland, the Philippines, and Honolulu; more are planned for San Diego, Bowdoin College, Brown University, The University of Guam, and throughout the CNMI. Producer/Director Vanessa Warheit is available as a speaker at these screenings.

Reviews - we have succeeded in garnering positive reviews of the film in journals such as Japan Focus and The Progressive, and we are approaching leading academics of US empire (such as Chalmers Johnson and Noam Chomsky) to write reviews in other journals.

Educational Distribution - the film has been accepted for educational distribution by New Day Films, which will be promoting The Insular Empire to schools and universities throughout the US beginning in fall 2010.

Coalition-building – we are working with several blogs and NGO's (including Vancouver Peace Philosophy Center, Guahan Coalition for Peace & Justice, Famoksaiyan, 10,000 Things, etc.) to promote the film and use it as an organizing tool. We have also identified almost twenty additional potential partner organizations and will continue to build on this coalition.

Supplemental teaching guides - we have a group of academics from history, psychology, and social work who are eager to begin work creating an online study guide, which will facilitate use of The Insular Empire in the classroom. We have raised $2,500 for this project and we are currently trying to raise an additional $15,000 to grow the study guide into a feature-rich video-based companion website.

Funders

Name	Amount	Date
Pacific Islanders in Communications	$5,000.00	05/01/2010
Pacific Islanders in Communications	$50,000.00	10/01/2008
Open Meadows Foundation	$750.00	06/28/2005
Pacific Islanders in Communications	$55,000.00	03/19/2004
Skaggs Foundation	$7,500.00	01/14/2004
Pacific Pioneer Fund	$5,000.00	01/10/2004
Northern Mariana Islands Council for the Humanities	$10,906.00	01/01/2003
Guam Humanities Council	$10,000.00	12/01/2002

Location

1535 E. 18th Ave.
Vancouver, BC, V5N 2H4

See Google Maps

Short Synopsis

The Insular Empire is the first film to document America's historical - and ongoing - role as a colonial power. Following the personal stories of four indigenous island leaders, the film examines the history of US strategic colonies in the western Pacific: the US Territory of Guam and the US Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

Description/Treatment

Summary
THE INSULAR EMPIRE is a provocative documentary that asks, "What is it like to be a colonial subject of the greatest democracy on Earth?"

Six thousand miles west of California, the Mariana Islands include the U.S. Territory of Guam and the U.S. Commonwealth of the NorthernMariana Islands (CNMI). For generations, these islands’ indigenous Chamorro and Carolinian people have been second-class Americans – fighting and dying under the stars and stripes, with no voting representation in Congress, and no vote for their commander-in-chief. Today the US military is planning a massive buildup of these small, strategic islands, with no input from the people of the Marianas. Despite widespread opposition to this buildup, the military is continuing with its plans - while the Chamorros and Carolinians continue to send their youth to fight for America in record numbers.

THE INSULAR EMPIRE is a documentary about believing in America, even while being denied the rights and privileges that most Americans take for granted. It is a film about identity, and self-determination, and the deep human need to belong. It is an intimate and nuanced look at the realities of American imperial expansion, and a portrait of a patriotic island people searching for their place within the American political family.

Treatment
THE INSULAR EMPIRE follows four indigenous islanders from the Marianas, who have each been intimately involved in their islands’ political trajectory. As an ensemble, they represent their people’s passionate – if often conflicting – attitudes towards the United States of America.

• Carlos Taitano, a 92-year old rebel patriot, wants to be a full-fledged American before he dies. After serving as a US Army officer under General MacArthur, he led a revolt that gave the Chamorro people of Guam US citizenship. Today, he craves ‘the ultimate goal of every American citizen’: US statehood.

• Pete A. Tenorio was an impressionable child when U.S. Marines “liberated” the war-ravaged island of Saipan during World War II. As a politician Pete sacrificed his islands’ sovereignty to make them a part of ‘the American political family’ – but today his patriotism is being challenged, as he finds himself paying a high price for that decision.

• Hope Cristobal has spent a lifetime trying to reconcile her Chamorro and American identities. For the past twenty years, she has petitioned the UN for her people’s right to self-determination – to no avail. As the stakes grow higher for Guam, Hope wonders who will follow in her footsteps.

• Lino Olopai worked first for the CIA and then for the Peace Corps, getting very different perspectives on ‘what America was all about’. After thirty years, he is still trying to bridge the gap between his endangered indigenous culture and the freedoms that come with his American identity.

THE INSULAR EMPIRE weaves these stories together with contemporary footage, a treasure chest of archival material, and the insights of Pacific historians and experts in US Insular Affairs. Delightful animations convey the region's complex political concepts and geography with easy-to-understand images, while an original score by award-winning composer Todd Boekelheide incorporates indigenous music and American patriotic tunes, creating a musical landscape as haunting, beautiful, and strangely familiar as the islands themselves.

View Online
THE INSULAR EMPIRE was selected by PBS Video for its Asian Pacific American Heritage collection; it will be available online for free at the PBS website through June 20, 2010: http://video.pbs.org/feature/153/

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