Monday, December 23, 2013

Audience picks NAVIGATORS for Jan 3rd

Thank you to everyone who participated in our poll for which film to show this January. The winner is.....*drumroll*.......The Navigators: Pathfinders of the Pacific!

Although we know this time of year is incredibly busy, we hope you will make the time to celebrate a New Year of FREE films with us on Friday, January 3rd at 6:30pm at American Memorial Park to view this wonderful film. 

Over 1,000 years ago, the Pacific islands were explored and settled by navigators who used only the waves, the stars, and the flights of birds for guidance. In hand-built, double-hulled canoes sixty feet long, the ancestors of today's residents sailed across a vast ocean area, larger than Europe and North America combined.

To explore this ancient navigational heritage, anthropologist/filmmaker Sanford Low visited the tiny coral atoll of Satawal in Micronesia's remote Caroline Islands. The Navigators reveals the subtleties of this sea science, transmitted in part through a ceremony known as "unfolding the mat," in which 32 lumps of coral are arranged in a circle to represent the points of the "star compass." To master the lore of navigation was to attain great status in traditional Micronesian society.

We are grateful to the National Park Service, the Humanities Council, the Tan Siu Lin Foundation, and the Division of Environmental Quality for making this event possible. As always, FirstFriday Films is free and open to the public. Run time for this film is 60 minutes.

Happy holidays!