The Ninth Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

227 Top: Production still for BATMoN vs MAJURo 2016 / Directors: Jack Niedenthal, Ben Debrum Wakefield, Vivian Niedenthal / Image courtesy: Microwave Films Below: Production still for Yokwe Bartowe ( Poor Bartowe ) 2010 / Directors: Jack Niedenthal, Suzanne Chutaro / Image courtesy: Microwave Films APT9 Cinema Microwave Films of the Marshall Islands Est. 2008, Republic of the Marshall Islands A community-based production company, Microwave Films of the Marshall Islands explores Marshallese life through the medium of video. Since 2008, the company has produced six low-budget digital films with a local production team led by American writer, filmmaker and historian Jack Niedenthal and co-director–producer Suzanne Chutaro. Based in the Marshall Islands since 1981, Niedenthal first arrived as a Peace Corps volunteer. He established the company after his son questioned why there were no films made in the Marshallese language. According to Niedenthal: Imagine growing up all your life never having seen a film in your own language, set in your own country, dealing with issues that are unique to your own culture. 1 Working with non-professional actors and musicians, Microwave Films has produced a body of work rarely seen outside the Marshall Islands, but which is testament to the power of collective filmmaking. Early works draw on Marshallese folklore, such as Ña Noniep (I am the Good Fairy) 2009, based on a mythical children’s story describing the spiritual battle for the human soul between a ri-anijnij (an evil maker of black magic) and a noniep (a fairy-like creature); and Yokwe Bartowe (Poor Bartowe) 2010, which follows the story of a demon bird that tries to destroy a happy island family. Contemporary ecological concerns affecting the Marshall Islands are explored in Ainikien jidjid ilo boñ (The Sound of Crickets at Night) 2012 that features a family displaced as a result of US nuclear testing on Bikini Atoll, and Jilel (The Calling of the Shell) 2014, a coming-of-age drama exploring anxieties about global warming. Their most recent production, BATMoN vs MAJURo 2016 is a satire of the comic book hero that features an out-of-shape Caped Crusader and ageing Catwoman battling it out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. In recent years, the company’s growing filmography has begun to reach an international audience via film festivals in Hawai’i, Guam, Los Angeles and New York. Ultimately, however, it is the positive response and support of the Marshallese people that continues to buoy the work of Microwave Films, and to underscore the importance of telling local stories reflecting communal and cultural significance in their own language. As Jack Niedenthal has reflected: So often people here feel that the world is way too big for them. What we are attempting to do is show the people of the Marshall Islands that their lives, too, are worthy of exploration in film . . . The experience of making movies encouraged everyone involved to step outside of their day-to-day lives, it became a passion for all of us, so we continued on our filmmaking journey. 2 This filmmaking journey continues for Microwave Films and the Marshall Islands as part of APT9. José Da Silva Endnotes 1 Jack Niedenthal, quoted in Phil Hall, ‘Jack Niedenthal, president of Microwave Films of the Marshall Islands’, Business Superstar , 20 May 2013, <http://www.business-superstar.com/superstar-of-the-week/jack- niedenthal-founder-of-microwave-films-of-the-marshall-islands/>, viewed June 2018. 2 Niedenthal, quoted in Hall.