Ophir

Dérives

Ophir
France / United Kingdom, 2020, 97’
in English, Tok Pidgin, Nasioi w/ Eng./ Arm. subtitles

Directors, Scriptwriters, and Cinematographers: Alexandre Berman, Olivier Pollet
Producers: Ilann Girard, Olivier Pollet, Kristian Lasslett
Editors: Alexandre Berman, Marie-Estelle Dieterle
Sound: Alexandre Berman, Olivier Pollet
Production Company: Arsam International / Fourth World Films
Ophir tells the story of an extraordinary indigenous revolution for life, land and culture, leading up to the potential creation of the world’s newest nation in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea. A poetic yet dramatic ode to the indelible thirst for freedom, culture and sovereignty; the film sheds light on the biggest conflict of the Pacific since WWII, revealing the visible and invisible chains of colonization and its enduring cycles of physical and psychological warfare.

Awards

Grand Jury Prize, FIFO International Documentary Film Festival of Oceania, Pape’ete, French Polynesia, 2020; Grand Jury Prize (Golden Sun Award), Suncine Barcelona Environmental FF, Spain, 2020; Grand Jury Prize, Montreal International Firsts Peoples Film Festival, Canada, 2021; Best Feature Documentary Award, Guam International Film Festival, USA, 2021; Silver Award – Best Film On Sustainable Development, Millenium Film Festival, Brussels, Belgium, 2021.

Alexandre Berman

Alexandre Berman is a French documentary filmmaker and editor, based in Paris, France. He co-directed the documentary The Panguna Syndrome with Olivier Pollet and the film was a finalist for the Albert Londres Prize in 2017 in France. In 2018, his feature documentary Norvège: Les Ombres sur la Mer captured cultural heritage stories in Norway. Part of the relaunch of the French “Connaissance du Monde” cinema circuit, it is screened in France and Switzerland for several months across 2018 and 2019.

Filmography

The Panguna Syndrome (2017′), Norvège: Les Ombres sur la Mer (2018), Ophir (2020)․

Olivier Pollet

Olivier Pollet is an investigative journalist and award-winning filmmaker, producer, and researcher based in the UK. Over the past decade, his works have focused on corporate accountability, human rights, environmental issues, and colonial legacies, working alongside indigenous communities in the Asia-Pacific region, and especially in Papua New Guinea. His latest project is the award-winning feature documentary Ophir (2020), alongside its multimedia educational counterpart The Colonial Syndrome.

Filmography

Canning Paradise (2012), When We Were Hela (2014), The Panguna Syndrome (2017), The Colonial Syndrome (2020, Multimedia web-series), Ophir (2020)․