Discoveries from Marshall Islands World Cinema

A young Marshallese boy, Labro, wakes up one morning anxious for his grandmother to fulfill her promise of buying him ice cream. She agrees, but demands that he do some work first, commanding him -- with a sweep of her arm -- to "clean up all the garbage everywhere." As Labro goes out the door of his rustic shack, he realizes that one of his zoris is missing. His grandmother, angry because he has yet again lost one of his flip flops, gives him an ultimatum: "Do not come back to the house until you have zoris on both of your feet." So Labro begins his quest under the hot island sun to clean up 'everywhere' and to find his other zori...

An elderly nuclear survivor from Bikini Atoll in the Pacific summons a mysterious ancient deity to help reunite his family.

A beautiful Marshallese girl's concern for her vanishing, low lying islands causes her to discover a way to change the entire world in order to save her beloved homeland. A global warming fairy tale.

Yokwe Bartowe is the story of a beautiful young island girl named Lijiamao who is kidnapped by an evil demon bird. The ancient legend of the 'kwolej' bird dictates that its main mission in life is to create sorrow and misfortune in the world. Bartowe is Lijiamao's 20-year-old brother and he was supposed to be watching his sister on the day she mysteriously vanished while swimming in the lagoon. He is blamed for her disappearance by his mother. Even though most people believe that Lijiamao has drowned, the fact that no one ever found her body in extremely shallow water has everyone puzzled. Only Lijiamao's best friend Tili refuses to believe she is dead, much to the dismay of her principal, her teacher and her classmates.

Ña Noniep deals with the spiritual battle between a ri-anijnij (an evil Marshallese maker of black magic) and a noniep (a Marshallese fairy-like creature) for the soul of a 13-year old boy, Liki. His goal is to attend high school in America. Through no fault of his own, after a serious car accident involving his father and the family of his best friend, Miko, Liki finds his life threatened by Miko's evil grandmother, Lijimu, who is a woman known throughout the islands as a horribly diabolical maker of black magic. Lijimu casts a spell on Liki, and this drives the unusually nice, polite and studious boy, insane. Only the noniep can help him, but first the noniep must overcome the enormous power of the evil Lijimu. This enchanting battle is waged before the eyes of the boy's parents, Tomi and Delia, his best friend Miko, and his classmates who are all powerless to help him as he descends into a hellish existence.

Between 1946 and 1958, the US tested 67 nuclear bombs on the Marshall Islands. Spectators of the blasts said: “It was as if there were two suns in the sky.”

The people of the Bikini Atoll were removed from their homelands as a result of American testing of nuclear bombs in the Pacific. They now live on another island, dependent on American food and support. They can never go back to Bikini Atoll because it is poisoned beyond the possibility of habitation. This film is a poignant, impressive study of a people whose culture has been vanquished.

After ridding Gotham City of all crime and villainy, the Caped Crusader Batmon has gained a little weight and lost muscle mass, while enjoying frequent pizza dinners. His current bout with sloth allows an aging Catwoman to steal the Batcopter and hide it in an undisclosed location on the Marshall Islands.

Laninbwil's Gift is the story of Jacob, an old island man with a complicated secret. When Jacob was a teenager, a noniep, a Marshallese fairy known for helping troubled souls, transformed him from a simpleton into a normal young man. This favor, however, came with a cost: The noniep made Jacob promise that one day he must bestow this new-found intelligence upon another deserving person. After a lifetime of pondering this otherworldly commitment to the noniep, Jacob discovers Laninbwil, a homeless young man. Just when Jacob begins to get close to the troubled youth, Laninbwil unwittingly gets caught up in a war of mystical power between an evil Mejenkwar, a demon that possesses pregnant women, and her archenemy, the gifted, shamanic old woman, Lijimu.

A collection of internet videos displaying everyday life and comic takes on it from the Marshall Islands.