Hollywood in the Pacific: Developing a sustainable screen industry in the Pacific

Abstract

Historically, the relationship between the global and Pacific screen industries has not been characterised by mutual benefit (Pendakur, 1990). This is despite a continued - and growing - interest in the Pacific as a film and television location. Between 2015 and 2020, a number of blockbuster Hollywood productions were shot in the Pacific (Adrift, 2018; Jurassic World, 2015; Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, 2018; Jurassic World: Dominion, 2022), and to this list, television projects that originate 'off Island' (such as the Survivor series) are becoming more commonplace. Yet this interest from the Global North - notably Hollywood - is not matched with resources, capacities and opportunities for Pacific Islanders, and benefits that feed directly into Pacific economies.

This thesis draws on the knowledge of practitioners and stakeholders of Pacific screen to interrogate the potential for a sustainable regional screen industry. This question is motivated by a strong desire to see Pacific stories and methods of storytelling represented in both local and global screen productions, but also to sustain a new economic sector that supports the livelihoods of new generations of Pacific Islanders.

This thesis makes three distinct contributions to ongoing debates and practices in the Pacific relating to the development of a screen industry. The first is an empirical contribution expanding current knowledge of whether, and how, a screen sector could economically and culturally contribute to sustainable development in the Pacific. Regional dialogue on creative and cultural policy has stalled with the last Regional Cultural Framework report published in 2018. Similarly, progress on the outcomes of the Cinema Pasifika report has not continued since the report was launched in 2016. The second is a conceptual contribution by developing an innovative and comprehensive conceptual framework by which I define, and assess, screen sustainability in the Pacific. I utilise the political economy of film as a key concept by which to unpack Pacific screen's current relationship with global practice. Within this conceptual framework, I also analyse the decolonisation of film, to show how a decolonised screen industry might recalibrate the dominant (and domineering) influence of the global political economy for Pacific screen practitioners and industry. The third contribution is made as a screen producer and Pacific practitioner myself: I make a methodological contribution by bringing together a combination of research methods, including a critical auto-ethnographer approach.

While I find that currently, the Pacific screen industry is not sustainable, this thesis documents the relentless work of screen practitioners and stakeholders who are actively seeking regional connections, creating their own ad hoc capacity building opportunities, cultivating career longevity, and innovating channels for social and cultural legitimacy. On the basis of my research, I identify three specific avenues through which sustainability can be cultivated in the longer term. First, I consider that a sustainable screen industry requires a more formalised network of indigenous screen practitioners that can drive policy development and regulation in the industry, but also ensure that screen practices are Pacific centred. Second, the industry needs to work towards partnership models of funding generation, so that a more diverse slate of projects drive economic opportunities for Pacific Islanders both in front of, and behind, the camera. Finally, Pacific screen requires infrastructure that accepts 'Pacific ways' of working and embraces, rather than resists, the communities in which it operates.