Mara V

Directed by Jonathan Bougard

This film takes the form of an investigation into the life and work of the sculptor Vaiere Mara, born in 1936 in Rurutu, in the Austral Islands (French Polynesia) and died in Arue in 2005. Mara sculpted wood, coral and stone and his production was remarkable and noticed from the 1960s. Many local personalities placed orders with the man whom some considered the first contemporary Polynesian artist. The film traces the director's journey in search of Mara's works, scattered across islands and continents, and the personal story of this exceptional artist. Combining testimonies from those close to him, reconstructions of the founding moments of his career and documentation of the works found, this film appears as an investigation that is at once human, artistic and detective... which allows us to reconstruct the context of Vaiere Mara's creation.