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Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown is hopeful a new film produced and shot in Rarotonga will attract more producers to the island.
The film Stranded Pearl held its premiere at Avarua’s Empire Theatre last month and was attended by the Prime Minister along with government officials, dignitaries and cast and crew.
While Brown says he enjoyed the film, he hopes it attracts more film-makers and is keen to promote the Cook Islands as a film-making destination.
“We’re happy to talk to our film producers here and see what we can do to help them out to encourage people to come here,” Brown says.
“We’re a small country, a small economy, we don’t have big pockets like the other big countries do.”
Stranded Pearl is a passion project for main actor and producer Aunanda Naaido, who grew up in New Zealand and has lived in the Cook Islands with his family for the past seven years.
Naaido produced the film and plays the romantic lead in a story about a couple who are stranded on a desert island.
“I feel like the Cook Islands are my home and I wanted to have a story with a Cook Island we can look at,” he says.
“Film making up here is an opportunity as well and we found the right story for the place.” .
The film has a US distributor who Naaido says has shown plenty of enthusiasm for its release.
The film also stars kiwi icons Ray Woolf and Rawiri Paratene, who also attended the premiere. Rawiri says it was great to see the beautiful landscapes of the Cook Islands projected on the big screen.
“Well I’m very Proud of it and the best thing is to get back to the Cooks and [I] love to see real people; real Cook Islanders. I’m proud of that.” Paratene says.
Stranded Pearl is expected to be released later this year.
