Like
Nanook of the North,
Moana is a film by the early
documentary filmmaker
Robert J. Flaherty, this time about life in the
South Sea Islands. In fact, the word "documentary" was first used to describe a film in the February 8,
1926 review of Moana in the
New York Sun.
Moana claims to be an "account of the daily life of a Polynesian youth and his family." In the spirit of Nanook of the North, however, much of the so-called "documentary" value of the film is suspect. For example, Flaherty actually had to convince the Moana islanders to resurrect the practice of tattooing, a rite they had abandoned, for the making of the film.