"The Island in Me" trailer

The Island in Me is an award-winning feature by Spanish/American filmmaker Gemma Cubero del Barrio that takes the viewer to the remote atoll of Pukapuka in the Cook Islands, a unique place never before captured in film – Pukapuka is only four hundred inhabitants and ten metres above sea level.

The film follows two women who grew up on Pukapuka and return home after decades away - Amelia Hokulea Borofsky, the daughter of anthropologist Robert Borofsky who lived in Pukapuka in the mid-1970 and Johnny Frisbie, a Cook Island legend in her own right (her book Miss Ulysses of Puka-Puka, written at age fifteen, was the first published literary work by a Pacific Island author).

Both lived on Pukapuka as children and left at different times, but they both return to reconnect – with emotion, celebration, and a sense of belonging. Director del Barrio also weaves in her own intimate story.

Winner of the Special Jury Prize at the 19th Festival International du Film Documentaire Oceanien FIFO in Tahiti.

People all over NZ can enjoy world class documentaries this June at the 17th annual Doc Edge Festival to be held online nationwide from Wednesday 1 June - Sunday 10 July with special one-off screenings of selected films in-theatres to be enjoyed in their full cinematic glory.

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Theatrical venues are:

Auckland

• The Silky Otter in Orakei and The Capitol in Balmoral, Weds 15 - Sun 19 July

• The Civic, Queen Street, Weds 22 – Sun 26 June Wellington

• The Embassy, Thurs 30 June – Sun 3 July.

• The Roxy Weds 6 July – Sun 10 July.