Vilsoni Hereniko (born October 13, 1954) is a Fiji Islander playwright, film director and academic. He was the writer and director of Fiji's first ever (and so far only) feature film, The Land Has Eyes (Pear ta ma 'on maf).
Biography
Hereniko is a Rotuman, born in Mea village, Hapmak, Itu'ti'u District, Rotuma, Fiji. He was schooled in his native Rotuma, obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Graduate Certificate in Education from the University of the South Pacific in 1997, a Masters degree in Education at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and, in 1991, a PhD in literature and language at the University of the South Pacific.[1] [2] He is now a professor at the University of Hawai'i's Center for Pacific Islands Studies, where he teachers literature, theatre and film.[1]
Career
Literary
Hereniko published his first plays in the mid-1970s, including Don't Cry Mama, A Child For Iva, Sera's Choice and The Monster. In 1997 he received the Elliott Cades Writing Award for his overall contributions to literature.[1]
Film
Hereniko has served on the jury and selection committee of the Hawai‘i International Film Festival. The Land Has Eyes, set in his native Rotuma, was his first feature film, in 2004. It was presented at the Sundance Film Festival in 2004,[3] and was Fiji's official submission to the 2006 Academy Awards.[4] It received the "Best Overall Entry" award at the 2005 Wairoa Maori Film Festival, and the "Best Dramatic Feature" award at the 2004 Toronto ImagineNative Film & Media Arts Festival.[5]
Filmography
- The Land Has Eyes (2004), Writer and Director
Bibliography
- Two Plays, 1987, ISBN 9820200156
- The monster and other plays, 1989, ISBN 9820200288
- The wicked cat, 1991, ISBN 9820100739
- Last virgin in paradise: A serious comedy, 1993, ISBN 9820200849
- Woven Gods: Female Clowns and Power in Rotuma, 1995, ISBN 0824816552
- Sina & Tinilau, 1997 (children's book), ISBN 9820201276
- Inside Out: Literature, Cultural Politics, and Identity in the New Pacific, 1999 (as co-editor), ISBN 084769142X