The third Pacific Human Rights Film Festival was launched at the University of the South Pacific’s Japan ICT Performance Theatre in Suva with an important film about rugby in the Pacific. 

It was also screened for other regional campuses including the Samoa Campus at Alafua. 

The opening film was Oceans Apart, which was screened in Fiji and other Pacific Island countries for the first time. 

There was also an opportunity after the screening where former Manu Samoa Rugby player Daniel Leo joined former Fijiana 15s captain, Lailanie Burnes and former Fijiana 15s players, Eleina McDonald and Mere Moto, to talk about the issues raised in the documentary. 

This year, the focus is on human rights issues as they relate to: Pacific and Fijian rugby; the Pacific and Fijian creative sector; cultural issues around motherhood and infertility; climate threat; refugeeism; gender-based violence; LGBTQI+ and MVP FAFF; HIV and AIDS awareness; free speech; Pacific intergenerational trauma and the power of arts and especially filmmaking to break these cycles.

The consistent themes are women's and child's rights, emphasising postcolonial and indigenous identity, voices and stories as this year marks 75 years since the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 

The aim is to engage, educate, and inform as many people as possible on a wide range of human rights issues focused on the Pacific but with one eye on the global stage.

Oceans Apart, is a documentary based on the experience of former Manu Samoa player, Dan Leo who sacrificed his own career to confront the exploitation of Pacific rugby players. In the film, he tackles the indissociable bond between the Pacific Islands and modern Rugby – and reveals the darker side of the sport.

The film compared the treatment of Pacific Island rugby players in the professional era to colonialism in a new documentary film produced and narrated by former Samoa international Dan Leo.

“Oceans Apart: Greed, Betrayal and Pacific Island Rugby” accuses World Rugby and the sport’s elite nations of exploiting the player resources of the Pacific Islands while retaining almost all of the wealth those players create.

He expressed in the film that he was driven by questions such as ‘Why, despite providing nearly a quarter of the world’s professional rugby players, do the Pacific Island nations of Samoa, Tonga and Fiji increasingly struggle to compete?’

A striking piece of filmmaking that seamlessly flows between investigative journalism, storytelling and activism.

At the time when the film was produced, the Prime Minister and chairman of the rugby union in Fiji  were brother-in-laws. In Samoa, they were the same person.

Leo gradually exposed and questioned how the leaders and directors of the national union in Samoa, a "rugby-mad" country have allegedly misappropriated funds that were collected to support the players and improve the facilities. 

The film included various interviews with some of the best rugby players in the world from the Pacific Islands of Tonga, Samoa and Fiji as well as foreigners who coached these teams. 

Ben Ryan, who coached the Fiji sevens team to Olympic gold, chillingly recalls how armed government officials would attend training sessions and dictate team selection. Players not supportive of the ‘right’ political party would receive knocks on their doors in the dead of night. These are the politics of violence deployed by dictators and despots. 

All the while World Rugby decision-makers remain ignorant of the situation thousands of miles away. 

The film festival will run from 4 November to 9 December.