A Poignant Return to Ocean Roots, Tradition

The last decade of the millennium has seen part of the world returning to tradition as a way of life. More than a trend, this return to the roots is a matter of sanity. We cling to tradition in order to better understand ourselves. We resurrect the past to prepare ourselves for an uncertain future.

Such is the underlying theme of “Wayfinders: A Pacific Odyssey,” a lyrical and remarkably restrained documentary that describes the attempt by a group of Polynesians to recover that special intimacy with the ocean that their ancestors cultivated through centuries of sailing around the Pacific Ocean with only the moon, the sun and the stars to guide them.

“Wayfinders” follows this new generation of Pacific islanders whose goal is to manufacture traditional sailing canoes and organize a 2,000-mile way-finding trip from the Marquesas Islands to Hawaii.

Told in a fragmented style with frequent switches of locations and protagonists, the hourlong documentary contains enough potent imagery to transport you to a seductively different world, which is always what this type of show does best.

In practice, the expedition is more complicated than what it seems. The island’s ecosystem has been so badly damaged that manufacturing the canoe replicas solely with local materials proves to be impossible. And once they are aboard the six vessels that participate in the expedition, the navigators have to rely on their instincts and quickly acquired knowledge to get to Hawaii safely.

The film also illustrates the rigorous training that takes place months before the departure, as the travelers learn to interpret subtle details like the coloration of the clouds and the behavior of birds that can announce the proximity of an island. The apprentices need to consider that it’s not the same to calculate the position of the stars on a quiet beach as when standing on a boat rocked by a choppy sea that makes the world around you move so fast you can’t even think.

But the most poignant moment comes at the very end, when you realize that the expedition has infused its members with the sense of community they were longing for. In the words of a participant, “We left as a team and got to Hawaii as a family.”

* “Wayfinders: A Pacific Odyssey” airs tonight at 10 on KCET.