Oceanbone's primary photo
  • Oceanbone (2025)
  • Short | 9 min | Documentary, Short
Oceanbone (2025)
Short | 9 min | Documentary, Short
Logline: Stolen ancestors lie in museum vaults, waiting to return home. Oceanbone is a poetic reckoning with history, confronting the colonial theft of Indigenous remains and the urgent fight to bring them back. Synopsis: Across oceans and...See moreLogline: Stolen ancestors lie in museum vaults, waiting to return home. Oceanbone is a poetic reckoning with history, confronting the colonial theft of Indigenous remains and the urgent fight to bring them back. Synopsis: Across oceans and centuries, Indigenous ancestors remain trapped in museum vaults-stolen, studied, and silenced. Oceanbone is a visually haunting and deeply personal journey into the fight for repatriation, where history, poetry, and activism collide. Anchored by a powerful interview with repatriation scholar Dr. Tarisi Vunidilo, the film interweaves the voices of four Native Pacific Island storytellers who channel the spirits of their ancestors, speaking in rhythms of loss, resistance, and homecoming. Through striking imagery of museum corridors, ancestral rituals, and the vast Pacific, Oceanbone reveals the colonial legacies that displaced these remains-and the urgent movement to return them. As the waves carry their names once more, the film stands as both an elegy and a call to justice: the ancestors must go home. Written by Lani Cupchoy See less
Read more: Plot summary
Director
Lani Cupchoy
Writer
Lani Cupchoy
Producer
Lani Cupchoy (producer)
Cinematographer
Lani Cupchoy
Editor
Lani Cupchoy
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Status
Edit Released
Updated Mar 28, 2025
Release date
Mar 28, 2025 (United States)

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Cast

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2 cast members
Name Known for
Lani Cupchoy primary photo
Lani Cupchoy
Self - Kanaka Maoli Ancestor (voice) Self - Kanaka Maoli Ancestor (voice)   See fewer
Truth Seekers (2016)
Joey Quenga primary photo
Joey Quenga
Self - CHamoru Ancestor (voice) Self - CHamoru Ancestor (voice)   See fewer
Caged Animal (2010)
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