The film follows two women who grew up in the remote atoll of Pukapuka in the Cook Islands and return home after decades away to find the atoll, and themselves, forever changed. Amelia Hokulea Borofsky, the daughter of anthropologist Robert Borofsky who lived in Pukapuka in the mid 1970’s 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 Islander 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. Filmmaker Gemma Cubero del Barrio also weaves in her own intimate story.
The Island In Me (2023) is currently not available on any services.
Gemma Cubero del Barrio