French nautical TV program plans special
Title -- 4701 TAHITI: French nautical TV program plans special
Date -- 14 April 2005
Byline -- None
Origin -- Pacific Media Watch
Source -- Tahitipresse 14/4/05
Copyright - TP
Status -- Unabridged
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FRENCH NAUTICAL PROGRAM TO PRESENT FRENCH POLYNESIA IN JUNE
http://www.tahitipresse.pf/presse.cfm?action=open&type=1&idpr=9895
PAPE'ETE (Tahitpresse/Pacific Media Watch): “Thalassa”, one of the longest running nautical documentary programs on French public television, is wrapping up the final scenes of a special broadcast on French Polynesia to be aired in June.
Georges Pernoud, the program’s producer and main narrator, and his TV crew are putting the final touches to the program, which will be part of a special series of programs dealing with nearly all major ports in France’s overseas departments and territories.
Only Mayotte in the Indian Ocean and Wallis and Futuna in the South Pacific will not be included, but, for practical reasons, will be treated in separate programs, Pernoud said.
Thalassa’s coverage of French overseas departments and territories will be a continuation of the Thalassa series that began last December in Brest and ended on April 1 in Ajaccio, Corsica, following the French coast from port to port each week.
The more than two-hour-long weekly Thalassa programs have been aired in France since 1975. The programs are broadcast in Tahiti every Friday night, with a rebroadcast on Saturday night.
For the French overseas departments and territories segments, filming began in French Polynesia, an overseas French territory, because it is easier, in terms of planning, to begin with the destination the furthest from France, Pernoud said.
The Thalassa crew has set up its base of operations on Tahiti’s sister island of Moorea, working with the French state-owned and operated TV network, RFO, which recently became part of France-Télévisions.
“The reports that will be aired at the time of the special broadcasts have been done for quiet awhile. What we’ve come to do this time is what we call the final wrap up, the sets” where the Thalassa narrators will be introducing various subjects during the broadcasts, he said.
A variety of subjects will be presented during Thalassa’s program on French Polynesia, Pernoud said. They will include flying fish, the releasing of fish larvae off Moorea, life on the nearby island of Maiao, tuna fishing in the Marquesas Islands and tattooing.
Another possible part of the program will present Tauaea Raioaoa, better known as Tavae, the legendary Tahitian fisherman who survived 118 days drifting at sea after his fishing boat motor broke down.
"We’ve also prepared a very big dossier on the Moruroa nuclear testing site, but we will air that in another broadcast in September or October, Pernoud said.
France conducted a series of atmospheric and underground nuclear tests on the Tuamotu atolls of Moruroa and Fangataufa between 1966 and 1996, switching to exclusively underground tests in 1975. The test sites were dismantled in 1998.
This is Pernoud’s second visit to French Polynesia.
“The first time was a long time ago, in 1969. I find that the island of Moorea hasn’t changed all that much. I was afraid of discovering an island completely disfigured by tourism,” he said.
Pernoud and his crew are due to leave Tahiti Saturday for another French Pacific territory, New Caledonia, where they will continue working on the special French overseas series of programs.
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