The True Story of Easter Island is the first documentary to focus on the rise and fall of the Rapa Nui people, a story with a message that all too closely parallels the current situation facing the inhabitants of Island Earth.
If distance and isolation are a measure of mystery, than Easter Island is the most mysterious place on this planet. Long the subject of fascination, recent scientific and archaeological discoveries have shed light on the people who first inhabited this remote island.
For 1,500 years, this isolation has acted as both a shelter for, and a curse upon, the island's indigenous Rapa Nui people. Trapped on their 64 square miles of land, 4,000 kilometers from their nearest neighbor, the Rapa Nui eventually used up their limited resources only to see their tropical paradise transformed into a bleak prison filled with chaos, warfare and cannibalism.
Without canoes to fish in deeper water or soil to grow more food, the Rapa Nui faced imminent starvation. The ruling families waged war for what little food remained as rival groups toppled each others Moai. With nowhere to turn for aid, the Rapa Nui social system fell into chaos: cults formed, warriors took what they wanted and cannibalism was rampant. On Easter Island, civilization came to a crashing end with the population falling to 120 souls. Todays 4000 Rapa Nui are the descendants of these few survivors.
The Easter Island landscape today offers up a desolate beauty like nowhere else on earth. Facing in from the sea in their eternal vigil, each evening, the Moai are participants in an incredible display of hues, living colors, brought momentarily to life as the tropical sun once more bathes their stone faces. Shot completely in the new High Definition Television format, this documentary for the first time immerses viewers into the hauntingly beautiful world of the Moai and the ways of the Rapa Nui People.
