Coco Hotahota Te Maeva

Coco Hotahota Te Maeva is a French feature-length documentary dedicated to the dancer, choreographer, troupe leader and musician Coco Hotahota, the major artist of Polynesian dance. Directed by Jonathan Bougard, it was broadcast for the first time on television as a tribute to the choreographer the day after his death on the Polynesian channel TNTV.

Synopsis
Coco Hotahota started at a very young age in Madeleine Moua's troupe, Heiva. He founded his own troupe in 1962, Te Maeva, which he directed for more than 58 years until his death in 2020. The most successful troupe in the history of Heiva I Tahiti, his creations were particularly innovative from the 1980s onwards. The troupe won the Heiva eleven years in a row. At its peak in the 1980s, Temaeva brought together more than 200 dancers and musicians. The film traces the history of the troupe, questions the motivations of the artist Coco Hotahota, then captures the unfolding of Coco Farereiraa of 2018.

Several times a year invited as a juror in the Heiva which develop outside Polynesia, particularly in the United States, Mexico, Japan and China, Coco Hotahota will have had a major role in the expansion of the dance Tahitian. He then created the Farereiraa i Tahiti, a cultural festival bringing together the main foreign players in Tahitian dance every four years in Tahiti.

Faced with the success of the first Farereiraa, other slightly different organizations were set up, certainly complementary to Coco Hotahota's Farereiraa, such as the Ori Tahiti Nui Solo Competition by Manouche Lehartel and Tumata Robinson, which brings together the best international dancers, or even the Ori Tahiti World Championship, which awards prizes for world dance champions.

Cast

 * Coco Hotahota : Himself
 * Heremoana Maamaatuhaiahutapu : Himself
 * Anthony Manaois : Himself
 * Fabien Mara Dinard : Himself
 * Justin Atangan : Himself
 * Angélique Bannag : Herself
 * Andreas Dettloff : Himself
 * Tapu Bonnet : Himself

About the film

 * TNTV acquired the broadcast rights the day after Coco Hotahota's death on March 8, 2020, and broadcast the film the same evening.
 * Excerpts from the film were screened during the popular tribute in front of the choreographer's remains at Place Toata in Papeete.