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.

Director Lani Cupchoy

Lani Cupchoy, Ph.D., is an accomplished filmmaker whose work merges documentary, experimental, and ethnographic filmmaking to explore urgent themes of Indigenous sovereignty, cultural memory, and social justice. As a Xicana Afro-Indígena and Kānaka Maoli-Chinese storyteller, she is the director of six films, including Truth Seekers (2016), Urban Seeds (2019), Food Medicine (2020), Aloha Soul Food (2022), Islandtrification (2023), and Oceanbone (2025).

Cupchoy’s films have screened at film festivals, universities, and community venues, earning recognition for their powerful visual storytelling and commitment to Indigenous and decolonial narratives. Her filmmaking is distinguished by its poetic style, visually layered compositions, and grounded community collaborations.

With a background as a public historian and professor of Chicana(o) Latina(o) Studies at California State University, Los Angeles, Cupchoy brings a unique perspective to nonfiction filmmaking—balancing rigorous research with cinematic artistry. Through Oceanbone and her previous works, she has established herself as a filmmaker dedicated to crafting visually arresting and socially impactful films that resonate beyond the screen.