Homecoming tells the intergenerational story of two women who bond as they cross the Pacific to return to the remote island where they grew up. The 3sq km coral atoll of Pukapuka has little contact with outsiders or tourists, and the native community follows a Polynesian way of life lost on most of the South Pacific islands. 82-year old Johnny Frisbie, a writer’s daughter, and 38-year old Amelia Borofsky, an anthropologist’s daughter, have deep roots in Pukapuka and still speak the language. Johnny Frisbie, at age fifteen, wrote a book about her family’s adventures in the South Seas entitled Miss Ulysses of Pukapuka, the first book written by a Pacific Islander. With the impending climate change and modern changes facing the atoll, the two decide to return together before their beloved atoll becomes only a memory. Although each is called to return for very personal reasons, both share the writer’s vocation and a deep love for the sinking atoll. The quest of each character—to reconcile dual identities and different worlds—binds them together and provides the dramatic arc of the film.
Gemma Cubero
is a bilingual writer, producer, director and teacher with a degree in investigative journalism and training in multimedia. She has a passion for storytelling using words, film/video and multimedia. During the 15 years she has been working in documentary film, Gemma Cubero has managed productions from location scouting to interviews in Spain, United States, Mexico, Cuba, Germany and Argentina. In addition to her bilingual writing and production skills, she has exceptional fundraising moxie with expertise in helping filmmakers connect to resources and funding. Her work through her documentary production company Talcual Films on films such as Ella Es El Matador (She Is The Matador), El Abrazo (The Embrace) and Homecoming has been supported by institutions such as PBS, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Latino Public Broadcasting, P.O.V., Pacific Islanders in Communications, Tribeca Film Institute, IFP Independent Film Week, Pacific Pioneer Fund, the San Francisco Foundation Bay Area Documentary Fund, National Organization of Latino Independent Producers, New York Women in Film and Television, Women Make Movies, the Consulate General of Spain in New York, the Embassy of Spain in Washington DC, the Instituto Cervantes and the Reina Sofia Museum of Modern Art. Gemma Cubero also worked as Associate Producer and Investigator on the awardwinning documentary Senorita Extraviada by Lourdes Portillo's and produced with Julio Medem two feature length documentaries by Lourdes Portillo's and produced with Julio Medem two feature length documentaries What's Under Your Hat? and One Percent: Schizophrenia, both with theatrical and DVD release in Spain.
Besides producing films Gemma loves teaching. She serves as a visiting lecturer at Hawaii Pacific University's Multimedia and Cinematic Arts Program, the Spanish Department the University of Hawaii in Manoa and the Creative Media Department at UH West Oahu. She is also the filmmaking instructor for Hawaii Women in Filmmaking's Summer Reel Camp for Girls and Making Media that Matter after school program for Middle School and High School girls. Gemma participated in the Tribeca Film Institute program The Blueprint for Teaching and Learning in the Arts: The Moving Image, an in-school artist in residency program taking place in the New York public school system; she taught workshops for the National Association for Latino Independent Producers NALIP and gave a Master Class at the Cfrculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid, Spain. Gemma was nominated for the United States Artists Fellowship and awarded an Annenberg Fellowship to obtain her M.A. at the University of Southern California where she investigated documentary as a tool for social change and how "the digital revolution" has impacted documentary filmmaking. Her thesis "Give Up Tomorr
