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Te Mana o Teao (The Strength of the World)

Producer

María José Calderón

On one of the most remote islands on Earth, mana — the life force connecting people to land, sea, and ancestors — flows through everything. For the Rapa Nui people, the ocean is not merely water. It is memory, identity, and belonging.

TE MANA O TEAO follows José Teao, a Rapa Nui diver whose world collapses after losing one of his legs in a devastating accident. Stripped of his livelihood and disconnected from the culture that defined him, José faces a profound rupture — not only physical, but spiritual. Without the ocean, he loses his sense of self and his place among his people.

His journey back to the water becomes a story of healing. What begins as survival transforms into rebirth — the sea restoring what the accident took: strength, purpose, and belonging.

Spoken entirely in the Rapa Nui language, the film honors a living tongue inseparable from the land and ocean it describes — a poetic reminder that Indigenous knowledge and ecological wisdom are deeply intertwined.

Universal in its resonance, TE MANA O TEAO is both an intimate portrait of nature’s power to heal and a call to protect the oceans and ecosystems that sustain us all.

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María José Calderón

Producer, The Strength of the World; Nature Connection Pitch Participant

María José Calderón is a Chilean producer and editor based in Oakland, California, with a master’s degree in journalism from UC Berkeley. She specializes in documentaries exploring environmental justice, human rights, and social inequality.

Her credits include COVID’S HIDDEN TOLL (FRONTLINE/PBS), THE EDGE OF THE SEA (PBS), and WATER FOR LIFE (2023), narrated by Diego Luna, which was shortlisted for the IDA Best Feature Documentary Award and won multiple international prizes. She also produces and edits films for the Goldman Environmental Prize and currently has two fiscally sponsored projects in production with the Redford Center.