LEILA Staffler premiered her third documentary — “Exploring Latte in the Marianas: Aguiguan, Rock Art, and the Last Chamorro Stand” — to residents on Tinian, Saipan and Rota over the weekend.
The film debuted on Tinian on Feb. 7, and was scheduled to show on Rota on Feb. 9.
Variety was present at American Memorial Park on Feb. 8 for its screening on Saipan, where a standing-room-only crowd packed an indoor theater.
Staffler’s documentary follows in the footsteps of its two predecessors by making knowledge about the Marianas latte more accessible to the public.
She wants to preserve the knowledge about latte because they were being “threatened by militarization.”
“One of the things that started me in making films like this is five years ago during the pandemic. At that time Tinian and Pagan were being threatened by militarization and becoming bombing ranges,” she said in her remarks.
“It really inspired me to be able to make some kind of visual film that people can see so that they’ll be able to know that there are latte stones on all of the islands that we’ve lived on,” said Staffler, who is also the CNMI’s secretary of Labor.
The third film follows Staffler, archeologist Dr. Andrea Jalandoni, and Tinian resident Elvin Masga as they explore the historic latte village present on Aguiguan, also known as Goat Island, as well as record digital images of a cave that had symbolic use to the ancestral Chamorros who lived there during the Latte Period.
On the trip, Staffler’s documentary displays numerous artifacts from the Latte era, including adze heads, lusong or mortars, pottery sherds, a previously unrecorded cave drawing, as well cave floor etchings.
“The crazy thing is people actually lived on Aguiguan,” Staffler said. “There are at least 300 to maybe 800 people living there estimated at its peak time. This is a place where we don’t know if there was any water source. There is broken pottery all over the island, which tells us maybe there was some kind of water catchment system, but for the most part it’s a very dry and arid place.”
Staffler, who grew up on Tinian, said Aguiguan is a place that was on the “periphery” of her life.
“While it’s always been there, I’ve never actually seen it, but I knew there was latte there,” she said.
Aguiguan and the Northern Islands are places that are understudied, she added.
“While we don’t have people there all the time … there are still remnants of our past that need to be studied and still need to be given a chance for archeologists to go there and tell us more about our history,” she said as she reiterated that knowledge about these places is valuable.
Staffler said she appreciated the community’s support.
“I am grateful that people have an interest in … history and it shows that these kinds of films are something that people actually really want to see,” she added.
Staffler, a former Kagman High School principal, said the documentaries could be used as resources in the classroom.
“I’m happy to provide place-based education resources because it’s something that a lot of bilingual teachers and history teachers say they don’t have enough of. I want to work on making these kinds of things so that people have a variety of resources,” she said.
Staffler added that her next documentary is being planned and may be ready sometime in 2026, although she is still finalizing details.
Her tentative plan could involve collaborating with seafarers and sailing to Sarigan or Guguan.
To view her third documentary go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MmTtc53VlA
It was a packed house for the debut.
Leila Staffler speaks to the crowd on Saturday, Feb. 8 at American Memorial Park, where she debuted her film “Exploring Latte in the Marianas: Aguiguan, Rock Art, and the Last Chamorro Stand.”
A scene from the documentary shows Dr. Andrea Jalandoni departing Aguiguan by jumping off it and onto a boat.
Seventh and 8th graders from Chacha Ocean View Middle School were present at the film screening.
