The Masima Film Tour was established in 2021 as a partnership between the Salt Lake Film Society and the Utah Pacific Island Film Series as part of their ongoing cultural tours that highlight and showcase films from a number of communities spearheaded by those communities. Masima is the word for “salt” in Samoan and Tongan, representing the salt of the ocean that ties the stories of Tagata Pasifika together as well as paying respects to the Salt Lake Valley where Masima was created and where the Utah Pacific Island Film Series calls home.

Masima actively seeks submissions from Pacific Islander filmmakers, or films that center Pacific Islander narratives, from across the globe. Each year Masima’s programming has grown to include a more diverse array of stories with a special emphasis on nurturing and supporting emerging Pasifika Filmmakers to showcase their films with a Utah audience as Salt Lake City boasts one of the highest concentration of Pacific Islanders in the continental U.S. with a population that only continues to grow and a desire to see more Pacific Films to match.

Masima was the first Pacific Islander focused and lead film festival in the continental U.S. In its inaugural year the festival was completely virtual due to Covid-19, in its second year it shifted to hybrid online and in-person screenings at Broadway Centre Cinemas in downtown Salt Lake City, which continues to be Masima’s format. In its second year, Masima was granted the opportunity to travel with an abbreviated line-up to Los Angeles thanks to IW Group Agency.