4/4 Pacific Music + Arts Volume 1:3 April 2016 | Page 22

the locals into film, and they did
this by showing that you can get
the job done, with a grassroots
team, i.e three people and a
couple of cameras, and a small
budget. Filming in Tonga was a
great experience for the team, but
they acknowledge that this was a
difficult process the whole step of
the way. But they did it and are
very proud of the end outcome.
Emily: “one of the strongest
reasons why we did it, was that
we wanted to keep our legends

WE WANT TO SEE MORE OF
OUR POLYNESIAN PEOPLE,
OUR TONGAN PEOPLE, CREATE
WORK ABOUT THEMSELVES

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alive and one way to do that, was
to put them in the digital world,
where Polynesian children will
have access to it, especially if
the stories are no longer being
shared in the home. We wanted
to document or create things
for our future generations. We
want our kids to know the story
and these kids to still know
them. Because even when we
spoke to a lot of people in Tonga,
they knew the story, they can
remember being told it, but they
couldn’t remember all the details.
And there were all these different
versions, you know. So it may
not be the correct version, but is
a version of the legend.”
They confirm they are most proud
of ‘Aho’eitu, in terms of how it
turned out, given how much they
had put into it. The film went on
to be featured at the Pasifika Film

Festival in Sydney and won the
Breakthrough Award.
They shared the story of their
lead actor, who played Tangaroa
and is a fitting example of the
way their team works. On the
day of filming, the person cast as
Tangaroa was sick and couldn’t
make it. They were running out
of time to get the filming done,
so Vea decided to get in the car
and go through the village to
see if she could find someone
for the role. As she was driving
she saw a group of men, so she
approached them and asked if
one of them wanted to be in the
film. They said no, but said ‘we
know the perfect guy. Just go
down the road, past the mango
tree and that’s his house’. So
she did and after having a brief
talk Vea could immediately tell
he would be great and asked