(Picture caption: Alofa Awards Best film winner, director Vatau Sagaga from Wainuiomata Intermediate, with producer and cousin Alaifatu Fraser Fatialofa, from Wellington College. PHOTO CREDIT: Creative Wezz Photography.)
The 2024 Alofa Awards has empowered young Pacific filmmakers in Wellington to share their story with the world.
Staged in Wellington on April 10, the Alofa Awards saw 60 students from 17 schools in Wellington participating in the regional Pasifika Youth Short Film Competition.
Award organisers Poporazzi Productions has been running innovative film making workshops in Auckland, Rotorua and Tauranga for Pacific secondary students since January 2022.
However, this year is the first time the programme, where students are mentored in the art of storytelling by experienced Pacific filmmakers, has been offered in Wellington.
Students focused on the theme, the Dawn Raids, a significant part of the history of Pacific peoples in New Zealand.
The Ministry for Pacific Peoples supported the workshop and awards, through its Teu Le Va fund, which encourages communities to share their Dawn Raids experiences, along with Wellington UNESCO City of Film.
Co-Founders of Poporazzi and Wellingtonians, Muagututi’a Esera Tanoa’i and Pulotu Tupe Solomon-Tanoa’i say the students had the chance to learn about the Dawn Raids from different sources and perspectives through the initiative.
“We are grateful to the Pacific filmmakers who had made films about this era and shared their experiences of how to research and make films based on an historical point in time,” Esera says.
“Students also had the chance to talanoa a survivor of the Dawn Raids, who shared their lived experience and first-hand account of the Raids.
“It was an invaluable opportunity to connect with a member of the older generation who lived through these times.”
Tupe says the couple’s aim was to teach students about how storytelling can help people to heal, to have a greater understanding and appreciation of the history of Pacific communities in New Zealand and be more aware of the struggles older generations of Pacific peoples faced in the 1970s.
“We hope the skills our youth learned on this course will be the start or the continuation of a lifelong journey of connecting to their culture, identity and history,” she says.
The top award for the region went to A Different Awakening, directed by Vatau Sagaga from Wainuiomata Intermediate, and made together with his cousin Alaifatu Fraser Fatialofa from Wellington College.
The film shows there is much knowledge and wisdom to be gained from talking to elders about their experiences.
Submitted films were judged by an all-star line-up of Pacific screen industry professionals including Tusi Tamasese, Marina McCartney and Bailey Poching.
A number of high-profile actors and creatives from the Pacific community were there to present the awards and provide words of encouragement to the youth.
Esera says many screen artists made it in their field during a period when there were few Pacific role models in the industry.
“The time they’ve given to our youth, gives them a glimpse of what might be possible for them in the future.”
Winners were presented with prizes to assist them in continuing their filmmaking journeys as well as a statuette called an Alofa award, representing all the love the youth have poured into their film.
“We designed the award to have the same proportions as an Oscar,” Esera adds.
“Who knows? One day the awards may sit side by side on the shelf of our alumni.”
Wellington prize-winners
Special awards
Visit this YouTube link to watch the short films.