(Picture caption: Emerging Pacific talent in the short-film space has been recognised at the Alofa Awards 2023.)
The second annual Alofa Awards took place in Auckland recently, honouring Pacific excellence in filmmaking.
This year, 130 students from 33 schools in Auckland, Rotorua and Tauranga took part in the Pasifika Youth Short Film Competition, while over 500 guests showed up to support the youth and celebrate their stories.
Pacific media company Poporazzi Productions has been running film making workshops for Pacific secondary students since January 2022.
Students are mentored in the art of storytelling by experienced Pacific filmmakers, the aim being to encourage Pacific learners to explore their identity and express these learnings through film.
Now in its second year, the programme also aims to create a pipeline for Pacific students into the screen industry and give the students a taste of the career options available.
Co-founders of Poporazzi Esera Tanoa’i and Tupe Solomon-Tanoa’i say the students’ ideas in the workshops are brilliant and original – telling the stories only they could tell.
“Several films draw on the cultural identities of the students and are a genuine celebration of their identity, language, and culture,” Tupe says.
“Common themes that emerged related to family, cultural identity, a sense of belonging, moral dilemmas, and climate change.”
Not only were the stories of high quality, but they were also incredibly diverse, from comedies, documentaries, dramas, animations, and even a Western.
“It is demonstrating Pacific students should not be pigeon-holed or thought of as a monolith - they have a broad range of experiences and stories to tell,” Tupe says.
The top award for the Auckland region went to Hounga 'ia - a documentary narrated in Tongan, which translates to, Be grateful. Directed by Mele Tupou of St Pius X School in Glen Innes, the film is about her classmate Haloti Tupou who is a wheelchair user.
Haloti says the film’s empowering message for viewers is you do not need to change yourself to fit in.
“You are perfect just the way you are.”
The Ministry for Pacific Peoples (MPP) is a proud category sponsor of the awards, which this year, featured an all-star lineup of Pacific judges from the screen industry.
Stallone Vaiaoga-Ioasa, Vea Mafile’o and Nicole Whippy judged the films, while numerous high-profile actors, directors and creatives from the Pacific community presented the awards and provided words of encouragement to the youth.
The winners received prizes to help them continue their filmmaking journeys as well as a statuette called an Alofa Award, which is the Samoan word for love.
Auckland region winners
Bay of Plenty region winners
Special awards