Aroha
(2015)
ONE LEGENDARY STREET. TEN UNEXPECTED STORIES. ANYTHING COULD HAPPEN.K' Rd Stories cracks open the surface of life on Karangahape Road, revealing diverse cultures and unique voices.
Set on New Zealand’s most iconic street this collection of short films - by some of New Zealand’s most creative filmmakers - explores the uncommon, the contrasting, and the crazy.
The films premiered along an innovative screening trail on Karangahape Road in conjunction with First Thursdays on December 3rd, 2015. K Rd Stories sneaks a peek at the people and places that make this neighbourhood so infamous - and so beloved.
DIRECTOR'S QUOTE:
“I remember walking down Karangahape Rd with my parents and being a bit scared of the bright lights and bright people. As an adult I worked in hospitality and got to know a lot of the K'Rd staff. It became the go-to place to hang after a night's work of bartending in the city.
It was important to me to make AROHA true for the K'Rd community who live and breathe it every day. I decided to write a story about ‘aroha’ - or love - as that was something that I knew about. Then I wanted to bring a real K'Rd person into the mix of the film. Boom - enter Ramon Te Wake who stars as Jade.
Aroha is a love story between two souls. It shows the audience that regardless of appearance, colour, or religion, when a connection is made, aroha has no boundaries. And it can happen to everyone...you just have to let go and allow aroha in.”
Ma
(2013)
Ma is a story about a Samoan grandmother trying to survive her worst fear – being alone.
Ma’s Sunday begins like any other with a visit to Church. Ma's approached by the church Bishop with accusations of coercing an elderly women's group to a nightclub. Ma leaves the Bishop in disbelief, proudly revealing that they had a wonderful time and they all still believe in God.
When she arrives home Ma notices that one of her precious soft toys is missing.
Infuriated, Ma does some quick detective work on the phone before heading out for church. Along the way she experiences a rude, inappropriate driver who she follows and stealthily confronts in a local car park, teaching him a lesson that he'll never forget.
Ma is no ordinary grandmother. She's strong-willed, opinionated and can take on the toughest, and usually does. But under the rock hard exterior is an old woman trying to endure what's left of her existence and reclaim the feeling of control that she once had in her younger years; the feeling of being needed.Ma is a story about one woman's strength, weakness, love and humanity in a world that has almost forgotten her.
Ma’s Sunday begins like any other with a visit to Church. Ma's approached by the church Bishop with accusations of coercing an elderly women's group to a nightclub. Ma leaves the Bishop in disbelief, proudly revealing that they had a wonderful time and they all still believe in God.
When she arrives home Ma notices that one of her precious soft toys is missing.
Infuriated, Ma does some quick detective work on the phone before heading out for church. Along the way she experiences a rude, inappropriate driver who she follows and stealthily confronts in a local car park, teaching him a lesson that he'll never forget.
Ma is no ordinary grandmother. She's strong-willed, opinionated and can take on the toughest, and usually does. But under the rock hard exterior is an old woman trying to endure what's left of her existence and reclaim the feeling of control that she once had in her younger years; the feeling of being needed.Ma is a story about one woman's strength, weakness, love and humanity in a world that has almost forgotten her.
Ma goes to HIFF and LA Skins
(2014)
Leiataua Afega 'Ma' Si'ulepa is 81 years old. She comes from a small village called Solaua, in the independent Polynesian island of Samoa. Ma has lived in New Zealand for most of her life. In 2013 Ma starred in a short film about her life as a widowed matriarch grandmother who returns home one day to find her precious toy monkey is missing. In 2014 Ma travelled with the film to the Hawaii International Film Festival and the LA Skins Fest in the USA. It was the first time Ma had ever experienced anything like it.
This is a short documentary about her travels...
Produced by Thunder Productions
http://www.thunderproductionsnz.com/film.html
https://www.facebook.com/MAshortfilm?ref=hl
This is a short documentary about her travels...
Produced by Thunder Productions
http://www.thunderproductionsnz.com/film.html
https://www.facebook.com/MAshortfilm?ref=hl
Ma
(2014)
Ma - Short Film Trailer from Nikki Thunder on Vimeo.
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Ma Short Film 15 mins Starring Leiataua Afega 'Ma' Si'ulepa Writer / Director / Producer Nikki Si'ulepa Producer / Production Manager / Continuity Ngaire Fuata DOP Stallone Vaiaoga-Ioasa First Assistant Camera / Colour Grade Jack Woon Sound Recordist David Green Art Director (Ma's House) Leiataua Afega 'Ma' Si'ulepa Art Department Casey Kaa Wardrobe Piata Gardiner-Hoskins Offline Editor Cushla Dillon Original Score Matatumua Opeloge Ah Sam Sound Design Colleen Brennan Executive Producers Nikki Si'ulepa Ngaire Fuata A Self Funded Guerrilla film by Thunder Productions |
- 2014 Short Film Corner - Festival de Cannes, Cannes, France
- 2014 Hawaii International Film Festival (HIFF), Hawaii, USA
- 2014 L.A. Skins Fest, Los Angeles, USA
- 2015 New Zealand International Film Festival, New Zealand
- 2015 Wairoa Maori International Film Festival, Wairoa, New Zealand
- 2015 ImagineNATIVE Film Festival, Toronto, Canada
- 2015 Nuku'alofa Film Festival, Nuku'alofa, Tonga
- 2015 Aotearoa NZ Film Festival, Hawai'i, USA
- 2015 Pollywood Film Festival, New Zealand
- 2015 Mispon International Film Festival, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
- 2016 Pasifika Film Festival, Sydney, Australia
- 2016 Maoriland Film Festival, Otaki, New Zealand
- 2016 T-Tahiti Film Festival, Tahiti, French Polynesia
- 2016 Siapo Cinema, Wellington, New Zealand
- 2016 The Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian | Native Cinema Showcase, New Mexico, USA
- 2016 PBS Online Film Festival
- 2017 Skábmagovat – Indigenous Peoples’ Film and TV Production Festival, Inari, Finland
- 2018 RIFF Rotorua Indigenous Film Festival, Rotorua, New Zealand
Snow in Paradise
(2011)
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In the 1970's the world's biggest threat entered the world's smallest village and the Pacific was never the same again.
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Snow in Paradise
Short Film 9 mins Writer / Co Director Nikki Si'ulepa Associate Producer / Production Manager / Continuity Ngaire Fuata Offline Editor Debbie Matthews Executive Producers Tearepa Kahi Quintin Hita Produced by Tala Pasifika Funded by Premiere Shorts, NZ Film Commission |
*Won Best Short Film - 2013 Festival International du Film d'Environnement, Paris, France (FIFE)
*Achievement in Short Filmmaking - 2014 L.A. Skins Fest, Los Angeles, USA
*Nominated for Best Narrative Short Film - 2013 Tribeca Film Festival, Tribeca, New York
Tribeca 2013: Critic's Choice - Shorts Senior film critic Kurt Brokaw offers critic’s choices on the shorts program at Tribeca 2013:
http://www.aivf.org/magazine/2013/05/Kurt-Brokaw_Tribeca_2013_shorts_Nightshift-Belongs-to-the-Stars
*Achievement in Short Filmmaking - 2014 L.A. Skins Fest, Los Angeles, USA
*Nominated for Best Narrative Short Film - 2013 Tribeca Film Festival, Tribeca, New York
Tribeca 2013: Critic's Choice - Shorts Senior film critic Kurt Brokaw offers critic’s choices on the shorts program at Tribeca 2013:
http://www.aivf.org/magazine/2013/05/Kurt-Brokaw_Tribeca_2013_shorts_Nightshift-Belongs-to-the-Stars
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