‘I of the Water,’ About Samoan Writer Sia Figiel’s Journey Toward Healing, Wins Hot Docs Forum Prize
“I of the Water,” one of 20 projects presented at Hot Docs’ marquee market event, the Forum, has won the First Look first prize of Can. $50,000, one of four pitch prizes announced Wednesday at the festival.
Kimberlee Bassford’s “I of the Water” focuses on acclaimed Samoan writer Sia Figiel. After a painful experience pushes Figiel into self-exile, she untangles her complicated past, revealing hidden trauma and initiating a journey toward healing. The film is produced by Bassford, Marilyn McFadyen, Vilsoni Hereniko, Leanne K. Ferrer, Cheryl Hirasa, and Linda Goldstein Knowlton.
The second First Look prize, worth Can. $15,000, was awarded to Kenya-Jade Pinto “The Sandbox,” a Canadian production with a vague tagline: “Your future is being written in the sand.” The doc is produced by Shasha Nakhai, Kenya-Jade Pinto, Jennifer Baichwal, and Rich Williamson.
First Look prizes are financed by members of Hot Docs First Look, a curated access program for...
Kimberlee Bassford’s “I of the Water” focuses on acclaimed Samoan writer Sia Figiel. After a painful experience pushes Figiel into self-exile, she untangles her complicated past, revealing hidden trauma and initiating a journey toward healing. The film is produced by Bassford, Marilyn McFadyen, Vilsoni Hereniko, Leanne K. Ferrer, Cheryl Hirasa, and Linda Goldstein Knowlton.
The second First Look prize, worth Can. $15,000, was awarded to Kenya-Jade Pinto “The Sandbox,” a Canadian production with a vague tagline: “Your future is being written in the sand.” The doc is produced by Shasha Nakhai, Kenya-Jade Pinto, Jennifer Baichwal, and Rich Williamson.
First Look prizes are financed by members of Hot Docs First Look, a curated access program for...
- 5/4/2023
- by Addie Morfoot
- Variety Film + TV
Hot Docs, North America’s largest documentary festival, has unveiled the projects it has selected for the 24th edition of the Hot Docs Forum, the financing event aimed at securing co-productions and funds for feature length documentaries.
The Forum returns in-person to Toronto’s Hart House on May 2 and 3 as part of festival, which runs April 27 to May 7. Nineteen projects representing 16 countries and featuring 23 filmmakers, 12 of whom are women and 11 of whom are black, indigenous and people of color, will pitch to international decision makers and members of the documentary community. An additional Wild Card pitch will be selected live at the Forum.
At The Forum projects are pitched live for co-production financing to a roundtable of leading commissioning editors, film fund representatives, financiers, programming executives and angel investors. Selected projects will also participate in Hot Docs Deal Maker, a curated one-on-one pitch meeting program, which includes an additional 35. The...
The Forum returns in-person to Toronto’s Hart House on May 2 and 3 as part of festival, which runs April 27 to May 7. Nineteen projects representing 16 countries and featuring 23 filmmakers, 12 of whom are women and 11 of whom are black, indigenous and people of color, will pitch to international decision makers and members of the documentary community. An additional Wild Card pitch will be selected live at the Forum.
At The Forum projects are pitched live for co-production financing to a roundtable of leading commissioning editors, film fund representatives, financiers, programming executives and angel investors. Selected projects will also participate in Hot Docs Deal Maker, a curated one-on-one pitch meeting program, which includes an additional 35. The...
- 3/15/2023
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Slippery, fluid, and constantly evolving.
These were the answers provided to the question of ‘What is authenticity?’ at the Asia Pacific Screen Forum on Friday.
A panel comprising Fijian writer/director Vilsoni Hereniko, Indonesian filmmaker Kamila Andini, and Australian producer/director Ana Tiwary joined moderator Pearl Tan for an exploration of how to navigate the demands of production to deliver authentic stories.
When it came to defining the term, all three panelists were in agreement about its non-fixed nature.
For Hereniko, who made Fiji’s first feature film The Land Has Eyes in 2004 and was a cultural consultant for Disney’s Moana, it was important to differentiate between physical and emotional representation.
“Authenticity is a very slippery term to figure out,” he said.
“However, I can say with confidence that, for me, it’s an accurate representation of the world in which the story is set, such as the physical...
These were the answers provided to the question of ‘What is authenticity?’ at the Asia Pacific Screen Forum on Friday.
A panel comprising Fijian writer/director Vilsoni Hereniko, Indonesian filmmaker Kamila Andini, and Australian producer/director Ana Tiwary joined moderator Pearl Tan for an exploration of how to navigate the demands of production to deliver authentic stories.
When it came to defining the term, all three panelists were in agreement about its non-fixed nature.
For Hereniko, who made Fiji’s first feature film The Land Has Eyes in 2004 and was a cultural consultant for Disney’s Moana, it was important to differentiate between physical and emotional representation.
“Authenticity is a very slippery term to figure out,” he said.
“However, I can say with confidence that, for me, it’s an accurate representation of the world in which the story is set, such as the physical...
- 11/16/2021
- by Sean Slatter
- IF.com.au
Essie Davis and Leah Purcell will battle it out in the best performance by an actress category at next month’s Asia Pacific Screen Awards, while Nitram lead Caleb Landry Jones and Australian/Afghan film When Pomegranates Howl are also among the nominees.
Films from Japan and the Islamic Republic of Iran lead the field for this year’s awards with six nominations each. Two films, both winners at Cannes this year, Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car and Asghar Farhadi’s A Hero (Ghahreman), have garnered the most nominations, with both films up for the same four categories – Best Feature Film, Achievement in Directing, Best Screenplay and Best Performance by an Actor.
Purcell gets the nod for The Drovers Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson, for which she was also director and writer, with Davis recognised for her role in Gaysorn Thavat’s debut feature The Justice of Bunny King.
Films from Japan and the Islamic Republic of Iran lead the field for this year’s awards with six nominations each. Two films, both winners at Cannes this year, Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car and Asghar Farhadi’s A Hero (Ghahreman), have garnered the most nominations, with both films up for the same four categories – Best Feature Film, Achievement in Directing, Best Screenplay and Best Performance by an Actor.
Purcell gets the nod for The Drovers Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson, for which she was also director and writer, with Davis recognised for her role in Gaysorn Thavat’s debut feature The Justice of Bunny King.
- 10/13/2021
- by Sean Slatter
- IF.com.au
The Post Lounge management team (L-r): Brock Smith, Bronwyn Ketels, MD and owner Kurt Royan, Dan Lake and founder Steve Cooper.
After 40 years as a post-production house, The Post Lounge is expanding into development and production, launching new arm Orange Entertainment Co.
The Post Lounge MD Kurt Royan, who became sole owner of the business earlier this year, announced the new side of the Brisbane and Melbourne-based company today at the Asia Pacific Screen Forum in Brisbane.
Orange Entertainment Co will handle both The Post Lounge’s investment in the projects it posts, as well as investing in development and production of projects across film, episodic and short-form, covering both narrative and factual.
Following on from The Post Lounge’s investment in Screen Queensland’s diversity-focused R.I.D.E. Feature Film initiative, a key of focus of Orange Entertainment Co will been on storytelling from new talent with different backgrounds,...
After 40 years as a post-production house, The Post Lounge is expanding into development and production, launching new arm Orange Entertainment Co.
The Post Lounge MD Kurt Royan, who became sole owner of the business earlier this year, announced the new side of the Brisbane and Melbourne-based company today at the Asia Pacific Screen Forum in Brisbane.
Orange Entertainment Co will handle both The Post Lounge’s investment in the projects it posts, as well as investing in development and production of projects across film, episodic and short-form, covering both narrative and factual.
Following on from The Post Lounge’s investment in Screen Queensland’s diversity-focused R.I.D.E. Feature Film initiative, a key of focus of Orange Entertainment Co will been on storytelling from new talent with different backgrounds,...
- 11/20/2019
- by jkeast
- IF.com.au
Vilsoni Hereniko. . Freshwater Pictures. Trish Lake (Early Winter) will team up with Nz.s Catherine Fitzgerald from Blueskin Films to co-produce Until the Dolphin Flies, a narrative feature from Pacific Island writer-director Vilsoni Hereniko (The Land Has Eyes). Production is scheduled for 2018. . Until The Dolphin Flies is the story of a man evicted from his land "who struggles to control his anger until a collision of cultural values over a wounded dolphin breaks open his shell of fear and propels him on a new path of self-discovery and healing.. . It is based on Robert Barclay.s novel 'Melal', set in the Marshall Islands. Hereniko has co-written the script with Queensland-based Joseph Grogan, originally from Micronesia. . .Until the Dolphin Flies is one of the finest stories to emerge from the Pacific about loss and love," said Lake. "While it deals with deep human emotions about a man who is coming to terms with his shortcomings,...
- 12/2/2016
- by Staff Writer
- IF.com.au
Applications are now open for the third round of the Asia Pacific Screen Lab (Apsl), a development lab aimed at screenwriters, directors and producers from the Asia Pacific region..
The Apsl focuses on stories exploring an Asia Pacific identity to be developed into feature length films of fiction, documentary or animation..
The submission deadline is September 30, with the selected projects to be announced for the first time during the Busan International Film Festival in October 2016.
The year-long development incubator program for emerging filmmakers is an initiative of Griffith Film School (Gfs), the Asia Pacific Screen Academy and Netpac (Network for the Promotion of Asia Pacific Cinema), in collaboration with the Sun Foundation and Temenggong Artists in Residence, Singapore..
At its core the Apsl is a vehicle for enabling film co-productions by early career feature filmmakers from across the Asia Pacific, typically those who have made at least one feature film...
The Apsl focuses on stories exploring an Asia Pacific identity to be developed into feature length films of fiction, documentary or animation..
The submission deadline is September 30, with the selected projects to be announced for the first time during the Busan International Film Festival in October 2016.
The year-long development incubator program for emerging filmmakers is an initiative of Griffith Film School (Gfs), the Asia Pacific Screen Academy and Netpac (Network for the Promotion of Asia Pacific Cinema), in collaboration with the Sun Foundation and Temenggong Artists in Residence, Singapore..
At its core the Apsl is a vehicle for enabling film co-productions by early career feature filmmakers from across the Asia Pacific, typically those who have made at least one feature film...
- 6/27/2016
- by Staff Writer
- IF.com.au
Having invited 91 countries to submit films, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said Tuesday that a record 58 took the Academy up on its offer. Three countries that had not previously been represented submitted films: Costa Rica, which offered Esteban Ramirez's Caribe; Fiji, which submitted Vilsoni Hereniko's The Land Has Eyes; and Iraq, which entered Jamil Rostami's Requiem of Snow. Several movies arrive in the wake of local controversies. Christian Carion's Joyeux Noel, from France, had drawn a formal complaint from France's independent producers union, the Societe des Producteurs Independants, claiming that the choice of film -- by a seven-member selection committee appointed by the state's funding body, the Center National de la Cinematographie -- was "politically motivated." The SPI, lacking legal recourse, has since backed off. When Italy's first submission, Saverio Costanzo's Private, was ruled ineligible by the Academy because none of its dialogue is in Italian, Italy submitted Cristina Comencini's La bestia nel cuore.
- 10/26/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Ta Meka Prods.
PARK CITY -- "The Land Has Eyes" is a captivating saga of one girl's mustering up the heroic spirit of her heritage to confront the modern world.
Set on the remote island of Romua in the South Pacific, it's a visually entrancing work, capturing the pristine beauty of those luscious climes and cluing us in to a culture that has been defiled in many ways by European colonization.
At once an illuminating ethnography of a remarkable people, "The Land Has Eyes" is most satisfyingly a tale of triumph and assertion. It focuses on Viki (Sapeta Taito), an industrious Romuan teen who aspires to someday win a scholarship to Fiji. Strong-minded, which is not considered a virtue by the women in her family as well as her peers, Viki takes it upon herself to do what her more traditional parents cannot accomplish. In essence, she crosses cultural boundaries when she stands up for her father's good name, and she transcends female expectations when she strives to achieve her highly personal goals.
This beautiful film brims with a gentle wisdom, courtesy of writer-director Vilsoni Hereniko. His luscious visualizations are inspiring portraits of not only a land but, most satisfyingly, the vibrant heritage that gave the strength to this young girl's triumph.
PARK CITY -- "The Land Has Eyes" is a captivating saga of one girl's mustering up the heroic spirit of her heritage to confront the modern world.
Set on the remote island of Romua in the South Pacific, it's a visually entrancing work, capturing the pristine beauty of those luscious climes and cluing us in to a culture that has been defiled in many ways by European colonization.
At once an illuminating ethnography of a remarkable people, "The Land Has Eyes" is most satisfyingly a tale of triumph and assertion. It focuses on Viki (Sapeta Taito), an industrious Romuan teen who aspires to someday win a scholarship to Fiji. Strong-minded, which is not considered a virtue by the women in her family as well as her peers, Viki takes it upon herself to do what her more traditional parents cannot accomplish. In essence, she crosses cultural boundaries when she stands up for her father's good name, and she transcends female expectations when she strives to achieve her highly personal goals.
This beautiful film brims with a gentle wisdom, courtesy of writer-director Vilsoni Hereniko. His luscious visualizations are inspiring portraits of not only a land but, most satisfyingly, the vibrant heritage that gave the strength to this young girl's triumph.
Ta Meka Prods.
PARK CITY -- "The Land Has Eyes" is a captivating saga of one girl's mustering up the heroic spirit of her heritage to confront the modern world.
Set on the remote island of Romua in the South Pacific, it's a visually entrancing work, capturing the pristine beauty of those luscious climes and cluing us in to a culture that has been defiled in many ways by European colonization.
At once an illuminating ethnography of a remarkable people, "The Land Has Eyes" is most satisfyingly a tale of triumph and assertion. It focuses on Viki (Sapeta Taito), an industrious Romuan teen who aspires to someday win a scholarship to Fiji. Strong-minded, which is not considered a virtue by the women in her family as well as her peers, Viki takes it upon herself to do what her more traditional parents cannot accomplish. In essence, she crosses cultural boundaries when she stands up for her father's good name, and she transcends female expectations when she strives to achieve her highly personal goals.
This beautiful film brims with a gentle wisdom, courtesy of writer-director Vilsoni Hereniko. His luscious visualizations are inspiring portraits of not only a land but, most satisfyingly, the vibrant heritage that gave the strength to this young girl's triumph.
PARK CITY -- "The Land Has Eyes" is a captivating saga of one girl's mustering up the heroic spirit of her heritage to confront the modern world.
Set on the remote island of Romua in the South Pacific, it's a visually entrancing work, capturing the pristine beauty of those luscious climes and cluing us in to a culture that has been defiled in many ways by European colonization.
At once an illuminating ethnography of a remarkable people, "The Land Has Eyes" is most satisfyingly a tale of triumph and assertion. It focuses on Viki (Sapeta Taito), an industrious Romuan teen who aspires to someday win a scholarship to Fiji. Strong-minded, which is not considered a virtue by the women in her family as well as her peers, Viki takes it upon herself to do what her more traditional parents cannot accomplish. In essence, she crosses cultural boundaries when she stands up for her father's good name, and she transcends female expectations when she strives to achieve her highly personal goals.
This beautiful film brims with a gentle wisdom, courtesy of writer-director Vilsoni Hereniko. His luscious visualizations are inspiring portraits of not only a land but, most satisfyingly, the vibrant heritage that gave the strength to this young girl's triumph.
- 1/22/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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