Tupaia
Directed by Lala Rolls (New Zealand, 2015)
Film still from Tupaia. Directed by Lala Rolls (New Zealand, 2015) Film still from Tupaia. Directed by Lala Rolls (New Zealand, 2015)
Free, bookings essential
This film is unclassified
Duration: 52 minutes
English, Māori, Tahitian and French with English subtitles
New Zealand-born artist Michel Tuffery and actor Kirk Torrance trace the life of Tupaia, the Tahitian navigator who joined James Cook’s Endeavor expedition in Tahiti to the shores of Aotearoa/New Zealand in 1769.
Who was Tupaia - this high-priest, star-navigator, and extraordinary artist? He is left out of European history books, yet today his imprint lives on in modern Aotearoa/New Zealand.
Tuffery (who is of Samoan/Rarotongan/Tahitian heritage) and Torrance (who is Māori of Ngāti Kahungunu heritage) join with scholars and Māori tangata whenua (people of the land) to retrace the footsteps of Tupaia to tell this first contact story from a Pacific point of view.
Under the gaze of their ancestors, with song, haka and humour, they make startling new discoveries that rewrite history, cementing Tupaia's role as a central figure in Pacific history.
Tupaia is presented in partnership with Festival International du Film Documentare Oceanien (FIFO), Tahiti's prestigious International Oceanian Documentary Film Festival, where the film won the Special Jury Prize in 2016.
Gauguin’s World: Tōna Iho, Tōna Ao is on at the National Gallery from 29 June – 7 October 2024.
about the filmmaker
Lala Roll, Director Tupaia's Endeavour Image supplied by the filmmaker.
Lara Rolls was born in Fiji to Australian and Dutch parents and immigrated to New Zealand in 1981 at age 17. She has been a finalist at the New Zealand Screen Awards for her editing work in documentary and drama including The Insider's Guide to Happiness, Lovely Rita and Flight Of The Conchords: A Texan Odyssey and the acclaimed feature documentaries The Man in The Hat (2009) and Te Hono Ki Aotearoa (2012).
As a director, she has achieved international success with the feature documentaries Children of the Migration (2004), about children of migrants from the Pacific to New Zealand, and Land of My Ancestors (2007), about Māori artist Darcy Nicholas.
Director’s statement:
'As a film director I have a strong leaning towards Pacific and Māori stories. Although of Dutch/English origin, I was born and raised in Fiji. The Pacific is very much in my heart. It is my identity. It is where I am from.'
'I wanted to take the audience into the Pacific that I know. Which meant taking them with us on the same personal journey that we had to take in order to tell this story with authenticity. We knew we should take the time to listen to people, that we should share food with the people we interview, engage in rituals and offer the proper incantations on sacred ancestral sites. We knew that we should try to imagine Tupaia by living parts of his journey.'
'I was also interested in keeping our storytelling rigorous with the leadership of Dame Anne Salmond, the distinguished Professor of Māori Studies and Anthropology and Professor Paul Tapsell, whose specialty is in Māori artefacts and their 'life' in museums. Their professional voices are as heartfelt and vivid as the oral histories told by the descendants of Tupaia and the Māori he encountered.'
about fifo
Festival International du Film Documentare Oceanien (FIFO)
Created in 2004, the Festival International du Film Documentare Oceanien, known as FIFO, aims to promote the voice of the peoples and cultures by bringing Oceanian cinema and filmmakers to screens around the world.
FIFO has become an unmissable event in French Polynesia. More than a cultural event, FIFO is also a pillar in the development of the audiovisual industry in Oceania. An essential professional meeting in the South Pacific, the festival offers unique opportunities for dialogues and creativity to germinate. It allows directors and producers, technicians and TV channels, representatives of foreign festivals and distributors to connect over Oceanian cinema.
