Latui

Latui is a dramatic short film that follows the journey of Mere, a Fijian woman undergoing IVF by herself. It juxtaposes a highly medicalised process with a Fijian origin story.

We filmed Latui during four Auckland shoot days in late January and we are now seeking crowdfunding to cover the costs involved in a Fiji shoot day and post-production.

Tulia Thompson (Fijian/Tongan/Pākehā) is a first-time writer/director. 

Tulia has a Ph.D. in Sociology and a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Auckland.  She has written a children's novel, short stories, and is an award-winning essayist. She is passionate about film-making, and is working on a feature screen-play. 

She is a member of DEGANZ, NZ Writers Guild and PISA (Pacific Island Screen Artists).

Nicole Whippy plays the lead  character of Mere. A renowned Fijian-New Zealand actor, she is currently gracing  cinema screens in New Zealand and across the Pacific as Rona in the feature film Tina. In television she has starred as Cece King in Shortland Street, Kasey Mason in Outrageous Fortune and Michelle Hardcastle in Nothing Trivial among many other roles. 

The supporting cast includes Ana Corbett (Shortland Street), Rashmi Pilapitiya (The Rule of Jenny Penn), Jamie Irvine (Tina), David Tiko (Shortland Street), and new faces to New Zealand screens Fanie Blanc, Charlotte Jones and Alex Jones. 

Drew Sturge (Waru, Vai, Kainga) is the project's talented director of photography.

Tom Vierus, a Fijian based nature cinematographer has been enlisted to help capture footage of the Fijian Goshawk - the Latui of the film's title.

Dr Tarisi Vunidilo is a Fijian archaeologist, curator and language teacher. She has kindly joined our project as the cultural consultant. She has previously worked with writer/director Tulia Thompson on her children's novel Josefa and the Vu.

Artist and Curator Vasemaca Tavola has provided her talents in production design and curation, bringing together artists and artworks that feature in the film, including Melissa Luesi. 

Tapuaki Helu worked as our onset Art Director.

Producer Craig Parkes is an experienced producer and post production supervisor (Waru, Crossing Rachmaninoff). He has worked extensively in New Zealand and international film and television productions.

Through his work with Brown Sugar Apple Grunt on the New Zealand anthology feature film Waru, he found inspiration as to how Aotearoa could better support new voices, bring ambitious projects to life and find acclaim with local and international audiences alike, furthering careers and evolving New Zealand's cinematic landscape.

 
His role on Latui is also a personal one, having gone through an IVF journey alongside writer / director Tulia Thompson, he has experienced the hope, heartache and extreme emotional pendulum between the two first hand, and wants audiences who too have undergone IVF to feel seen in their own journeys, and for those who have not to gain a better understanding of those who have.

Teaming up with Tulia to form Kula Films, Craig is bringing his wealth of experience in production and post to support new and different voices that have something to say from a Pacific perspective. 

Executive Producer Rebecca Tansley is the director / producer of feature and short films (The Heart Dances, Crossing Rachmaninoff, The Strangest of Angels, The Finding) - a multi talented cinematic powerhouse in the arts world, Rebecca previously worked with Producer Craig Parkes on Crossing Rachmaninoff, The Heart Dances and the Finding, and is providing invaluable support to the team in her role as executive producer.

The project has also received industry support from PISA (Pacific Island Screen Artists) and the Taro Patch

It has been funded to date by the New Zealand Film Commission under the Kōpere Hou Fresh Shorts Program run by Script to Screen.
 

• Travel and accommodation costs for the Director, Producer and Cinematographer to complete one days filming in Fiji
• Costs for Tom Vierus to provide footage of the Fijian Goshawk/Latui.
• VFX Compositing of ultrasound footage.
• Costs for music composition and licensing
• Post production finishing costs, including grade, sound mix and mastering.

Latui is one of the three films supported in the last New Zealand Film Commission / Fresh Shorts Round. With the funding from that round and private investment we have completed four days of filming in Auckland with our incredible cast and crew. To tell this story authentically there are elements that need to be shot in Fiji:

• Scenes of young Mere in Fiji before moving to New Zealand.
• Footage of the native Fijian Goshawk - Latui, that can only be filmed in Fiji.

Your donation will help us finish our film to professional standards suitable for submitting to overseas film festivals. 

It will support a new voice in film-making. Latui is a uniquely Fijian story. It's also a feminist story about honouring women's experiences often missing from screen.

Being supported by the Boosted X Moana program means that we will be dollar matched for the first $3000 of donations given by Creative New Zealand.

New Zealand tax payer donors who support our project on Boosted qualify for a 33% tax credit because Boosted is run by a charitable trust.