Tiny Yellow

“Tiny Yellow” is a short film written by Maori actress & writer Cian Parker about living beyond the sudden unexpected death of an infant. It tells the story of Tu and Leah as they try to grapple with the misery and guilt felt after surviving such a horrific tragedy, and provides an intimate illustration of how to endure this particular type and magnitude of personal catastrophe.     

Chad Kukahiko (director) – A Hawaiian director and producer, Chad spent nearly half his life performing in more than fifty plays, including two years with the Off-Broadway show, STOMP. Chad’s film and TV appearances include Charmed and Mid-Century with fellow Boston University alum, Faye Dunaway. Since moving behind the camera, he launched a production company (5k Producing) with his wife, Kendall Kanoa Kukahiko, with whom he’s completed a number of pieces including a motion comic, a VR short, a feature film, a few pilot presentations, a music video, a trans-media piece that was featured on Wired.com and dozens of short films, sketches and commercials. Chad and Kendall moved to Tāmaki Makaurau in 2023.

Kendall Kukahiko (producer) – Kendall Kanoa Kukahiko is an Auckland-based Hawaiian producer. Born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona, Kendall moved to Los Angeles in 2008 to pursue a career in film. After graduating from LA Film School, she continued to produce and coordinate dozens of projects in various media and budget levels, including a multi-million dollar commercial campaign directed by Errol Morris, dozens of sketches for YouTube stars Rhett and Link, several projects for the Jim Henson Company, and countless short films, sketches, and proofs of concept. Kendall’s passion as producer is to bring artists together with the spirit of aloha in a healthy, supportive environment so creatives can do their best work.

Cian Parker (writer) - Cian Parker (Ngāpuhi) is an award-winning performer and writer. After graduating from the University of Waikato in 2018, she has gained professional experience in theatre, while also touring her own original work. Her multiple awards include the Ngā Manu Pīrere award at the Creative New Zealand 2019 Te Waka Toi Awards. In 2020, she was awarded ‘Most Promising Emerging Artist’ at the New Zealand Fringe Awards. She is also one of The Arts Foundation’s 2021 Springboard Award recipients. And at the 2021 Wellington Theatre awards she received the ‘New Playwright Award’. She was an actor and co-deviser in the Deaf and hearing theatre company Equal Voices Arts show ‘Where Our Shadows Meet’. As well as working alongside choreographer Eddie Elliott as a co-writer and dramaturg for the dance theatre piece show ‘Waiwhakaata: Reflections in the Water’. Cian has just returned from the UK & Serbia after touring her latest work she co-created with Laura Haughey, ‘All I See’. 

Michael LaHood (Director of Photography) - Michael's introduction to cinematography wasn't ordinary. He didn’t grow up with an old school film camera, shooting family events and home movies. He honestly didn't grow up with much interest in film at all, and was wary of even talking about how his uncle was a director. He completed an industrial design degree at university, but the only A+ he ever received was from a photography class. Then, after completing his degree, Michael ended up as a personal trainer for most of early 20s, still expressing very little interest in film. But then after spending several years admiring my brother’s cinematography, it finally hit Michael that maybe that's what he was meant to do. So he bought a camera, started shooting on the side of my personal training ... and now, it's an obsession.

Chad & Kendall (5k Producing) have worked together on dozens of projects - most back in the States, but a handful here in Aotearoa since coming here in 2020. Chad & Michael have worked together on a few projects since Chad & Kendall moved to Tāmaki Makaurau in March 2023. 5k Producing has a simple process, but it always starts from the script. From there, a healthy, producting on-set culture is a vital part of the 5k Producing process, and that is particularly true when it comes to projects that require deep, difficult emotional work, so as to provide a set environment that is sufficiently reverent and respectful of the state the actors will need to maintain over time. 

Thankfully “Tiny Yellow” doesn’t require a lot, so we’re not asking for much, but we do hope to find and cast two wonderful leads for Tu and Leah, and we’d like to pay them for rehearsals and for their hard work in the production. We also want to make sure our department heads all get paid for their work and to make sure they have the lenses, props and gear they need to create a final film that’s worthy of Cian’s script. 

And of course there’s food. We want to make sure everybody who helps bring “Tiny Yellow” to life is happily well-fed during the production.

(a full budget can be provided to people interested in an Executive Producer credit)

Chad first discovered Cian’s script at the November 2023 ScreenFit workshop, and instantly loved the piece. As a director, Chad is particularly drawn to projects that deal with deep, difficult emotions and moral conundrums, and though Tiny Yellow has a dearth of the latter, it has an absolute abundance of the former. 

5k Producing (Chad and Kendall’s production company) instantly began looking for ways to produce Tiny Yellow, but though the funds required aren’t immense, they’re still a bit difficult to raise. However when Chad saw a Facebook video advertising the Boosted X Moana opportunity, that bridged the gap in a way that makes the project feasible now. 

If we’re able to raise these funds, we’ll immediately move into pre-production which will entail first casting and call-backs, then location hunting and finally filling out the rest of the crew. Our hope is to shoot in late January, early February 2025, then do post-production through April or May, and finally start submitting to film festivals in winter (June/July).

Globally thousands of infants die each year from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), which we call Sudden Unexpected Death in Infancy (SUDI) here in New Zealand. Though our share of that number here in Aotearoa is in the dozens, that in no way diminishes the heart-rending misery felt by the families of the victims. Their grief is no less earth shattering.

Unfortunately there is an element to our culture here in Aotearoa New Zealand that doesn’t leave much room for deep emotions or vulnerability, especially around mates and co-workers, and that can be very dangerous when it comes to grief management. Cian’s script deals with this particularly horrific type of grief with both authenticity and sensitivity, and our goal is to accentuate both so that watching the final film will feel like being right there with Tu and Leah, and experiencing their pain and catharsis right along with them. We hope that in some small way, our film will impact ideas about grief-management here in Aotearoa, and provide a healthy, authentic example of how that might work in practice.