A big round of applause for
producer/director Anna Marbrook, whose
documentary feature, Loimata, The Sweetest Tears, has won
the Grand Prix du Jury at Tahiti's prestigious FIFO, (Festival
International du Film Documentaire Océanien).
It's wonderful to see that in this project
there's a female protagonist, a female cinematographer, three of
the four producers are women and five of the seven main characters
are female!
Marbrook produced Loimata, The
Sweetest Tears with her filmmaker brother Jim Marbook and
executive producers, the acclaimed University of Auckland academic
Dr Tamasailau Suaalii-Sauni and award-winning filmmaker and WIFT
member Dame Gaylene Preston. The cinematographer
was another WIFT member Jess Charlton.
At the prizegiving ceremony Jury member Julia
Overton, a leading figure in Australian film and television,
described Loimata as "a film that was really well directed
. . . on an important subject: childhood trauma." She added:
"Our congratulations to the whole team who presented this family's
story with so much compassion."
In Loimata, The Sweetest Tears,
Marbrook takes us with her dying friend, the extraordinary
ocean-going waka captain, Lilo Ema Siope on an emotional healing
journey. A finely-crafted compassionate documentary strongly tied
to Ema's Samoan culture, Loimata, The Sweetest Tears is an
intimate exploration of a family shattered by shame working
courageously to liberate themselves from the shackles of the
past.
Lilo Ema Siope image from Loimata: The
Sweetest Tears.