Here's a shout-out to director Nina Nawalowalo, producer Katherine Wyeth, and all involved in bringing this powerful feature documentary to the screen. It has been making waves all over the country - and the world.
A Boy Called Piano - The Story of Fa'amoana John Luafutu, the award-winning work from Wellington Pacific Theatre Company The Conch, has been selected for four international festivals in 2023. One of those is the Festival International du Film Documentaire Océanien (FIFO) 2023 in Tahiti. (The other Festivals have yet to announce their programmes).
This year it screened at the New Zealand International Film Festival, the Rotorua Indigenous Film Festival, ImagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival - the largest indigenous festival worldwide, and the Montreal Independent Film Festival where it won Best Documentary Feature, and La Femme International Film Festival (LA).
The film has also screened at New Zealand's Parliament for an invited audience of 90 guests, and for an audience of 38 inmates and prison staff at Matapuna: Special Treatment Unit at Christchurch Men’s Prison. During the post-screening talanoa, inmates spoke about their own care experiences and later senior staff at the facility commented that the levels of communication that the film inspired was unprecedented in the history of their treatment programmes.