Tusi Tamasese

Abstract

Part II of the book Migrant and Diasporic Film and Filmmaking in New Zealand presents a collection of critical dialogues with film-makers, whose works are representative of the cinemas of migration and diaspora in New Zealand. In this chapter, Tusi Tamasese, the New Zealand writer/director of Samoan background, and Catherine Fitzgerald, the producer of Tamasese’s films, speak about their ongoing creative collaboration which has resulted in three projects, including two features The Orator (2011) and One Thousand Ropes (2017). They contemplate on the notion of authenticity and the ways in which the diasporic film has this capacity to demonstrate culturally specific stories which culturally universal themes. Tamasese’s creative use of his Samoan cultural elements in telling stories, one entirely set in his original homeland, Samoa, and the other one in New Zealand raises questions on the boundaries of cultural authenticity and creativity in diasporic film-making.