PISA Writers' Room

Our monthly Pacific Writers' Room is for any Pacific Islands Writers at any stage of their career (from emerging to experienced) and is availble both in-person and online. Just select if you are attending this event in person or online when confirming tickets. If you cannot make the event in person, please let us know!

Our special guest is filmmaker and scholar Marina Alofagia McCartney. 

From Idea to Screen: Developing your short film idea

Do you have an idea for a short film you want to develop?  This immersive event is tailored to Moana filmmakers eager to build a strong foundation for their short film idea.  Guided and developed by filmmaker Marina Alofagia McCartney (Pitonu’u, Vailoa, Romani, England) this workshop will build your understanding of the fundamentals of storytelling for the big screen while refining your short film idea.

MARINA ALOFAGIA MCCARTNEY is an award-winning filmmaker (Vai, Milk & Honey) and scholar whose films have screened in festivals such as Berlinale, SXSW, Edinburgh and Melbourne International Film Festival.

Marina is an experienced assessor completing over 200 assessments in 2022 alone, across longform projects, short and feature films for the NZFC, NZWG, NZOA, GSTV and Script to Screen. She created the first incubator for Moana Pasifika women writers, to develop their feature films through WIFT and has just finished writing an episode for TVNZ’s My Life is Murder.

Marina is completing a Doctor of Philosophy specialising in Moana Pasifika filmmaking and has an upcoming publication on Moana Pasifika women filmmakers in the Routledge Handbook of Indigenous Film. Her NZFC Catalyst short film The Return is in post-production and is developing her next feature Dusky.

What to bring:

Please bring along your own personal devices to write on or your own notebook and pen- whatever your preference is for the Personal Writing session.

PISA Writers' Room was possible with the support of Te Tumu Whakaata Taonga New Zealand Film Commission’s Strategic Training Fund. 

***Important -  NO Photos or Video recordings of materials presented during the workshop***