PACIFIC ISLANDS SCREEN ARTISTS
Navigating Our Stories Together
Meet Our Komiti
Stallone Vaiaoga-Ioasa
Alafua, Toamua, Puipa'a (Sāmoa)
Stallone Vaiaoga-Ioasa has over 15 years in the screen industry with a strong focus and desire to bring Pacific Islands people and stories to the screen. He has worked in television as a director and camera operator for shows such as Tagata Pasifika and Fresh. His feature film work includes writing and directing for self-funded and self distributed films - Three Wise Cousins, Hibiscus & Ruthless, Take Home Pay and Mama's Music Box. As president, I want to continue to consolidate the resources the Pacific Islands Screen Artists as an incorporated society can draw upon to serve our members and our community. We continue to work towards the goals that we set out when we created PISA and I wish to increase the number and value of opportunities that PISA can provide for our screen artists to not only improve their skills but get their projects into production. In an environment of increasing scarcity I hope to continue to help build PISA into a resilient and agile organisation our community can look to and be proud of without compromising our cultural values and worldview.
Jeremiah Tauamiti
Falelātai, Solosolo, Pu’apu’a, Tuana’i, Faleasiu (Sāmoa)
Jeremiah Tauamiti is an award winning writer/director, who has a heart for Pacific people and their stories. Both his debut documentary feature film, For My Father’s Kingdom (Co-director/DOP), and short film Liliu (Writer/Director), had their World Premieres at the 2019 Berlinale Film Festival. Both films have gone on to win awards around the world, with Liliu winning multiple best film/director awards. His most recent work tele-feature documentary, Family, Faith & Footy; A Pasifika Story shot across 5 countries in the UK and the Pacific, won both Best Documentary, and Best Pasifika Programme at the recent, 2024 NZ Television Awards. Jeremiah is currently in production with a TVNZ one-hour special, he is in development with the NZ Film Commission with his debut feature length drama film, in development with an animation series, and in pre-production with a Sky Sport documentary. His villages in Sāmoa are Falelātai/Solosolo, and Tuana’i/Faleāsiu/Pu'apu'a, and his high chief titles Nanai and Faalavaau are from the village of Falelatai. He is most proud of being a chef, and quiz master for Malosi, Talavou and Manako.
David Mamea
Safune, Safotu (Sāmoa)
David Fa'auliuli Mamea is a scriptwriter who has worked on screen, radio and theatre projects in genres ranging from sci-fi animation to kitchen sink drama, and a whole lot in between. He is a Co-President of Puni Taatuhi o Aotearoa New Zealand Writers Guild, and a trustee of Banana Boat, a loose collective of Pasifika and Māori creatives. He has won the Adam Award for Best New Zealand Play, a New Zealand Writers Guild SWANZ Award for Best Play, and a New Zealand Radio Award for Best Dramatic Production. A Wellingtonian at heart, he and his Lovely Wife live in Te Tai Tokerau with their dogs, cat, ponies, chickens, kunekune pigs and sheep.
Claire Patolo
Lauli'i, Faleapuna, Safune (Sāmoa)
Claire Patolo is an emerging filmmaker. She has worked on short films and TV shows and is currently completing her PhD at the Auckland University of Technology. She is also working on writing her first short film and developing her skills as a director. Claire is a huge fan of fantasy & sci-fi films and hopes to one day direct her own fantasy or sci-fi film that features Pasifika people both in front of the screen and behind. Claire was humbled and grateful to have spent two years as part of the PISA Komiti, serving as the secretary, and would be honoured to continue learning and helping with the amazing galuega that PISA is doing for Pacific Islands Screen artists, both in Aotearoa and abroad. She hopes that her knowledge as an emerging filmmaker will help serve the PISA Komiti and keep it moving forward with relevance and purpose so that it may benefit members and the wider screen industry as a whole.
Vea Mafile'o
Tongaleleka, Ha’apai (Tonga), Ngāti Te Wehi (Māori), English and Scottish
Vea Mafile’o is one of the OG founders of PISA, a producer-director with over 20 years of experience in TV and film. Her recent short film, "Lea Tupu'anga," premiered at Sundance this year and won Best Short at NZIFF, Show Me Shorts and NY Pasific Film Festival. Vea's feature documentary, "For My Father's Kingdom," premiered at Berlinale in 2019, alongside her short film documentary "Toa`ipuapuaga" and "LIULU," (which she Art Directed). She is a co-founder of The Nuku'alofa Film Festival, Taro Patch Creative studios and this year lead director on the new series of Casketeers and co-director of feature documentary LOMU. I am passionate about providing opportunities for our people to develop their storytelling skills. Creating more Pasifika content on screens, industry visibility, across all departments and seats at tables, where we have ownership and mana over our stories so we are not just surviving but thriving in this industry and proceeds of our storys can filter back into our communities at large.
Matilda Poasa
Falelatai, Faleasi’u, Saleaula (Sāmoa)
Matilda Poasa is a New Zealand-born Sāmoan from the villages of Falelatai, Faleasi’u and Saleaula. She graduated in 2018 from Auckland University of Technology with a Bachelor of Māori Development in Māori Media. After graduating she moved to Los Angeles to complete a three-month internship with the Indigenous Program at the Sundance Institute. After her three-month internship, Matilda was hired as the Indigenous Program Assistant. In July of 2021, Matilda was one of six filmmakers selected to receive a Script to Screen scholarship to take part in UCLA’s 10-week online training course Writing Screenplay Coverage. She currently works as a producer for Māoriland Productions; Over the last two years, she has co-produced eight professional rangatahi short films for Ngā Pakiaka Incubator Programme. As a storyteller, Matilda is motivated by her people and community and desires to see more Māori & Pasifika stories being told unapologetically by the people to whom they belong.
Dr. Andrew Faleatua
Gataivai, Savai'i and Salua, Manono (Sāmoa)
Andrew Faleatua is a music composer/performer. Born and raised in Aotearoa and proudly hails from the villages of Gataivai, Savai'i and Salua, Manono in Samoa. Andrew's passion for music has many outlets - composition, performance, research, teaching, producing, and the list goes on. He is most passionate about making music for movies and is all about supporting narratives that he believes in and absolutely loves working in a team environment. Andrew's most recent sound-to-screen work is the soundscape for the 2024 Commonwealth Heads of Government Opening Ceremony in Samoa. He is also the 2024 Jazz Composer-in-Residence at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington. This residency focuses on finding points of contact between the jazz tradition and Samoan music and dance traditions. Andrew is in the process of recording an album that is planned to be released in early 2025.
Raymond Sagapolutele
Fatuvalu (Safune), Falelatai, Saoluafata, and Tanugamanono
Raymond Sagapolutele is an Aotearoa-born Samoan artist and academic. Raised in South Auckland, Sagapolutele has genealogical connections to the villages of Fatuvalu (Safune), Falelatai, Saoluafata, and Tanugamanono in Samoa. Sagapolutele has used photography as a means of expression for over twenty years and, in 2019, completed a master’s in visual arts. That research focused on photography as a medium that used the Samoan methodologies of talanoa and fāgogo to create a visual language based on his diasporic Samoan lived experience in Aotearoa. Sagapolutele, as a photographer, has worked across many industries, including commercial, editorial, fine art, events, and film in Aotearoa. His focus for the last decade has been on supporting photographers from the Moana community to find their way and to be able to express themselves as Moana people. Sagapolutele has been able to do this via programmes with Track Zero, Auckland Arts Festival, Auckland Photography Festival, Creative New Zealand and National Geographic, and is a PhD researcher and lecturer in Photography at AUT.