For My Father's Kingdom, An Award Winning Documentary Film

For My Father's Kingdom, In Conversation With The Director Vea Mafile'o

Vea Mafile'o (Tongan/Maori/Scottish/English) is a freelance television and film director and artist who has worked and exhibited extensively throughout the Pacific. Her debut feature, ‘For My Father’s Kingdom’, had its World Premiere at the prestigious Berlin Film Festival 2019, and won a Jury Award at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, recently securing 3rd place for the Melbourne International Documentary audience awards. It is the first Pacific Island feature documentary funded by the NZFC, directed & produced by Tongan females. Her short film ‘Toaipuapuaga - Strength in Suffering’ also had an international Premiere in Berlinale 2019 and won her the Moana Best Pasifika Non- Fiction Director award at the Wairua Film Festival this year.

She co-founded the production company Malosi pictures and produced and co-directed Digital Fananga, three legends filmed in Tonga, of which the award-winning Aho`eitu won the Breakthrough Award at the Sydney Pasifika Film Festival in 2016.  She is also the co-founder of The Nuku`alofa Film Festival in Tonga and founder of the Okalani Film Festival, the first Tongan film festival in Aotearoa. Last year, she was also selected for the Script to Screen Film Up programme and awarded the mentorship of Pietra BrettKelly (Yellow is forbidden). In 2017, she won a Southside shorts programme which secured yearlong hubs and a mentorship with Miriam Smith (The Ground We Won).  She is currently working on her next film and has received development funds from the New Zealand Film Commission for her feature documentary: Toa, The Stigmata of Samoa