TUPAIA'S ENDEAVOUR
Project status: Following the feature documentary’s acclaimed release as part of Whānau Mārama: New Zealand International Film Festival 2020, we’re in the process of submitting to festivals and working on a general release strategy.
Shot over 8 years in Tahiti, New Zealand and the UK, Tupaia’s Endeavour is an ambitious and powerful exploration of our history that boldly rejects Eurocentrism and celebrates Pacific artistry.
Reviewers have called it “essential viewing even for people who think they might have seen it all before,” “mind-blowing,” and “a great example of how oral history works on both an indigenous and tertiary level” (RNZ’s Dan Slevin; Gisborne Herald’s Mark Peters; flicks.co.nz’s Liam Maguren). Tupaia’s Endeavour is already being praised for Director and Producer Lala Rolls’ “respectful and transparent telling of the story,” the “banquet of mind food” and “tremendous new insights” it offers, and the film’s ability to show us “influential individuals can be on the great sweep of history” (Radio 13’s Clare Martin; flicks.co.nz’s Liam Maguren; RNZ’s Graeme Tuckett).
"We Māori have a saying, E kore au e ngaro, he kākano ahau, ruia mai i Rangiātea.
I will never be lost for I am a seed scattered from Ra’iatea." (voice-over, Kirk Torrance)
Artist, Michel Tuffery and actor Kirk Torrance (with anthropologist Paul Tapsell, scholar Dame Anne Salmond and kaitiaki Anne Iranui McGuire alongside) uncover Tupaia, the Tahitian who accompanied Lt. James Cook on his first Pacific voyage. In doing so, they reveal modern day New Zealand; a nation seeded from Ra'iatea, Tahiti and forged under a British flag.
"Without Tupaia, would Captain Cook have survived his first Pacific Voyage? "
A Pacific first contact story told from our Pacific point of view. Tupaia's Endeavour, from director/producer Lala Rolls guarantees to surprise. Breaking the fourth wall it allows us to be alongside Kirk, Michel and tangata whenua (people of the land) on their own voyage of discovery.
“This is not a simple tale,” writes Radio 13’s Clare Martin, “a myriad of story-telling devices are needed to draw together the threads. Along with the team she took on the journey of making the film, she has told this story with huge aroha. There is a seamlessness to the story-telling, moving in and out of yesterday and today, which makes this all the more relevant and current.”
Ultimately it returns Aotearoa New Zealand to her place in the Pacific.
This long running project by Island Productions Aotearoa has been supported by Major Arc from the beginning. The filmmakers commitment to re-framing our history has driven them to make a work that far exceeds the usual parameters of a documentary. They have gathered oral history and filmed hours of extra footage around our central story line to embrace this kaupapa (this principle).
We see this project as an important part of a national and international post-colonial conversation. It has been made with many outcomes in mind. James Croot of stuff.co.nz notes that Tupaia’s Endeavour is “Powerfully relevant at a time when Cook’s impact on our country is being re-examined,” and such relevance shall only grow.
This project previously existed as a 3 part mini-series for Māori Television; a special two and a half hour cut for the Te Ha Trust, Tairawhiti (www.teha2019.co.nz ); and a 52 minute French language television version for their Tahitian colleagues. The sharing of these versions has drawn scholars and oral historians toward the filmmakers. This very Pacific process has brought new information to light and fed into the feature film. The result is a deeply compelling cinematic documentary full of heart and magic.
“ … Rolls’ documentary is not just filling a neglected gap in history, but is making history itself.” (Mark Peters, the Gisborne Herald, Oct 2019)
Prior to the premiere at Whānau Mārama: New Zealand International Film Festival in 2020, the cinematic feature has had two special pre-view screenings to tie in with Tuia 250. A series of nationwide events to commemorate and re-frame the arrival of the Endeavour in the Pacific 250 years later.
Major Arc is collaborating with Island Productions Aotearoa and Kiriata Publicity to raise funds and create a marketing an release strategy for the feature film.
Please contact the director/producer Lala Rolls (lala.rolls@gmail.com) if you have any suggestions and/or if you would like to see this film at your local cinemas and other local venues such as marae, museums and schools.
TUPAIA, a 52 minute French language television cut, featured at Tahiti's International Film Festival, FIFO in 2016 winning an International Jury prize.
“How good it is to see a film like this! The scene of first contact between the Maori and Cook’s crew, re-enacted for the film, is simply poignant. And the haka of the warriors that follows creates goose bumps. The images are beautiful, sometimes even poetic. A must see!”
- Reviewed in 'La Depeche' de Tahiti 29/01/2016
TUPAIA'S ENDEAVOUR - TE HA CUT, a two and a half hour special for our Tai Rawhiti participants, premiered in Gisborne, NZ, Oct 2016.
“The film is extraordinary. I love the way that Māori and Tahitian voices give their own, unmediated accounts of what happened when the Endeavour arrived in Tahiti and New Zealand. They confront the violence and cross-purposes involved in those meetings with grace and humour, as well as anger and sorrow. So important for the country and internationally as well.”
- Response from renown Pacific Historian Dame Anne Salmond (also a key interviewee)
“Every New Zealander should see this documentary about the Polynesian navigator.”