TUPAIA'S ENDEAVOUR

Directed, Edited, and Produced by Lala Rolls of Major Arc [MAJOR ARC MEMBER / CREATIVE ROLE]

A Pacific first contact story told from our Pacific point of view, Tupaia’s Endeavour is an ambitious and powerful exploration of our history that boldly rejects Eurocentrism and celebrates Pacific artistry. [LOGLINE] 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. [ADDITIONAL DETAIL]

This long running feature-length documentary by Island Productions Aotearoa has been supported by Major Arc from the beginning. [ADDITIONAL MAJOR ARC NOTE]

For how to support Tupaia’s Endeavour and additional information click here. [LINK TO LARGER PAGE/ARTICLE/BLOG]

accolades and press

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.”

-Reviewed by Mark Peters, Gisborne Herald 12/10/2016