On the 20th of January Tonga Radio and Television News featured two bulletins on the Healer and the Psychiatrist including interview footage with the reporter, Marc ‘Ake. Thank you Marc ‘Ake for asking the important questions and encouraging me to state clearly what I think the message of the documentary is for a Tongan audience.… Read More
Trier Ethnographic Film Festival selected the Healer and the Psychiatrist for special attention because it touched the student organisers. They filmed a dedicated interview with questions they had about the film after three viewings and also asked some general questions about ethnographic filmmaking. The general questions and video answer are here. The dedicated interview can… Read More
The Tongan premiere of the Healer and the Psychiatrist was broadcast live on Tongan TV on the 19th of December 2020. It was followed by a pre-recorded talanoa on the film involving Dr Leo Hoponoa, Sia Uhila Angilau and Virginie Dourlet. The talanoa was in Tongan, with a few section in English when Virginie… Read More
To launch The Healer and the Psychiatrist and celebrate the Best Feature Film award at the SVA Media and Film Festival, DER organised a talanoa with three esteemed panellists. Patricia Fifita As a Tongan native and professor at Oregon State, Patricia’s career spans medical and environmental anthropology and indigenous research methodologies and analytics, working toward… Read More
To coincide with the launch of the film at the Hawaii International Film Festival this talanoa was organised in collaboration between Brigham Young University and the Centre for Pacific Studies at the University of Hawaii. There were 35 participants. 1.16 First Question- Tēvita O. Ka’ili Associate Professor of International Cultural Studies and Cultural AnthropologyChair… Read More
We have some good news to share ( and add to the current good news in the US election). The Healer and the Psychiatrist is being screened in the Hawaii International Film Festival from today until the 29th of November as part of the Pacific Showcase. I can also really recommend Lo’imata-The Sweetest Tears and… Read More
We are proud to announce that the Healer and the Psychiatrist is in the Official Selection of the London International Documentary Film Festival, Garifuna International Indigenous Film Festival, Riga Pasaules Film Festival and the German International Ethnographic Film Festival. They represent diverse documentary film making styles including ethnographic, anthropological and indigenous film. For further information… Read More
The Tongan Medical Association: 56th Annual Medical Conference (1998) This short analysis had to be cut because of length from my recent article on Dr Mapa Puloka in Transcultural Psychiatry. To approach a theorization of the diversity of public reception to Dr Puloka’s strategies, I examine the only extensive challenge to Psychiatry made by the… Read More
For a long time it was only a dream, but on the 8th October Sonja, Louie and I start a journey to New Zealand and Tonga to finish a documentary based around two remarkable people, a healer and a psychiatrist. I have been working with and filming them since my doctoral research from 1998-2000 and… Read More
How wonderful it was when Tinitini’s brother gave me a DVD with video footage of a Tinitini concert in 1988. I had filed it away for years imagining making another short documentary incorporating some footage. Meanwhile no-one could see it. A crime for those interested in Tongan comedy and remembering back to 1988. We have… Read More
