I was in a museum in Gothenburg, Sweden. But for a long meaningful moment I was brought back to Tonga, through the powerful idea of comedy serving the same purpose worldwide and in different historical times. Read More
Archival recordings of Tonga are vital resources for further research and teaching. Experience a seminar at Atenisi in 1998 at a very particular time in its history and get a real taste of Professor Futa Helu’s wide intellectual interests.
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A film about comedy in Tonga. Read More
So after many months of prevaricating, religiously checking wordpress.com for new themes and imagining how the new website would be I have finally jumped in and got a new theme and started the process of building a new website on the value of video. Inspired by what I learnt through videoing in Tonga and strongly… Read More
Explore the value of video for anthropology through videos made on Tongan comedy, volunteering in a Swedish intentional community and much more. Read More
It’s been a long time since I last posted on this blog. I’ve been working hard to process and start to edit some of the material for the latest documentary on Tonga, which focuses on the healer, Emeline Lolohea, the psychiatrist, Dr Mapa Puloka, and my relationship with both. I’ve been really excited to see… Read More
A great TED talk that relates really strongly to the power of comedy in Tonga.
A big thank you to Malia Talakia for organising a twin screening of ‘Fun(d)raising’ and ‘My Lost Kainga’ at UNITEC on the 6th September as part of the inaugural Tongan Language Week. Read press announcement here and here. Learn more about Tongan Language Week here.
A new Tongan feature film received it’s premiere this week in Auckland. See coverage of the film here on Tagata Pasifika.
Public Lecture and Film Showing at USP, 15 Sept 2009 The Public Lecture on Social Filmmaking in Tonga was a great success. The lecture theatre at USP was full. Fun(d)raising was shown half way through the lecture and afterwards many people asked questions and offered their own testimonies of filmmaking. The lecture and film were… Read More
