Two fabulous films and three fabulous filmmakers for you this week on BEHIND THE LENS as writer/director MIKI MAGASIVA and actor ANAPELA POLATAIVAO talk about the emotional, joyous, heart-filled, uplifting, and inspirational, box-of-tissues-necessary film TINA, a beautiful film set and shot in New Zealand and infused with the Samoan and Maori culture, while director CHAD HARTIGAN moves out of his heavier, more dramatic comfort zone and into something lighter, fun, and heartfelt that tackles some important themes with THE THREESOME.
And we’ve got a brief recap and some congratulations for this weekend’s Creative Arts Emmy Award winners, including Supervising Stunt Coordinator Jon Koyama and this stunt team for The Boys who got two pieces of hardware, the amazing soundies at Formosa Group who picked up Emmys for their work on multiple shows (Yay, George Haddad!), and the team at Jeopardy! (including my friend, writer John Duarte), as well as other winners like Barack Obama, who nabbed his third Emmy for Outstanding Narration of the documentary Our Oceans, while Julie Andrews picked up gold for her work as Best Character Voiceover on Bridgerton. The smash hit The Studio nabbed nine trophies on Saturday while The Penguin waddled away with eight. And this is all before the main event on September 14th!
But let’s kick things off talking about movies with TINA and my exclusive interview with MIKI MAGASIVA and actor ANAPELA POLATAIVAO.
Written and directed by Miki Magasiva and starring Anapela Polataivao, Antonia Robinson, Zac O’Meagher, Beulah Koale, Dalip Sondhi, Nicole Whippy, and Jamie Irvine, among others, TINA is an inspiring drama, a light-hearted rhythmic tear-jerker, and the story of Samoan teacher Mareta Percival. Struggling after the death of her daughter in the Christchurch earthquakes, Mareta reluctantly takes on the role of substitute teacher at an elite, wealthy private school and is surprised to find children crying out for guidance, inspiration, and love. Using the symphony of her culture to empower her students, she forms a choir, bringing them together while unexpectedly rediscovering her passion for being a teacher and mother.
A beautiful film, it was a joy to speak with Miki and Anapela and discuss the making of TINA with everything from casting to composing to cinematography to cultural authenticity as we travel on this journey of not only Mareta in dealing with her grief over the loss of her daughter along with newfound challenges, but also the journeys of her students and giving voice to the hearts of each and every one. It’s a wonderful interview as Anapela, renowned in New Zealand and beyond for her work on stage as well as directing theatre, she is also an actor and singer, and an acting teacher, gives insight into the character and the importance of giving the Samoan and Maori culture a voice. At the same time, Miki digs into the technical aspects of this story and bringing it to life as his first narrative feature film.
TINA is in theatres everywhere in the United States, as well as Guam and American Samoa.
Then, we shift some gears with director CHAD HARTIGAN’s THE THREESOME. And I do mean threesome, literally and figuratively. I’m sure some of you know Chad’s prior work, THIS IS MARTIN BONNER and MORRIS FROM AMERICA, both heavier dramas. Wanting to change things up a bit, with THE THREESOME, Chad does just that, moving into lighter fare.
Directed by Chad and written by Ethan Ogilby, THE THREESOME stars, as our threesome, a flawlessly funny and heartfelt Zoey Deutch, Jonah Hauer-King, and Ruby Cruz, with some wonderful supporting performances by Jaboukie Yang-White and Josh Segarra, among others. As you can imagine, an impulsive night leads to a wild threesome between Olivia (Zoey Deutch), Connor (Jonah Hauer-King), and Jenny (Ruby Cruz), leaving both women facing unexpected consequences, thrusting all three into the raw and beautifully messy chaos of adulthood.
Chad is nothing if not a purposeful and thoughtful filmmaker and storyteller, as you’ll hear in this interview. Discussing casting and some surprise behind-the-scenes anecdotes on that, we highlight the film’s authentic emotional range and tonal shifts. The script, received during the pandemic, was developed over four years, with key castings including Zoe as Olivia, Jonah as Connor, and Ruby as Jenny. Interesting are the themes presented within the film, which never get preachy. Emphasizing the importance of character-driven storytelling and the film’s visual style, which aimed to capture the intimacy and complexity of the characters’ relationships thanks to some beautiful lighting and lensing by cinematographer Sing Howe Yam, Chad even digs into changing aspect ratios for this film and his reasons for this. Talking about some specific scenes within the film, Chad really delves into his thought processes for his decisions and his directorial vision. Working with editor Autumn Dea, the editing process proved challenging, with the final cut reducing from 2 hours and 40 minutes to a director’s cut of 2 hours and 22 minutes, ultimately to 1 hour and 40 minutes. And some of you filmmakers out there may be surprised to hear Chad talk about balancing character depth with audience appeal, a new experience for him. An interesting conversation to be sure!
THE THREESOME is currently in theatres everywhere.
