Pan-Pacific media training project

The second phase of the Pan-Pacific Media Training Project has been postponed. See the project’s website for details.

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In 2013 the CBA, the Pacific Media Assistance Scheme and other training providers launched a project to bring the unique vision of Pacific storytellers to the global media stage, held in Tahiti. This year participants will descend upon Fiji to begin an intensive programme to build a new generation of filmmakers in the Pacific.

Here is a bit more about last year’s participants in their own words:

AkimetaTomasi Akimeta, Tonga

This is the first time for me to learn properly about documentary and its power. This course is so important to me – I can really learn here how to make a good film. I want to make a strong film after this course. I have the passion now. I will share my knowledge from here with my fellow islanders when I go back to Tonga.

 

 

BainimaramaInoke Bainimarama, Fiji

On this course I am also learning how to be a trainer, so learning methods of replicating my workshops here when I go back home. This I hope will lead to more Pacific Islanders having the confidence and skills to become filmmakers. I would love to make more film and documentaries – there are so many issues we have on our islands, and I want to highlight these.

 

CuneoSamuel Cuneo, Tahiti

This course is so important as it is bringing me towards clearer ways of making a documentary, based on structure and experience. I hope within the next three years I shall make something really big. I still need to learn more – I wish we had this kind of course and school in Tahiti.

 

DolaianoAdilah Dolaiano, Solomon Islands

This course is very important to me, since documentary is relatively new where I come from, and I see this as an opportunity. In the Solomon Islands, training of this sort is nonexistent and there are a lot of human stories I want to cover, but I lack the training in how to do a documentary properly. I believe after going through this course I will be able to do more stories.

 

GuttenbeilOfa Guttenbeil, Tonga

Film- and doco-making is a lifelong goal of mine. We have so many stories that make us up and unite us – both on the island and as a diaspora. I want to make films on pertinent issues in my country, such as domestic violence. I hope to share my skills with networks like the Pacific Network Against Violence Against Women, which will hopefully help girls and women who need to speak out.

 

HawkinsKoroi Hawkins, Solomon Islands

This opportunity to learn to tell a story effectively and powerfully is something I have searched for over the past five years. There are so many untold stories in the Solomon Islands and around the Pacific – stories of corruption, disasters, cultures, dying languages, love stories and conflict. It is my ambition to capture as many of these stories as I can.

 

RoebeckTaualogomai Roebeck, Samoa

For many years I have wanted to tell my stories, my island stories, my culture’s stories but I was unable to… I just don’t know how. I want to be able to help the Samoan community. After this, I would very much like to make a documentary, perhaps starting at five minutes and working my way up. I want to tell our stories to the world.

 

SiqilaJone Siqila, Fiji

It is important for my job that I gain more skills and improve on what I already know. I do this because I want to share the importance of what is happening in our country because I love my country. I work for Transparency International Fiji, and try to fight corruption in Fiji. I want to thank you for inviting me.

 

TannerMaria Tanner, Cook Islands

What better way to be able to accurately and truthfully document the voices of my people. It is so important for me, I hope it will stimulate more Pacific content, from conception to completion. In the Cook Islands we have such a busy time, very crazily busy. Now at last I have time for thinking about documentary and filmmaking.

 

TaukaraiRenagi Taukarai, Papua New Guinea

I have a deep interest is doc-filmmaking. My aim has always been to get enough skills to represent PNG to a good level. There are so many issues going on, and I feel there are not enough films showing positive sides of PNG today. Being [in Tahiti with other Pacific nationals], I also realise how important it is to come together as a Pacific Island group, to share stories and connect. Solidarity is important.

 

TouaHane Toua, Papua New Guinea

This course will really help with my work back home in PNG. My work is about anti-corruption advocacy. It’s a huge and complex issue. With illiteracy rates high and PNG being an oral society, the fact that I am learning to do something like this will really help to get our anti-corruption message out. Making it more visual, getting it out to communities in film form will hopefully impact on PNG people a lot more and get everyone to be more responsible.

WaikoBao Waiko, Papua New Guinea

My time here is important as after acquiring these new skills and expertise, I want to transfer them to my people in PNG. My learning I hope will be an asset to all those people who want to tell their compelling stories to a wider audience. I would like to run training programmes across communities, who can then use video in an innovative way to express their frustrations and realities.

 

WiaDickson Wia, Solomon Islands

As a filmmaker this is so important for me, it will improve me in the field and I will learn a lot. I am hoping to produce better films and want to document our traditional way of life – such as sailing and navigating – so I embrace the knowledge and skills I learn here.  I want to promote filming in my island.

 

WilliamsMyron Williams, Fiji

This is a unique opportunity for any media professional in the region to lift the standard of journalism and filmmaking. It will certainly be of great use to me as a television broadcast journalist to sharpen my skills and learn from world-class trainers. Working in an evolving media industry, this training will allow me to take back ideas that could broaden local content back in Fiji. I’m looking forward to an intense but productive two weeks.

 

The project is a partnership between the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association, the Pacific Media Assistance Scheme managed bythe Australian Broadcasting Corporation, the Islands in the World Oceania International Film Festival and Macquarie University, Australia.