A Boy Called Piano - The Story of Fa'amoana John Luafutu
May the truth set us free.
Interview with Director Nina Nawalowalo and Producer Katherine Wyeth
Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
NINA: Our relationship with the Luafutu Aiga began over 20 years ago when Matthias gave us his father’s book A Boy Called Broke. This began a remarkable journey through making the stage play The White Guitar with Fa’amoana, and his sons Matthias and Malo (aka Scribe) to the play A Boy called Piano. That’s the foundation of the love and trust between us.
When COVID hit, our national tour got cancelled so we sidestepped to make a film. The idea brought together an amazing group of funders who believed in the story from CNZ and Tourmakers, to The Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care, Te Pūtahitanga o Te Waipounamu, & NZ On Air.
It is vital for Aotearoa’s stories to be told. As Pacific storytellers, those are stories that are hidden by the dominant narrative.
Both Fa’amoana and I wanted to bring this story to light. Yes, it’s dark and the things that happened to him and his young friends in care are tough to tell but this is also a story of resilience and the unbreakable bond these kids had. Darkness is at the heart of the story but I believe you always have to look for the light, and that’s what this documentary is all about.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
KATHERINE: The film has garnered incredible reviews, here is a small selection:
“This heart-breaking story details Luafutu’s time as a state ward. At its core, it is a story about fathers and sons, intergenerational trauma and redemption. Using his voice for the voiceless, Luafutu and Nawalowalo vitally bring this story to light. A must-watch for all New Zealanders.”
— Lana Lopesi, NZIFF
“It’s a redemptive film. It’s a film about Family, Resilience, Music, Sons & Fathers. It’s one of those tough but absolutely inspiring stories that you will not forget.”
— Graeme Tuckett, RNZ
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
NINA: When these stories are revealed, that narrative has to adjust and with it, the system it underpins. Through this story, we seek to make the truth visible and injustice accountable.
We seek healing by bringing a hidden history into the light. By facing the truth, the future may be rewritten. As a survivor of abuse in state care, Fa’amoana Luafutu is a courageous voice for the voiceless thousands of Māori and Pasifika children who suffered and continue to suffer in the system.
This film is a testament to his and his family’s courage. As Fa’amoana says ‘May the truth set us free’.
How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?
KATHERINE: The Conch has a longstanding collaboration with Fa’amoana and the Luafutu Aiga, beginning in 2016 - with the creation of the acclaimed stage work The White Guitar, which featured Fa’amoana and his sons: Matthias and Malo (aka rapper Scribe). During the development of this work, Fa’amoana revealed stories about his time as a child in state care. This was later developed into the stage work A Boy Called Piano - which had its first development season in Wellington in 2019. I came on board as a producer for The Conch at this time, and it was a privilege to stand beside Fa’amoana and his family as his story was presented publicly for the first time.
The Conch was set to tour the play when Covid struck - so Nina and The Conch team pivoted to digital and audio form: making a radio drama of the play that was broadcast on Radio New Zealand in 2020, and partnering with NZ On Air, The Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care, Te Pūtahitanga o Te Waipounamu, PANNZ and CNZ to make a documentary film about the story. I have a background in film as well as theatre, so it was exciting for me to be able to support and grow this pathway into film-making for The Conch’s debut film!
What type of feedback have you received so far?
KATHERINE: We've been so moved by the feedback: since the start of our festival circuit we have been honoured to receive 3 awards:
Best Feature Documentary: Montreal Independent Film Festival 2022.
Human Rights Award: Quetzalcoatl International Indigenous Film Festival 2023
Rimu People’s Choice Award for Best Feature Documentary: Māoriland Film Festival 2023
But it's the feedback from the survivors themselves that means the most to us. Wherever we have gone all over the World: the reaction from indigenous people has been the same. These atrocities happened everywhere: the theft of indigenous children by the state and the removal from their families and abuse in state-run institutions have been systemic everywhere.
In Toronto when we presented the film at ImagineNATIVE, a First Nations man stood up to tell us that he had experienced a release of his own inter-generational trauma through our film. That was an amazing moment: to realise how deeply this story resonates not just in NZ but all over the World.
Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
NINA: One of the things that gets taken away when you’re in a cell, is nature. You can’t feel the wind, you can’t feel the ocean, you can’t feel the natural environment. For Indigenous people and Pacific people, that is our soul. And everything about who we are.
To hear the survivors stand up to mihi Fa'amoana and Matthias for their bravery - and to see how deeply represented they feel by the film: it's very validating.
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?
KATHERINE: We would love to partner with a distributor to support us to present the film on a major streaming platform like Netflix or Neon: we want the film's healing power to reach as many people as possible!
What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?
KATHERINE: The key audience that Nina was thinking of when making all the creative choices for how to tell the story: were prisoners. Those who have never become free from the system and are still living lives marked by crime, broken families and pain.
Our hope is to use this film as a healing resource for prisoners and to that end we are looking at doing a screenings tour throughout prisons in Aotearoa.
We have already screened at 3 prisons - with incredible feedback and responses from prisoners and staff: who commented that the level of dialogue and communication that the film inspired was unprecedented in the history of the prison's treatment programmes.
What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?
What can we do as a society to foster greater compassion and healing and understanding - to protect our nation's children?
Would you like to add anything else?
Nawalowalo was conscious of the history of racism in Aotearoa, and how Pacific men have been represented in film and media. She was aware of how people speak about gangs without real knowledge or insight into the driving forces that put Pacific men into them. In the case of Luafutu and his friends who were gang connected, it was their deep friendships that helped them survive. “All of these things are great strengths that bonded children together because they went through these very dark times inside a state system, and those unbreakable bonds are amazing things, actually, but they can be represented in different ways,” she says.
It was important to Nawalowalo that the filmmaking process be mana-enhancing rather than diminishing.
Think of racist representations of Pacific men, such as in Police 10/7. The point of difference with this representation is that it involves a survivor taking control of his narrative. “Fa‘amoana speaking from his own truth, directly to people, is very unique. And it's unfiltered,” she says.
What other projects are the key creatives developing or working on now?
NINA: I am working with my team to develop a new work for children - looking to my own Fijian roots and legends to create a magical piece exploring themes of memory, immigration and climate change.
Interview: June 2023
We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series, music video, women's films, LGBTQIA+, POC, First Nations, scifi, supernatural, horror, world cinema. If you have just made a film - we'd love to hear from you. Or if you know a filmmaker - can you recommend us? More info: Carmela
A Boy Called Piano - The Story of Fa'amoana John Luafutu
May the truth set us free.
Length: 56:57
Director: Nina Nawalowalo
Producer: Katherine Wyeth
Writer: Fa'amoana John Luafutu, Tom McCrory
About the writer, director and producer:
In a career spanning more than 30 years, internationally acclaimed director NINA NAWALOWALO has created a platform for the telling of Pacific stories across the globe. Artistic Director and Co-founder of Wellington-based production company The Conch, she has presented at over 40 international festivals and is renowned for her powerful visual and magical work exploring Pacific themes. She is passionately committed to bringing our untold stories into the light and harnessing the power of drama as a vehicle to affect social change. In 2013, she established the Solomon Islands National Women's Theatre Company ‘Stages of Change’ as a means to address gender-based violence against women and girls. The 15 strong company of women performed at the Melanesian Arts Festival in Papua New Guinea and at the EU Parliament in Brussels. In 2017, Nina received the Senior Pacific Artist Award in acknowledgement of her significant contribution to Pacific Arts in Aotearoa. In 2018, she was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to Theatre and Pacific culture. In 2021 she was awarded the New Zealand Arts Laureate Award by The Arts Foundation.
At 70 years old FA'AMOANA JOHN LUAFUTU stands as a beacon of the power of creativity as an agent of healing and social change. From the raw materials of his life story, from his arrival from Samoa in 1958, of being made a ward of the state in 1963 at 11, the terrible abuse of state care, the gangs, drug addiction, violence and imprisonment, he has formed some of the most memorable and socially important works of our times. Fa'amoana wrote his first book "A Boy called Broke' while in prison. Since his release, he has transcended his past through the power of using his voice as a storyteller: creating healing pathways for himself and his family. Fa'amoana co-wrote 2 plays with the Conch alongside Tom McCrory: The White Guitar and A Boy called Piano. He was recognised in the 2022 CNZ Pacific Arts Awards and has recently been made a Member of the NZ Order of Merit in the 2023 King's Birthday Honours for services to Culture and Pacific Arts.
TOM MCCRORY is the co-founder and Executive Producer of the renowned Pacific NZ-based theatre and film company: The Conch. Tom is highly regarded as an acting teacher and has taught internationally including The Young Vic London, Bristol Old Vic, Rose Bruford Drama School, California State University Fullerton, East.15, The University of Hong Kong, The Shanghai Theatre Academy and was a Senior Movement Teacher at Mountview Drama School, London. For 15 years he worked as Head of the Movement Programme at Toi Whakaari, The New Zealand Drama School. He is the writer of many plays including; French Kiss (Independent Newspaper Top 10 Plays, Edinburgh Festival), Life on Mars, which premiered at The Riverside Studios, London, Faith (Adam Play Award Best NZ Play Winner, RNZ adaptation), MelonCauliflower ( Radio NZ commission) The Last 27 Days of Childhood (Award Playmarket Plays for the Young) and Significance, (award 2015 Playmarket Adam Play Awards) and co-writer of Conch Production The White Guitar and A Boy Called Piano alongside Fa’amoana Luafutu.
KATHERINE WYETH is a producer, writer, and actor in film and theatre with lifelong experience. Born in a box, Katherine grew up at the renowned King's Head Theatre in London, founded by her stepdad the late, great Dan Crawford. She spent many years as a jobbing actor, garnering outstanding reviews in theatre, TV, radio & film. Katherine was directed by Stephen Daldry in the premiere production of An Inspector Calls with Kenneth Cranham at the Royal National Theatre, London, and she created the role of Rose in the BBC’s The Demon Headmaster. In 2009, Katherine emigrated to New Zealand and co-founded the production company Sea Star Creations with her Mum, Stephanie Lightsmith in 2012. In 2016, Katherine co-wrote, directed and co-produced the short film Goblin Market, which screened at the Cinematic Arts Fest in Los Angeles and won Best Cinematography Award at The Auckland International Film Festival in 2016. In 2019, Katherine began producing for ground-breaking Wellington-based Pacific company, The Conch: producing theatre, radio and film versions of the seminal story A Boy Called Piano. Katherine also produced and narrated the feature documentary film Maverick, which tells the story of the renowned Kings Head Theatre in London, which was completed in 2021 and will be distributed worldwide by MVD Entertainment Group.
Key cast: Fa'amoana John Luafutu, Matthias Luafutu, Tāne Luafutu, Aaron McGregor, Tupe Lualua
Looking for: distributors
Facebook: The Conch
Instagram: @conchtheatre
Website: www.theconch.co.nz
Where can I watch it next and in the coming month?
Pasifika Film Festival (Sydney, Australia) June 2023,
Melbourne Documentary Film Festival 2023 (Melbourne, Australia) July 2023,
International First Peoples' Festival Présence Autochtone (FIPA) 2023 (Montreal, Canada) Augsut 2023