If, like me, you’ve been moved to laughter and tears by just the trailer and clips of “Tinā,” the wait to watch this New Zealand film is over. 

Thanks to its location across the international dateline, Guam moviegoers are the first U.S. audiences to enjoy this heartfelt story. The film follows Mareta Percival, a Samoan teacher who, after losing her daughter in the 2011 Christchurch earthquake, finds a new purpose leading a private school choir to compete in the country’s top choral competition, The Big Sing.  

The U.S. release starts this week in the Pacific, with Guam, American Samoa and Hawai'i theaters screening “Tinā" first. The film will then be shown in cinemas on the mainland, from California to New York. Since its world premiere at the Hawai’i Film Festival in October 2024, “Tinā" has enjoyed a hugely successful run in New Zealand, where it surpassed “Whale Rider” to become the fifth most successful movie in the country.      

“Tinā," which is Samoan for mother, stars New Zealand actress Anapela Polataivao as Mareta, whose profound grief after her daughter’s death appears raw and authentic in the trailer. 

Director Miki Magasiva, who also wrote and produced the film, masterfully balances that heaviness with well-timed moments of humor. One of my favorite trailer clips shows Beulah Koale (whom Hawaiian audiences will recognize as Junior Reigns from the “Hawaii Five-O” reboot) telling Mareta that she has to take a teaching job or face serious consequences: “They’re going to take your benefit, you’re going to lose your power, get cold, poo your pants and then I have to come clean it up. It’s yuck!” 

As islanders, “grief and comedy and humor go hand in hand in everything that we do,” Miki said in a recent interview. “You know you could be at a funeral, and you will be telling jokes at that funeral. You could be at church and you'll be at the back, giving each other — your cousins, your brothers, your sisters — faces, because something's happened. … So yeah, there'll be a lot of little gems in there for all Pacific Islanders, humor-wise.”

For Miki, the process of making his first feature film has been a testament to the perseverance required for a Pasifika filmmaker to bring their vision to the big screen.  

“We very rarely get the opportunity to make our pieces of work, and especially not on (this) scale,” said Miki, who spent three decades working on commercials, short films, and television before landing funding from the New Zealand Film Commission to make “Tinā.” 

He hopes the film's success will show the wider community that Pasifika stories are "worth investing in, that our stories are great, our stories travel, and people want to see our stories."

He pointed out that storytelling is an ancient art among Pasifika peoples, a tradition that continues to thrive today. “Everybody who's been to a good family dig knows it's just full of storytellers - usually hilarious uncles and aunties, but we are good storytellers” he said. As proof, he noted that eight of New Zealand’s top 10 box office hits are either Māori or Pasifika films. 

He believes the biggest challenge is not a lack of talent but a lack of opportunities. "There's enough talent that's not being utilized," he said, adding that many peers are struggling to get their work done.

“In order for us to tell these stories, we need to be nurturing, fostering and putting people in positions of power to be working on those stories. And that's not only creatives, that's right across the board,” from the crews to the heads of departments, “all the way down to the runner.”

He looks forward to building a body of work that proves the viability and talent of Pasifika creatives — a responsibility he doesn’t take lightly. 

“I actually don't mind that. I want that responsibility, and I look forward to that responsibility. … When you go through it, and you have a successful film and it's starring one of your friends, and she's a beautiful Polynesian woman, and you have Pasifika represented throughout your crew, and it goes on to be successful — man, what an accomplishment, not for me, but for all of us.”

With the film’s strong female lead, it’s only natural that women would gravitate to the film, but one of his goals was to get men to the theater by creating '“a space (where) they felt safe enough in order to express emotion.”

“We've been lucky enough to have a very strong male audience come through. You know, they say all Pacific sons are mother's boys, and so, you know, my goal is that all those mother’s boys get to go and take their mothers along to the movies.

“It's so rare these days to be able to have a movie that you can take not only your children to, but your mother and your grandparents, and the time that we have with our grandparents is fleeting. … Have a good time doing it, because I know if they're Pacific parents, they'll enjoy this movie.”

“Tinā” director Miki Magasiva and star Beulah Koale will be at several screenings on the mainland for live Q&A sessions. While the Long Beach and Los Angeles screenings are sold out, there are still seats available for San Francisco, Salt Lake City (two locations) and New York City. To purchase tickets to the special screenings with Q&A sessions, go to @tinathefilm on Instagram and click on the bio link.