Sione's Wedding Premiere

Last night some friends and I went to the movie premiere of the film dubbed the first Pacific Island feature length film, Sione's Wedding. Hyped as an event not to miss, there were expectations and excitement leading up to it. Here are some of my thoughts about impressions about the event.

The movie
I don't pretend to be a movie reviewer but as a Samoan, I have decided that my opinion on this here film about a band of Samoan brothers might count for something, that and hey it's my blog and this place, besides my own mind is about the only place where what I say, goes! So I'll take it where I got it. Anyways, where was I? Oh right, the movie.

This movie I thought on a scale of 1 to 10 would rate about a 6.5. I thought the story was nothing particularly special compared to the other romantic comedy Hollywood stuff. There was no complicated plot lines or tackling of difficult issues a la Brokeback Mountain, at the crux of the story were the eternal themes of Friendship and Love. However, considering this is new territory for Samoan acting/ film producing and what not, I mean that as a compliment - how often can it be said that a film based in a Samoan setting can even be mentioned in the same breath as Hollywood. Not often unless we're discussing The Rock or talking smack about someone that lies so well they should make a career out of it. Ova le Hollywood!

The only thing that that struck me (in a matter of speaking, nobody dropped an amp on me or anything) as being slightly controversial was Mary Jane McKibbin Schewenke's protrayal of her character "Princess". Princess is a beautiful, intelligent and permiscuous girl from Samoa that arrives in New Zealand to study psychology and apparently, also the human anatomy of more than one of the characters of the movie. She knowingly becomes the object of lust more than one man in the movie. In any other setting, this would be seen as just another character in just another movie, but because we're talking about the land of chiefs with maiden daughters where clothing above the knee is outlawd in the village, the potential for outcry is "upped" tenfold. The "ideal" teine samoa as dictated by Samoan culture/ society is more of the virginal, polite "nice girl" variety. She obeys her parents, attends church religiously, cooks, cleans and certainly does not engage in activity that might be deemed even slightly promiscuous (Dear God No!)! So to be sitting in the single theatre in this land whose conservative culture is so entrentched in it's people and way of life, to sit there and watch one of it's own Princesses knock back tequila shots like it ran through her veins and grope a man's dick at a Samoan wedding, I was waiting for the shit stir. Any such behaviour in Samoa would result not only in a cover-up rivalled only by Water Gate or the Da Vinci Code but quite likely Sione's Wedding would be followed shortly by Sione's Swift Divorce.

Mary Jane sitting a few seats away from me looking squeamish in her seat and she openly admitted how nervous she was about people's reactions to my friend she was sitting next to. I had seen the film before and didn't give it too much thought, but at that moment when I could sense her discomfort, it struck me (again, figuratively speaking) Since then (a grand total of about 20 hours) I've been gauging people's responses. Most of the people I talked to here at work in general conversation said they enjoyed the film and all of the raised that they didn't like Princess character because that's not the way a Samoan girl carries herself, it's not the Samoan way. Some people expressed their discontent but said that they recognise that it is just a film. Other's were more defiant saying "E ta'u valea ai teine Samoa" It gives Samoan girls a bad name.

Now, before I mouth off and about the ignorance and shortsightedness of this view, I think it's fair to entertain what these people are saying. This view that "Princess" taints the reputation and image of the teine Samoa is held mainly by people that live and breathe the Samoan culture, not to say that people with other views are any less Samoan but consider their background and their motives. These people only raise their voices to protect the ideal image of the teine Samoa, as a vision of purity and wholesome goodness. They express discontent/ anger at anything that slanders the good name of their sister. Where are we without ideals? Ideals and the preservation of those ideals is a tribute to people's strength of character and consequently culture. My point is - they have good motives and it is purely an expression of what they believe to be right and true.

Now that last paragraph was my noble attempt at being er.. noble. Personally I think the intelligent and promiscuous Princess is a very real character in today's world and adds to making the movie a much more realistic portrayal of the current time and place. It is a matter of fact that liberal, intelligent Pacific woman are not hard to come by these days, Samoa is no exception. Personally, I think those old sods that think that Samoan girls can't be downright dirty whores need only look at their daughters for inspiration (my father excluded..haha). Indeed it's like one of my Aunt's said "There's a bit of a Princess in all of us" so while there a lot of talk about it, nobody struck Mary Jane with an amp.

Now that I've completely outdone the whole "Princess" issue, I will say that my favourite characters in the film were the minor roles of Polo - I couldn't tell if he was gay or not and wannabe brown white boy Derek. The way Derek quipped "Don't be a hater, be a player congratulater!" in his tribute to Eminem outfit tells me that that boy is definetely gay.

The fashion
With a theme like "Island formal" and many of Samoa's upper middle class "fia kanak" crowd present at last nights event the fashion for the evening turned out to be as expected - like someone and thrown Mena, some h'ourderves and a heavy dash of "sofi" attitude into a blender and pressed puree. Granted, there were only about 30 women in the signature Mena style last night whereas I expected at least 50, it was still a whoring display of the current hottest designer. Good for her. I saw some people adorned in Cecilia Keil attire and some wearing Kara's (not that I can tell the difference but I overheard people having a conversation about who was wearing what) The rest of the (sensible) lot came appropriately dressed in Fiafia/ Puleta attire. A slave to the fashion (and because my own puleta for the evening didn't fit so I had to change at the last minute) I wore a Mena, but it was borrowed so that doesn't count (I'm not sure why, but it just doesn't - remember whose blog this is? Yeh, that's right)

Mena whores Tia and Hen.

The evening
I think the event, in concept was a great idea - bringing over Samoan movie stars from overseas and hosting the local premiere for the first Pacific Island feature film (except for Whale Rider, Once Were Warriors and all those Pacific Island feature films?) bound to stir a lot of local interest. The actual night last night was interesting, a lot of people inside Magik Cinemas made any promised "mingling with stars" damn near impossible. Also there were some pretty crap h'ourderves and not enough wait staff serving people (though this coming from a self confessed alcohol um..lover, might not have much merit as a "real" complaint). The lack of food and drink was a big boo on the part of the organisers (my employers incidentally) Everyone that knows their ABCs (and that's not everyone here) knows that aside from sudden death the most important thing at a special occasion in Samoa is the FOOD! You fail in that department, it's almost impossible to redeem yourself. An unwritten rule for survival in Samoa. "Express your love with food" So cardinal rule number one was broken - we were lacking a bit in food.

Some personal highlights of the evening.
- Spilling some red wine into my fresh paper cut. Yes, that was memorable.
- Getting drunk enough to hassle poor Shimpal Lelisi and Robbie Magasiva to have our photos taken with them. [We didn't go to see no stars... but really! haha] Yes, it's official, now that I can finally say that I have rubbed up against a celebrity (albeit a B List world famous in New Zealand type celebrity) I can cross that off my list of things to do before I die list aka cheap thrills. Heh.
- Cutting the circulation of air to my brain, toes and all major organs, because I couldn't breathe in my outfit (actually, it's Tias outfit, but let's not tell the whole world now)

There was some interesting people watching and gossing to be done though (you know you do it too) and then of course there was the film. There was media here from NZ (TV3 and Tagata Pasefika - I'm SO sure that cameraman kept doing pan shots of us, not that we um, notcied or anything. Ahem! The media and presence of the stars created quite a stir of excitement. The general enthusiasm created a buzz in the air, or maybe it was just the wine. There was also an after party at Paddle's restaurant and bar where there was some music and drinking and star gazing and what not. I guess at the end of the night I can say it was a good night, and that judgement is purely based on the fact that at the end of the night, I went home happy (and not just coz I'd had free booze and had some greasy keke puaa afterwards). People had fun, so it's fair to say it was good night.