Miki Magasiva with Tinā lead actor, Anapela Polata'ivao. Photo: Supplied
Miki Magasiva's first feature film, Tinā, is about a lot of things: love, loss, grief, being Samoan, overcoming prejudice, family, friendship, teamwork.
So why did he decide to set the story against the backdrop of The Big Sing, New Zealand's secondary school choir competition?
Talking to RNZ Concert host Bryan Crump, Magasiva says it all goes back to seeing this video of a mainly Palagi choir singing a very Samoan waiata.
This is a video of the combined Westlake Girls' and Boys' High School choirs, Choralation (their music director at the time was Rowan Johnstone), performing " Maunga e ole Atuolo" at The Big Sing in 2013.
The two Westlake schools are in the heart of the wealthy Auckland suburb of Takapuna.
There wasn't a single Samoan in the choir that year, and you could perhaps expect a proud Samoan Kiwi like Magasiva to take exception to Palagi stealing a precious tāonga.
But such was the care and respect given to the music,the lyrics and the dance, Samoans across Aotearoa and around the world were won over. Magasiva was one of them.
So when he wanted a vehicle to thread the story of a grief-stricken Samoan mother trying to put her life back together after her daughter dies in the Christchurch Earthquake, who becomes a leader not just in the Samoan but also the Palagi world, having her direct a choir from a wealthy school was the perfect fit.
Tinā's heroine, Mareta Percival, is played by Anapela Polata'ivao, who is something of a cultural leader in the real world, being an experienced director as well as actor.
Tinā translates to "mother" in Palagi, and Magasiva says much of Mareta's character is based on his own mother, and other strong Samoan women.
Just quietly, Magasiva hopes the film helps to foster the values of community effort and teamwork, so important in Samoan culture, to a wider audience - especially in this "individualistic age".
It also has a pretty good soundtrack.
