Out of the Vaipe
“I was born out of a terrible separation at the end of 1952 from my mother and family, country and culture.”
- Albert Wendt Out of the Vaipe, the Deadwater
IN DEVELOPMENT
Early development: Feature Drama
Adapted from acclaimed Pacific writer Albert Wendt’s memoir of his early life in Samoa and NZ : Out of the Vaipe, The Deadwater.
A gifted, but reticent young Samoan must succeed within the colonising New Zealand education system and defy the expectations of his family to realise his destiny as the first great Pasifika writer.
TEAM
Writer / Director
Abi King Jones is a New Zealand born Palagi (European) with Samoan ancestry. Her aiga (family) names are Phillips/Filipo, Paul, Ripley, Leoso, Avalogo and Fepulea’i. Like the Wendt aiga, her family is an English-German-Samoan mix. The family villages are Leone in Tutuila and Solosolo in Upolu, but they have also lived in Apia - the capital of western Samoa - since the 1880’s.
Abi gained a Certificate in Film and Television Production from the Unitec Institute of Technology in 1996 and a BA in Film, Television and Media Studies from the University of Auckland in 2000. She has worked in film, theatre and television production – focussing on freelance editing in recent years.
Between 2002 and 2016 Abi made independent documentaries with long-time collaborators Errol Wright (CutCutCut Films) and Alister Barry (Vanguard Films). She co-directed and edited the feature documentaries Te Whanau o Aotearoa - Caretakers of the Land (2003), The Last Resort (2006), Operation 8 (2011), Hot Air (2014) and The 5th Eye (2016).
All of these films premiered in the New Zealand International Film Festival and were broadcast on Maori Television.
Operation 8 and The 5th Eye went on to have nationwide cinema releases.
Operation 8 also screened in the Melbourne and Hawaii film festivals among others. It was nominated for Best Arts / Festival Feature Documentary at the 2011 Aotearoa Film & Television Awards and won Best Documentary Feature at the 2012 Wairoa Maori Film Festival.
Hot Air was nominated for Best Documentary and Best Documentary Editor at the 2014 New Zealand Film Awards. The 5th Eye received the 2015 Bruce Jesson Senior Journalism Award. Abi also edited the feature documentaries A Civilised Society (2007), The Hollow Men (2008) and No Ordinary Sheila (2017) – all three were included in the NZIFF.
In 2018 she edited Gaylene Preston’s short docudrama Hot Words and Bold Retorts, co-edited the NZFC- funded short film I Am Paradise and cut the NZ On Air-funded documentary web-series Minimum. That same year Abi participated in the DEGNZ Women Filmmakers Incubator programme.
In 2019 she edited the four-part mini- series Undertow for the Te Rakau theatre company and Maori Television.
Abi was commissioned to write a play titled A Room That Echoes for the 2002 Young and Hungry season at Bats Theatre in Wellington. She was selected as the 2019 Toi Poneke Write Room Screenwriter in Residence.
Producer
Desray Armstrong is an independent producer with a diverse slate of credits. From 2007- 2011, Desray and producer/director Chelsea Winstanley ran production company StanStrong with a focus on creating compelling, conscious and informative content with a Māori worldview. Since then, Desray has built up a mass of physical production experience, predominantly in feature film. Credits include Reunion, Mulan, Mortal Engines, A Wrinkle in Time, Hunt for the Wilderpeople, The Rehearsal, The Light Between Oceans, Z for Zachariah, Slow West and What We Do In The Shadows.
She has produced award-winning short films including Meathead by Sam Holst (Cannes Film Festival 2011, Berlin Film Festival 2012 Crystal Bear Winner), Ellen is Leaving (SXSW Film Festival 2013 Best Narrative Short Winner) & Bats (NZIFF & Melbourne 2018) by Michelle Savill, Snowmen by Jonathan Brough (Show Me Shorts , Interfilm Berlin 2014) and Jessica Sanderson’s Ways To See (NZIFF, RIFF, imagineNATIVE 2019). She has produced visually rich music videos for Aaradhna, Shapeshifter, and Tama Waipara directed by Jessica Sanderson and two seasons of Mike Minogue’s comedy web series The Watercooler released on NZME’s platform Watch Me.
In 2018 she released two passion projects - Jemaine Clement, Taika Waititi and Paul Yates’ hit mockumentary television series Wellington Paranormal and Dustin Feneley’s debut feature film Stray. Her first feature film as lead producer, Stray had it’s world premiere at Moscow International Film Festival in April 2018 where it was awarded Best Actor. It subsequently went on to have a successful domestic theatrical run, screening for 10 weeks in over 40 cinemas around the country.
Recipient of the 2016 WIFT Woman to Watch, 2018 SPADA Independent Producer of the Year and the 2019 Te Kai Ngakahi Melissa Wikaire Award, Desray has served on the boards of industry guilds Ngā Aho Whakaari (Māori in Screen Production) and Women in Film & Television and is active in creating pathways for more women and Māori to step into key creative roles within the feature film and television landscape. Company director of Sandy Lane Productions, Desray is currently in post production with James Ashcroft’s feature film Coming Home in the Dark, in pre production with Matthew Saville’s feature film Juniper and in pre-pre production with Michelle Savill’s feature Millie Lies Low.
Producer
Vicky Pope is an award-winning producer with over 15 years experience working across film, television, digital media and advertising. Her short and feature film productions have sold around the world and screened in prestigious international festivals.
Vicky’s feature producing credits include Juliette Veber’s critically acclaimed theatrical documentary Trouble is My Business as well as NZ comedy Two Little Boys starring Bret McKenzie (Flight of the Conchords) that premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in 2012. In 2013 Vicky produced and distributed independent documentary Gardening with Soul. The film was a local smash hit with sold-out screenings around the country; going on to become one of the highest grossing NZ documentary releases at the time, and winning Best Documentary at the 2013 NZ Film Awards.
She has produced award-winning shorts including Choice Night (Clermont, MIFF, BFI London) and The Graffiti of Mr Tupaia (Locarno, Sao Paulo, Bilbao, Hof, Montreal), that went onto to scoop Best Short Film, Best Screenplay and Best Performance at the NZ Film Awards. She also executive produced Meathead (Cannes, Berlin), Cold Snap (Venice, Hong Kong) and 43,000 Feet (Tribeca), amongst other short films.
Most recently she produced Sam Kelly’s debut feature Savage starring Jake Ryan and John Tui, that premiered in Busan and London BFI 2019 to strong critical response. Savage will be released by Madman in NZ in 2020 and is being sold internationally by Film Constellation.
Vicky is currently developing a slate of feature films including The Demolition of the Century, Big Girls Don’t Cry and Out of the Vaipe, The Deadwater.
Alongside her film work, Vicky has produced a number of digital media projects funded by NZ On Air including the award-winning transmedia project for NZ children Wild Eyes, and the interactive documentary Conversations with Teen Mums, produced in partnership with NZ integrated media company NZME and the NZ Herald.
She also established and runs Wellington’s annual screenwriter’s residency programme “Write Room” in partnership with Rob Sarkies, Toi Poneke Art Centre and Wellington City Council.