Interview with Toa Fraser - Film director
Courtesy of TAKE Magazine Issue 42 - the magazine of the New Zealand Screen Directors Guild

We Are Family

Winner of the World Cinema Audience Award at this year's Sundance and screened at Berlin, No. 2 has captured audiences both here and abroad. First-time director Toa Fraser, who adapted the script from his own play, talks with Dan Salmon about the film's success

Dan Salmon: So Toa, tell me about Sundance.Interview with Toa Fraser - Film director
Courtesy of TAKE Magazine Issue 42 - the magazine of the New Zealand Screen Directors Guild

We Are Family

Winner of the World Cinema Audience Award at this year's Sundance and screened at Berlin, No. 2 has captured audiences both here and abroad. First-time director Toa Fraser, who adapted the script from his own play, talks with Dan Salmon about the film's success

Dan Salmon: So Toa, tell me about Sundance.Toa Fraser: It was everything it was cracked up to be. You know, rolling into famous people on the street; really generous, spirited people; hospitable crowds. It felt like a festival that filmgoers really go to, not just buyers and agents.

Was there anything you weren't expecting?

I went in with an open mind. I mean my only experience with anything like this in the past has been the Edinburgh Fringe Festival for the last two years and theatre. Compared with those experiences, Sundance is on another level. Partly because we were so busy and partly we were at a festival that celebrates the director as much as the film.

What do you get out of seeing your film in all these different environments?

On one level it's really gratifying to sit in an audience of complete strangers on the other side of the world and for them to have the same reaction as, say, friends and family here. At the end of the screening, people came up and said that it made them want to go straight home to their family, or have a big party with their family. People say that here, people say that there - it's the ultimate compliment. It was also an honour to sit in an audience with Ruby Dee [who plays Nanna Maria] and see how an American audience really celebrates a woman of her stature. To see the rapturous reception she received from a predominantly white crowd at Sundance, well it made me feel optimistic about the future.

What is it about the film that captivates people? It's interesting that Sione's Wedding is out at the same time, so no doubt there will be much made about some sort of Pacific Island coming of age, but it could be just a coincidence.

Well, it's definitely a coincidence that Sione's Wedding and No. 2 are hitting the big screen at the same time. And in a sense, that whole coming of age thing doesn't acknowledge the fact that people like Oscar Kightley, Dave Fane, Victor Roger and Dianne Fuimana and myself have been working successfully in theatre for a decade. The NZ theatre-going public has for some time embraced our voice. But there is no denying that movies are definitely high stakes. It costs a lot of money to get a film made and they have the kind of broad appeal that theatre can never have. It's just fantastic that there are other Island movies coming out at the same time. Having said that, it's a responsibility that I felt, and I am sure Oscar and the boys also felt when making Sione. There is a responsibility to make sure it doesn't suck.

Do you think that your film appeals because of the exoticism of Pacific Island culture or because of the universality of the family story?

I think on the one hand the exotic element is definitely a hook. For example, just at the level of the movie poster, it looks cool - with colourful, vibrant, people and a beautiful hibiscus flower. But I think once people see it that exotic, anthropological thing falls away. And definitely that was an aim for me and always has been in my other work. I am always aware of trying to subvert stereotypes and reveal the heart and soul of characters. I think audiences at Sundance definitely responded to this, with characters like Nanna Maria, who after all is played by an African-American woman and not by a Pacific Islander.

Until recently you were lauded as an up-and-coming writer, and suddenly you are in Sundance as a director. Did this feel strange to you?

Yeah, I remember writing "filmmaker" on an immigration form a couple of years ago and frankly that felt like a relief. I love theatre writing and I want to do more, but filmmaking was the thing that I always aspired to. Arriving as a director felt like a very satisfying journey. Obviously, for a young filmmaker to be at Sundance and to have the respect of people like Jeff Gilmore [Head Programmer] who loved the movie, the performances, and the aesthetic of the film, is a massive compliment, not only to all the crew, but also to the cast and producing team.

You mention performances just now. Is film performance very different from theatre performance? Did you bone up on it before getting on set?

I did a course in LA with Joan Schekel who is an incredible directing coach. She teaches a very physical form of directing, which was invaluable to me. I was about to work with a bunch of young brown people who weren't used to acting, and I know that personally if I'm not experiencing stuff physically as well as intellectually, I'm not really experiencing.

You mean in the way you receive their performance?

I mean in terms of getting a good performance it is important to encourage, to perceive a performance physically and on every level - mentally, spiritually, emotionally and physically. So it is just a matter of getting to know that person, finding out how to elicit a decent performance from them. Also I have to say I think we - that is, Di Rowan - cast the film very well.

Congratulations on winning the World Cinema Audience Award

I didn't even think that we would get into Sundance, so to win an award is a major achievement and a massive bonus. Personally, winning an Audience Award means so much to me, given that I have spent so much time in audiences watching my own stuff in theatre. In terms of the future of the film, it certainly gives us that extra opportunity.

Are there particular pressures as both writer and director?

I've never been just a director, so I wouldn't know if there was any added pressure. I mean I would have found it very difficult to direct my first movie if I hadn't written the script and I hadn't had a strong personal connection to the material. My cousins, my aunties and uncle live just round the corner from where we shot the film, and to have that kind of local knowledge was an asset for the movie, but it was also for me as a director. I guess the story couldn't have really come from anybody else and that gave me a sense of confidence when I was directing.

In terms of the difference between writing and directing the movie, it was vastly different. The fact that you are alone at home writing and then all of a sudden you are out there in the middle of hundreds of people, who are asking you questions which you have to answer immediately. It was tough, really tough.

So did you feel alone on set?

Yeah, I did. That's the paradox. There are hundreds of people around you, but you can't form any particular clique with one group. It was really important for me as a director to ensure that there were no cliques and that we were all cast and crew working together to a common goal

You cast an interesting mix of locals and internationals. One of the criticisms is that your cast isn't entirely Fijian. Is that something that you want to talk about?

I know that question has been raised, but for me it's irrelevant. I can only speak in terms of the family in the story, which is very similar to my family. My daughter is half-Maori, my cousins are Samoan, Tongan, American, Fijian. Our Pacific connection is all very much a Pan-Pacific connection. We come from a mixed race culture that has been mixed up - a fruit salad kind of thing - for many generations going back to the 1800s.

It's not that it's not an important debate, but I don't think it's possible to just stroll into this kind of situation and say, "I'm going to cast the best person for the role", because he or she might not be the right person. It is important to get a diversity of employees in the workplace, so to speak. But all my film references, I mean the performances that I remember the most vividly, and the ones I was thinking about when making this film, included Burt Lancaster playing a Sicilian nobleman in The Leopard and Marlon Brando, who was the ultimate Sicilian patriarch in The Godfather. So there's a little theatricality happening as well, you know. This woman, Ruby Dee, this larger-than-life African-American woman coming to New Zealand to play this larger-than-life Fijian woman.

And Ruby Dee is fabulous in No. 2. Was it a juggle directing someone who has been directed many hundreds of times before next to someone who is a newcomer?

It was definitely a challenge to find the balance between somebody like Ruby Dee who has the potential to be extremely polished with somebody who is a little more naturalistic by virtue of the fact that they have never been in anything before. So to get those two kinds of actors to meet, to find common ground, was a challenge. But having said that it was helped by the fact that Nanna Maria was a larger-than-life character, very theatrical, very operatic. So it's basically a licence to be different from the other characters.

In terms of your role as director was there a moment where you had to say to yourself "I'm a director" or "I'm now directing"? That you realised that you carried the can for all the decisions?

I had been looking forward to it for so long, that when the moment finally arrived I was just stoked. I would go to work in Glen Eden for pre-production and just think, "this job is cool". There were days when things went kind of slow. It was sometimes hard slog in Mt Roskill in the backyard with all these people looking at you. There were times when I thought, you know, this is my responsibility and this is on my shoulders. But I had a really strong team of producers who pointed out when we were going off-track. Also, I had nothing to lose. It was my first gig as a film director. It was an ambition of mine, but it was not something I had achieved before in the past so it was enough for me to be there on the day being a director.

Was it hard to get the movie off the ground with you as first-time director?

I guess so, although I always wanted to direct it so I wasn't involved in too many conversations about that. But I'm sure it was a big risk for the Film Commission. I am well aware of the fact that it is a privilege for me to direct the movie. But I wrote the play in order to write the film, I guess, and I wrote the film in order to direct it myself. I worked very hard to retain some kind of golden ticket. And so far as producers and collaborators go there is Tim White who has produced over twenty films, and he is passionate about working with young, first-time directors. He took a considerable risk personally.

So what next?
I'm developing some new scripts with the assistance of the New Zealand Film Commission, which is a great opportunity for me and I am really looking forward to writing again. I can't wait to have the opportunity to write and direct another Pacific story. But there are other opportunities that have arisen from No. 2's international success. The opportunities are there, but it is finding the time to capitalise on that.

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