ABOUT ME
I am a film director, writer, multidisciplinary artist, and cultural practitioner with an award-winning body of work and a knack for family-friendly and emotive storytelling. My work has been shown at numerous prestigious venues and channels across London and internationally.
I am driven by themes of hope, identity, home, and family and I take on work that pursues positive change in our world. My messaging aims to inspire interconnectedness between the self, our communities, and our environment, and the past, present, and future.
I am a mentor for teenage girls and women, a UN Women UK delegate for 2023 and 2024, a community builder and leader, and I use my platforms to raise funds and awareness for intersectional issues— primarily calling for justice and regard for women, the environment, and indigenous peoples.
I believe that Magic is the ability to inspire and to be inspired and damn am I magical. By igniting imagination and encouraging individuality, I help empower people to witness the magic of the world, and to share their own. My approach is joyful, colorful, curious and rebellious. Seeing the world as both the tools and the canvas, I consider my life to be my greatest work of art.
I have garnered many awards including several for Best Film and Best Director, and have had my work screened in institutions like the BBC, Toronto International Film Festival, and the MoMA. I currently have an exhibition at Oxford University’s Pitt Rivers Museum.
Seven-year-old Jack copes with the loss of his big brother by building the machine they always dreamed of.
PREMIERE: Toronto International Film Festival Kids
INSTITUTIONS and EVENTS
MoMA Screened and archived for the PS1 Program
Irish Film Institute Short Tales
ICA Boston International Children's Film Festival
Juilliard Beyond the Machine
BSC New Filmmakers Night
Clermont-Ferrand Film Market
Discovery Festival Curriculum built around film for schools across Ireland
Official Selection Toronto International Film Festival Kids, Odense Film Festival, Tromso Film Festival, Clermont-Ferrand International Film Festival, Newport Beach Film Festival, Lisbon PLAY Film Festival, CMS International Film Festival, Shastaland Children's Film Festival, Dubai International Children's Film Festival, Reel 2 Real Film Festival, many more.
Benny and Jack’s Flying Machine
(TIFF, MoMA)
Literally translated as ‘Warrior Women’, AITO HINE is, at its core, a feminist and intersectional project that connects ancient culture and modern art to depict our enduring values. Influenced and inspired by the continued resistance by women of the past and present, AITO HINE is a short dance film celebrating women across the world for their strength, power, resilience, beauty, ferocity, and Mana.
Filmed predominantly in the forests of Tahiti, with a mighty army of women pulsing through the screen, AITO HINE uses a fierce ‘ōte’a to declare the power of the Hine, and the power of womanhood. The movement within the ‘ōte’a depicts the allied fight for greater social fairness, in which women call upon themselves, each other, and our Fenua, our sacred land and ecosystems to which we are intrinsically bound.
AITO HINE pays tribute to all women, and specifically to indigenous women and those who hold indigenous wisdoms. It celebrates Tahitian people, culture, art, and connection to the land, with the hope of bringing under-represented stories onto the world stage of performance, uplifting and unleashing a range of unheard voices.
Aito Hine
(Commissioned by the Tahitian Ministry of Culture)
KINDER (2018)
Semi-finalist: Robinson Short Film Competition 2019
Official Selection:
Newport Beach Film Festival 2019, UK Jewish Film Festival 2019, San Diego Jewish Film Festival 2019, Welcome Refugee Fest 2019
Screened in schools across UK to mark Holocaust Memorial Day
Little White Lies recommended
Kinder
Several Oscar/BAFTA qualifiers
All Good Things
Feature (Met Film)
When young parents lose their daughter they cope by finding each other and finding hope.
WINNER
BEST DIRECTOR Festigious International Film Festival 2018
BEST SHORT FILM International Women's Film Festival 2017
BEST NARRATIVE Top Shorts Film Festival 2018
BEST DRAMA Top Shorts Film Festival 2018
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY Festigious International Film Festival 2018
BEST INDIE FILM Los Angeles Film Awards
INSPIRING WOMAN IN FILM Los Angeles Film Awards
BEST SHORT SCREENPLAY WIND International
BEST INDIE SHORT ONIROS
BEST SOUND AND MUSIC Open World Toronto Film Festival
NOMINATIONS
BEST SHORT FILM Edinburgh Short Film Festival 2018
BEST SHORT Worldwide Women's Film Festival 2018
BEST DRAMA Oregon Short FIlm Festival 2018
BEST DRAMA Silicon Beach Film Festival 2018
BEST FILM Festigious International Film Festival 2018
BEST ACTOR Festigious International Film Festival 2018
BEST DIRECTOR, BEST ACTRESS, BEST SUPPORT ACTOR WIND International
Finding Hope
10x awards including Best film and Best Director
Three generations of women reconnect over the imminent loss of their patriarch.
AWARDS
BEST DIRECTOR Global Cinema Film Festival
AWARD OF EXCELLENCE (Women Filmmakers) The Accolade Global Film Competition
AWARD OF MERIT Best Shorts Competition
NOMINATIONS
BEST YOUNG FILMMAKER Action on Film International Film Festival
Official Selection Female Eye Film Festival, Miami Independent Film Festival, Kino Film International Short Film and Animation Film Festival, The Big Mini Media Festival, Northern Virginia Film Festival, Kingston International Film Festival, The Monthly Film Festival, International Film Festival Monrovia California
Nothing Gold
Several Awards including Best Director
In development
Scriptapalooza 2021 Quarter FInalist
Sciprtation Showcase Script Competition 2020 Quarter FInalist
A dysfunctional mixed-race family confronts a lifetime of differences as they drive their deceased father’s beat-up limousine across a divided US, following a life-changing journey he took as a teen.
A true American dramedy road film about a mixed-race modern American family dealing with acceptance, forgiveness, addiction, tolerance, and above all, the American Dream and the idea that united we stand, divided we fall.
Scriptapalooza 2020 Quarterfinalist
Screencraft 2020 Quarterfinalist
Top 10% BBC Open Call
Top 20% Coverfly
Written as a novel and HETV series
30min ensemble comedy series
My photography typically looks at women X environment and how these two things are intertwined, taking a hyperrealistic approach to represent their inherent power and energy.
My most recent series, AITO HINE, was recently exhibited in London and will be exhibited next in the summer.
I founded the award-winning London School of Hula and ‘Ori (LSHO) in 2011 upon moving to London and, over the past years, I have built a community of engaged dancers and established an authentic voice for Hula and ‘Ori Tahiti in the UK. LSHO is built upon health and wellness through the practice of Hawaiian and Tahitian dance and culture, the preservation of our beloved earth, and the empowerment and connection of womxn through culture, community, and creation.
By uniting past, present, and future through movement that is both ancient and innovative, I aim to help mainstage cultural dance and give voice to indigenous wisdom and art within a modern mainstream context.
3rd place ‘ōte’a representing the lineage of powerful women that brought each of us to where we are today and capturing the story, the adventure, that is womanhood.
London School of Hula and Ori's 3rd Place Mehura for the Ori Tahiti Nui competition in Tahiti 2019, about the winds of the islands.
London School of Hula and ‘Ori 1st Place Mehura at Heiva i Paris about the beauty of the Mā'ohi woman dressed in Tapa.
London School of Hula and ‘Ori’s 2018 ōte’a about Rata’s journey across a sea of monsters to find his missing parents.
SHOWS
The Royal Academy of Arts , The British Museum
The Royal Maritime Museum, BBC, Savoy, Many More…
AWARDS
Heiva i Paris (France) 2019 1st Place Mehura
Heiva i Paris (France) 2019 3rd Place Ōteʻa
’Ori Tahiti Nui (Tahiti) 2019 3rd Place Mehura
Hula Oni E Europe 2023 2nd Place Group Hula Auana
Hula Oni E Europe 2023 3rd Place Solo Hula Auana
