'A BOY CALLED PIANO - The true story of Fa'amoana 'John' Luafutu'
“Truth is us at the heart of our storytelling, the truth will set you free.
The ground breaking documentary ‘A Boy called Piano’ has its Oceanic premiere in Tahiti at the Fifo Documentary festival to huge fanfare, and will now play out on Whakaata Maori TV for NZ audiences.
“Shining a light on these stories is so important - it’s also brought light to people we tell it to in prisons and to so many people we have shown it to and that’s why we are taking it around prisons in tahiti as we have in Aotearoa”
Sharing this story with other Pacific prisoners has been the most rewarding part of the journey for the father son duo - where career gangsters and long term prisoners have broken down and felt a level of connection never felt before to this story on screen.
“There was a Tahitian man the same age as me and his son who was also in the prison - it was amazing seeing them react to our story. And that’s what I want - that they can look in the mirror face themselves, move on and break the cycle for their own families. Even the prison guards came and told us how much it effected them.
Our numbers in jails are massive - in Aotearoa prisons are all brown now." - Faamoana Luafutu
“As Islanders not all of us become All blacks, not all of us become doctors or lawyers and some of us fall through the gaps - and that was us. We wanted to tell our story in the most loving way - because it’s a story of pain and trauma and in being brave enough to put it out in the world we could only tell it with alofa.
It was learning alofa that saved us and gave us a sense of our mana. We used all the elements that we had to tell it with love instead of dumping our pain on everyone.” - Matthias Luafutu.
'A Boy Called Piano', looks at the true story of Fa’amoana ‘John’ Luafutu and his son Matthias which is also the experience of thousands of Māori and Pasifika children placed in state care in the 1960s.
Auckland 1963, three eleven-year-old boys meet in a cell in the Family Court. Two Māori and one Samoan: Wheels, Piwi, and a boy called Piano. Made wards of state, they are taken to Ōwairaka Boys' Home. There begins a story into the heart of darkness, abuse and pain but also the resilience of the boys as they seek to survive through the power of friendship, culture, music, and the light of the human spirit.
Growing from the award-winning collaboration of The White Guitar’s creative team, Pacific New Zealand theatre company, The Conch is proud to walk beside Fa’amoana John Luafutu and the Luafutu aiga as they courageously bring this true story of Fa’amoana’s experience in state care - alongside thousands of Māori and Pasifika children - into the light.
The Conch’s Artistic Director and Co-Director of A Boy Called Piano, Nina Nawalowalo (ONZM) says Fa’amoana John Luafutu is both a survivor and a master storyteller. “This is the first time the experience of those in state care has come directly to the New Zealand stage told by a man who lived it.”
Starring Fa’amoana himself with his son Matthias Luafutu together with Aaron McGregor, Rob Ringiao-Lloyd and the renowned Ole Maiava (in his much-anticipated return to the stage) - alongside a stunning score performed live by Aotearoa music legend Mark Vanilau.
“The story that was written in me, was the story of thousands of children…may the truth set us free.” - Fa’amoana John Luafutu
Told in the survivor’s own voice and on his own terms, featuring 3 generations of the Luafutu aiga, with a stunning score by the renowned Mark Vanilau and led by visionary director Nina Nawalowalo, this film shines a spotlight on the experiences of thousands of Māori and Pacific children in state care.
The feature length documentary will screen on Whakaata Māori on Monday the 20th of Feb at 8.30pm and will be ON DEMAND AVAILABLE TO VIEWERS IN NZ, AUSTRALIA, AND THE PACIFIC ISLANDS UNTIL 31 JANUARY 2024.