By Ben Wheeler
If anyone deserves the moniker of Fijian Traveller right now, it is Tumeli ‘Meli’ Tuqota Jr.
In recent years, his work as Fiji’s premier film producer and director has seen him voyage from the Maoriland Film Festival in New Zealand to the Rochefort Film Festival in France. He has also had spells in Germany where he collaborated on the Oceanic Refractions Transmedia Project, and the United Kingdom where he contributed to the Living Democracy Exhibition in London.
We settle down in the shadow of the Fiji Museum’s mighty drua installation – a nod to his short film Soli Bula – to chat about his new movie Elections in Paradise and I ask him about this prolifically and profoundly busy time.
“It has come after some years in a creative coma,” he says with a chuckle, “Idling?” I enquire, to which he raises a hand in mock affront. “Collecting life experiences.”
Tuqota is all playfulness and modesty on the surface, but beneath this is a strong desire to connect with and communicate about his Fijian identity.
“My parents brought me up in English because, you know, they believed it was good for education. And I love my parents for that, they were correct, and I did fairly okay in English.”
“But the downside is that I didn’t really learn my language – my Mother Tongue – properly. And because of that I was always separated from my culture. I’m cut off from it… a real city boy!” he says smiling. “Only as an adult did I start to realise I was missing out on all this stuff. So, I’m basically playing catch up.”
“There are many ways to learn about your culture. For me, it’s by doing the research and telling Fijian stories,” he explains, his eyes shining at the thought.
You can see why this makes him happy. Even in his years ‘collecting life experiences’ he was lending his skills to other movie projects: producing the seminal early horror films of Clarence Dass, creating visual effects, designing heart-stopping title sequences and, as one does, cameoing as the occasional flesh-eating zombie.
But the personal flavour and distinct Fijian-ness of his output in the last few years – along with the sheer volume – marks a distinct shift that is underpinning and inspiring a new moment in local cinema production and exhibition.
“Now I want to make cool Fijian films for myself,” he explains, his eyes flashing again. “But I’m always open to collaboration.”
Amongst his most frequent collaborators is cinematographer Laisiasa Dave Lavaki, with whom he made Elections in Paradise, a project commissioned by London’s School of Oriental and African Studies as part of their global Living Democracy Exhibition.
The pair embarked upon this project – unlike any that they had attempted before in both style and substance – with gusto.
“Where I’m like, ‘Cool I’d like to learn about a situation’, Dave is like that times a hundred! He’ll dive deep and take every opportunity he can to expand his horizons,” Meli explains.
“The idea we had was to shoot short films following politicians in Fiji leading up to the elections.” he says laughing. “What could possibly go wrong?”
“Well for starters, during the campaign, the writ for the elections had not yet been issued. When Dave and I were asking around – FijiFirst, National Federation Party, People’s Alliance – nobody wanted to talk to us. So, we were getting nervous. We’d received this grant to shoot the film and we couldn’t do anything.”
It took a suggestion from the lead anthropologists on the project back in London to nudge the film in the direction it would finally take, with Tuqota and Lavaki taking centre stage.
“We were like, ‘We don’t know anything about politics!” Meli jokes.
“But as we turned the cameras on ourselves and started yapping away, we were like, hold on, we may not know the nitty-gritty, but we’ve been affected by plenty of politics. We decided that we do know a bit about our own politics.
“When we were boys, our school was next to Parliament during the 2000 coup,” he recalls. “We could hear the gunshots from our classroom. So of course, our generation was affected by this, and Elections in Paradise became a space to explore the still ‘tabu’ history of how governments change and how governments rule in Fiji.”
To attend the exhibition and screening of their film, Tuqota and Lavaki arrived in London and found themselves bidding “Yadra!” to Piccadilly Circus as it woke up to a cold and indifferent day.
“We didn’t have any internet. I didn’t have any gloves,” he says shaking his head. “My fingers were dying, and Dave and I were there with our big suitcases, just walking around at 6.30am.”
It wasn’t long, however, before these affable Fijians found their hotel and then hospitality.
“After we checked in, we said ‘Let’s go find a pub!’”
It was still only 9.30am, and the first place they found was closed, but the owner was moving around inside. They knocked on the door and used that Oceanian charm to gain entry and before long they were laughing and discussing rugby with the Irish landlord – a fan of the Flying Fijians – over Guinness and whiskey.
Tuqota and Lavaki went on to become a hit with the teams on the Living Democracy Exhibition, who had come to the UK from India, Brazil, Ethiopia, and the United States.
When entering restricted areas, people who had been working at the university for months were being asked for identification, while Meli and Dave were on first name terms with security and were waved through.
It’s easy to see why. The pair radiate positivity and beam excitement when they talk about the movies they make.
And now readers, friends, film fans, you too can bask in the glow of both their company and their new film. The world premiere of Elections in Paradise is upon us! Meli and Dave will present the first locally made documentary on the General Elections of 2022 on the big screens at Damodar cinemas in Suva, Lautoka and Labasa throughout June.
It is yet another leap forward for Fijian film and Fijian filmmakers.
Don’t even think about missing it.
Tickets for Elections in Paradise in Suva, Lautoka and Labasa are available at www.ticketmax.com.fj
