KVF CoOp & Occasional Productions Proudly Present a riveting story of a Coup,
and a series of tragedies including the senseless slaying of the head of the Red Cross in Fiji.
AN ISLAND CALLING
HD 75 min documentary feature. © 2008
Annie Goldson's "An Island Calling" won Best Documentary, & Wayne Vinten the
cinematographer, received the Award for camerawork in a documentary/factual
programme at the 2008 Qantas Film and Television Awards.
Inspired by the book "Deep Beyond the Reef" by Owen Scott available on this site click here for details
The definitive account of a series of tragedies including the senseless slaying of the head of the Red Cross in Fiji - his elder brother John Scott.
*Every book purchased online personally signed by Owen*.
AN ISLAND CALLING - HD 75 min documentary feature. © 2008 Buy on line now!
Only $34.95 (incl post & packaging) for NZ, Australia & Pacific click here to buy on line now!
Only $39.95 (incl post & packaging) for rest of world click here to buy on line now!
*USA customers please contact Icarus Films email address mail@icarusfilms.com
The 2001 murder of John Scott and his partner Greg Scrivener in Suva is still clouded in media rumour and political mystery.
They were “out” as a couple – an unusual choice of lifestyle in Fiji.
Although the country has a visible transgender culture, Fiji has become increasingly fundamentalist and homophobic since the 1987 coup, a shift reinforced by the introduction of new religious strains from the United States.
John & Greg in Fiji
One of the murdered men, John Scott, was famous for other reasons too:
a fourth-generation, Fiji-born European, he came from a powerful colonial family.
Holkham the Scott Homestead Sir Maurice Scott meeting the Queen
And as the Director-General of the Fiji Red Cross,
John gained international attention during the coup of 2000
when he took the courageous step of assisting hostages trapped
in Parliament for 56 days.
Coup leader George Speight on far left
A year after the coup, John and Greg were dead.
Owen Scott at his brother John's grave
A 22-year-old Fijian, Apete Kaisau, was ultimately charged with the killings.
The media claimed political conspiracy, drug use, pornography and rent boys. But the reason why Apete undertook such an act remained unclear. Was the murder a political assassination, a bad love affair, or an act of revenge, guilt or insanity?
Does the “culture of coups” that Fiji has experienced since 1987 encourage individuals to turn to violent solutions?
Mr.Kaisau at the Coli-i-Suva Church
Guided by Owen Scott, John's brother, we meet
friends, lawyers, and gay activists, both seasoned commentators and acquaintances of the murdered pair.
And we meet the Kaisau family; some of whom believe the murders was a justifiable response to sexual ‘transgressions’, and whose lives have also been changed by the murders and who find solace in ther religious faith.
Island calling is an intricate murder mystery, which seeks to explain the killer’s motive and context rather than his identity.
But the personal in the film is always political too; its stories are firmly embedded within Fiji’s historical and contemporary landscape.
Mrs.Kaisau
John & Owen Scott in happier days at Katafaga in the Lau Group, Fiji Islands
AN ISLAND CALLING - HD 75 min documentary feature. © 2008 Buy on line now!
Only $34.95 (incl post & packaging) for NZ, Australia & Pacific click here to buy on line now!
Only $39.95 (incl post & packaging) for rest of world click here to buy on line now!
*USA customers please contact Icarus Films email address mail@icarusfilms.com
Inspired by the book "Deep Beyond the Reef" by Owen Scott available on this site click here for details
The definitive account of a series of tragedies including the senseless slaying of the head of the Red Cross in Fiji - his elder brother John Scott.
*Every book purchased online personally signed by Owen*.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
The story behind An Island Calling has a complex moral nature, which
has made it a fascinating and challenging film to produce. Fiji is a group
of islands known for its extraordinary beauty, a romantic tourist destination.
But it is a highly complex culture, fissured by its colonial history,
cultural differences, poverty and religious beliefs.
I attempt to address this complexity through exploring the context
surrounding the violent incident at the film’s heart -- the double murder
of a gay couple by a much younger indigenous lover of theirs. I needed
to be highly sensitive to the family members of “both sides” as I negotiated
the process of filmmaking. In addition, soon after I began shooting
the film, Fiji’s fourth coup erupted, complicating matters further.
An Island Calling is the only recent film to address Fiji’s fascinating history
and culture, using the intimate story of two families to do so. But
the themes and conflicts it engages with - indigenous rights and colonial
histories, minority rights, class differences, homosexuality, homophobia
and fundamentalism - are relevant the world over.
ANNIE GOLDSON 2008
KEY PERSONNEL
Producer/Director: Annie Goldson
(for details on awards and festivals, www.op.co.nz)
Annie Goldson and Wayne Vinten
Annie Goldson has been producing and directing award-winning documentaries
for 20 years. Her best-known titles include Punitive Damage,
released in cinemas in 1999 (dist: Transit Films, major broadcast sales
HBO-Cinemax, ABC, ARD, WTN and TVNZ) and Georgie Girl, released
in 2002 (dist: Women Make Movies, major sales to Channel 4 (UK), POV
(PBS), CBC, SBS, Canal-plus and TVNZ). Both titles have also garnered major
awards in film festivals. In 2004, Annie completed Sheilas: 28 Years
On , a history of second-wave feminism in New Zealand, which won Best
Documentary at the Commonwealth Film Festival in Manchester, and the
following year, she produced Pacific Solution: From Afghanistan to
Aotearoa the story of the “Tampa boys”. Both latter titles are in
distribution with Smiley Film Distribution, NZ, and were broadcast on
New Zealand television. EBS (Korea), FIFO, NORWAY (NRK), recently purchased
Pacific Solution and several further sales are pending.
Annie’s most recent title is music/World War 1 documentary, Elgar’s
Enigma: Biography of a Concerto (2006) for TVNZ. It has sold to ABC
(Australia), Sweden, China, Korea, Germany and the UK and is being
distributed by nbdtv.com (UK). DVD sales are represented through EMI
Classics and Kultur. She has recently released a companion film of
Elgar’s Cello Concerto in its entirety.
Goldson is also a writer and has published articles in books and journals
such as The Listener (NZ), Landfall, Screen, Semiotext(e), Social Text,
and others. She recently completed a monograph, Landscape, Memory,
Dad and Me (Wellington: Victoria University Publications) and is completing
a second book After the Fact on human rights and documentary
for Temple University Press.
Annie has been director of the biannual New Zealand International
Documentary Conference held every two years since 1996 and is a trustee
of DOCNZ, the first major Australasian documentary film festival. She
is also currently the president of the Screen Director’s Guild of New Zealand.
Annie received her PhD in Film and Television Studies from the
University of Auckland where she teaches in the Department of Film,
Television and Media Studies. In 2007, she received the Order of Merit
(ONZM) from the New Zealand Government for her services to film
Co-producer/Researcher: Theresa Koroivulaono
Theresa works at the University of the South Pacific based in Suva, Fiji
as an outreach designer and coordinator, organizing teaching materials
for the outlying Pacific Islands that are part of USP. Her role is
to ensure students who want to stay in the Pacific, or cannot afford
to enroll in universities overseas, receive tertiary education. Given the
range of languages spoken in the Pacific, Theresa frequently produces
videotapes to assist in education. She has also produced several of her
own documentaries, based around oral histories, one of which is part
of her doctoral thesis. She has an MA from the University of Auckland
and graduates from there with her PhD in 2008.
Writer/Presenter: Owen Scott
Owen was born in Fiji and educated largely in New Zealand. He trained
initially as a lawyer, working in offices in Auckland and London. During
this period, he began to work as an actor, completing a diploma at
the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, performing on stage,
radio, television and film.
After his brother was killed, Owen commenced
the writing of a book, which was to become Deep Beyond the
Reef, published by Penguin Books (NZ) in 2005. In 2006, he performed
an edited version of the book on National Radio’s Nine to Noon programme.
Since this successful adaptation, he has edited several other
manuscripts for Radio New Zealand.
DOP: Wayne Vinten
*Wayne Vinten received the Award for camerawork in a documentary/factual
programme at the 2008 Qantas Film and Television Awards.
Wayne is one of New Zealand’s most experienced camera-people, with
wide experience in New Zealand, the Pacific, and internationally. He
recently won Best Cinematographer for Spacific Film’s The Promise,
worked as second camera on Elgar’s Engima and was DOP on Ninox’s
Wrestling with the Angel. He has also worked on many commercials and
film and television dramas including Outrageous Fortune, Typhoon’s
People, and Send a Gorilla.
Editors
: Eric de Beus/Bill Toepfer
Composer : David Long/Calvin Rore
Director’s Assistant/Archivist: Briar March
Travelling up river from Daku village, photo credit: Briar March
Major production funding was received from New Zealand on Air and TV3
in association with SBS-TV and the University of Auckland. The film has been supported by a
grant from the Sundance Institute Documentary Fund. A shorter version of
the film, titled Tabu Soro: Murder in the Pacific, aired on TV on September 11, 2008.
AN ISLAND CALLING - HD 75 min documentary feature. © 2008
Only $34.95 (incl post & packaging) for NZ, Australia & Pacific click here to buy on line now!
Only $39.95 (incl post & packaging) for rest of world click here to buy on line now!
*USA customers please contact Icarus Films email address mail@icarusfilms.com
Inspired by the book "Deep Beyond the Reef" by Owen Scott available on this site click here for details
The definitive account of a series of tragedies including the senseless slaying of the head of the Red Cross in Fiji - his elder brother John Scott.
*Every book purchased online personally signed by Owen*.
Owen & John Scott - Photo taken by KVF member Stan Ritova
click here for information about the KVFCoOp
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