Lyncia Muller

Follows Lisa, a successful designer returning for a school reunion, exploring themes of identity, family acceptance, romance with a rugby player, and personal growth within a Tongan-New Zealand community.

One evening Alisi (17) climbs a huge tree and won't come down. As evening turns to night, her sanctuary becomes her prison - and her secret is out. Alisi is pregnant to her gay best friend, Mikaele (17), and it's all over Facebook. Mikaele finds Alisi, who blames him for being a blabbermouth, bringing shame to her Christian Pasifika family. Alisi tries to run away, but a search party of younger cousins turns up and texts her oldest brother Terence. Soon her whole familiy is camping out under the tree. As the stars turn and the night gets colder, Alisi must decide whether she will bow to cultural family traditions or find a new path - with or without her family.

When a young fakaleiti falls in love at St Valentine’s Highschool, she must navigate her way through a world of intolerance and bigotry to find happiness - in an unexpected place.

‘Myths and Maidens’ is a love letter to fafine Moana, looking at some of our trauma, challenges and inequities across Pasifika, and how in the face of this, the celebration of ourselves is an act of colonial resistance.