BUTTERFLY/BATAPLAI

Raya loves makeup but her family does not. She’s torn between her secret dream of being a makeup artist and her family’s strict religious beliefs. In a nightmare, she receives a profound message from her Papua New Guinean ancestor who encourages her to look at her Indigenous culture for answers.

Directed by Veialu Aila-Unsworth

Director’s Bio: Veialu Aila-Unsworth is a female writer/director of mixed heritage from Papua New Guinea and Aotearoa New Zealand. Losing her Indigneous culture and homeland at a young age has given her an unrelenting curiosity about identity – she explores this in her work. She was awarded the 2022-2023 Armed With A Camera Fellowship by Visual Communications, and her screenplay, The Defiant One, was chosen for the 2021 CAPE List, a list of 10 screenplays centered on Asian and Pacific Islander stories. Veialu’s hand-drawn animated short film, “Blue Willow”, screened at 30 festivals including the Berlin Film Festival. Veialu is also an award-winning television creative producer and promo director.

Plays in

Beliefs, Choices: Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander Shorts

“[My] film’s structure adopts Polynesian perceptions of non-linear time, where past, present, and future intertwine. The past coexists with our present and future.” –Karin Williams This quote could frame this year’s Pacific Shorts Showcase. These award-winning shorts from filmmakers throughout the Pacific involve journeys across time, space, culture, and religion. From a docu-art piece about a young man who travels from luxury resorts to a time when his tīpuna first settled to animated queer mythic love story inspired by the Hawaiian concept of aikāne, these stories trace the interconnections between self and community and the power of belief.