Help Firstborn get to SIFF!

Our short film, Firstborn has been chosen as an official selection at the Swedish International Film Festival and we would love to have the opportunity to represent the film in Stockholm. 

Our names are Veisinia Moalapau'u (Writer and Director) and Brianna Williams (Director of Photography), and we are Pacific/Maori women who are emerging filmmakers. 

Bios:

Veisinia Moalapau'u is a 26 year old Tongan writer and director based in South Auckland, Aotearoa. She studied Directing and Drama Screenwriting at South Seas Film School in 2025. With a background in legal studies and Pacific Studies, she brings grit, strategy and thematic depth to her narrative work. She hopes to make meaningful contributions to Pacific film and ultimately give back to her communities. 

Brianna Williams is a 19-year-old mixed-race Māori and Pākehā filmmaker with a strong passion for storytelling and screen production. Having trained at South Seas Film School, she specialised in technical disciplines including camera, lighting, and audio, developing a strong appreciation for the collaborative craft behind filmmaking. Her culture and womanhood are central to her creative perspective, inspiring her passion for projects that centre cultural identity, queer stories, and female experiences. She hopes to work alongside diverse directors, using her technical skills to help bring meaningful and underrepresented stories to life in Aotearoa and beyond.

All funds received will go towards helping to pay for our return flights to and from Sweden, which cost approximately $3,500 per person. We understand that this is a lot of money, but we realise that this is our only barrier to getting to the festival so we kindly ask for your help to get us there. 

Firstborn is a love letter to the women in my family, and to have had the privilege of collaborating with other women on this project: Whitney Feehan (Producer), Brianna Williams (DOP) and Amy Vasity Felgate (Editor), was an even bigger honour for me. 

Firstborn won the Audience Award at the Neumann Inspires Film Festival in Pennsylvania, USA, and we were very touched to know that our film resonated with an audience outside of Aotearoa. With this considered, we would love to have the opportunity to represent the Pacific in Sweden with our film. 

Firstborn was made out of a collaboration of women who backed the film. I believe that if we were given the opportunity to, we could rub shoulders with other wonderful filmmakers, both locally and internationally. Our only hope at this stage is to make meaningful contributions for the women in film as well as our communities here in Aotearoa. 

We are emerging, and we are eager to learn and create.