Sweetshop & Green shines at FIFO Tahiti

Sweetshop & Green has announced its recent triumph at the Festival International du Film Océanien (FIFO) where two of its projects took home major awards.

Sharlene George, managing director of Sweetshop & Green, has just returned from the festival in Tahiti.

Says George of the experience in Tahiti, where Sweetshop & Green picked up the Best Short Fiction Film Prize for supernatural thriller, Taumanu: “It was so wonderful to be part of a film festival steeped in deeply cultural and indigenous stories. FIFO provides an environment to experience films and filmmakers who are uniquely from across the Pacific.

Says Ricky-Lee Russel-Waipuka, development and production executive of Sweetshop & Green, says of the experience producing Taumanu: “The development process for Taumanu was not only a story of reclamation for the characters, but a journey of reclamation for director Taratoa Stappard. It was a privilege to guide Taratoa culturally to receive the appropriate support to deliver the project as authentically as possible. We were dealing with some pretty tapu (sacred) content, therefore taking all of the right steps leading up to the shoot to ensure spiritual and physical safety was paramount for us as producers.”

And in another festival highlight Sweetshop & Green’s latest project Beneath the Moana: Exploring Deep Sea Mining in the Pacific won the Oceania Impact Pitch Prize at the FIFO Festival, allowing this worthy film to move into its next phase.

(Picture: Receiving the Oceania Impact Pitch Prize at FIFO 2024 for Beneath The Moana: Exploring Deep Sea Mining in the Pacific. L-R: Hollie Fifer (Impact Tutor, FIFO), Josh Teariki Baker (Director), Sharlene George (MD of SS&G and Producer), Summer Wharekawa (TVNZ, Commissioner Maori & Pasifika), Marie Kops (Coordinator, FIFO))

Beneath the Moana is a documentary shedding light on the world’s newest and controversial extractive deep-sea mining industry, how it’s changing a small paradise in the South Pacific, and what it could mean for the world.

Says George on the importance of making this film: “With the danger of Pacific people only having one narrative given to them from the mining companies, it is our duty as filmmakers to explore another perspective from an indigenous point of view.”

To reach out to Sharlene George and the Sweetshop & Green team for any future projects, contact: sharlene@sweetshopgreen.com

Taumanu
Written & Directed by: Taratoa Stappard
Produced by: Sharlene George, Gal Greenspan, Sweetshop & Green
Line Producer: Nicola Smith
Associate Producer: Ricky-Lee Russell-Waipuka
DOP: Ginny Loane
Casting Director: Christina Asher
Production Designer: Riria Lee
Costume Design: Barbara Darragh, Lucy Danner
Hair & Make-Up: Amanda Ashton
Editor: Richard Shaw
Composers: Karl Steven & Rob Thorne
Sound Design: Nigel Foster
Post-production: Toybox NZ

Beneath the Moana: Exploring Deep Sea Mining in the Pacific
Written & Directed by: Josh Teariki Baker
Produced by: Sharlene George, Maria Tanner, Sweetshop & Green
Executive Producer: Martha Jefferies
Development Producer: Rouzie Hassanova
Writer and Researcher: Rachel Reeves
Editor: Ben Powdrell
Cinematographer: Chirs Mauger