Director Anna Marbrook honours the last voyage of the great waka maker, sailor and mentor Ema Siope, whose journeys between Aotearoa and Sāmoa in search of healing, and her family's reckoning with systemic abuse, are powerfully documented.
LOIMATA, THE SWEETEST TEARS is a chronicle of journeys - journeys of migration, spirituality, voyaging, healing and coming home. Confronting intergenerational trauma head on, the Siope family returns to their homeland of Sāmoa.

A film by Anna MARBROOK

New Zealand / Samoa - 2020, Documentary - 94 minutes - In English and Samoan with English subtitles - DCP / VOD with optional English CC

with Lilo Ema Siope

CONTAINS / THEMES / Restrictions
* (M) Sexual abuse themes
This film contains themes and conversations about sexual and familial abuse

Duration
94 minutes

CRITICS
A stirring and visually gripping documentary… honouring the life and times of a great woman whose wake will be felt for years to come.
Michael Andrew, Asia Pacific Report

Producers
Anna Marbrook, Jim Marbrook

Director
Anna Marbrook

Screenplay
Anna Marbrook, Jim Marbrook

Cinematographer
Jess Charlton

Editor
Malcolm Clarke

Music
Matthew Suttor

Executive Producers
Dr Tamasailau Suaalii-Sauni, Dame Gaylene Preston

Faufautua (Advisors):
Dr Ai'iloilo Elise Puni, Dr Leulua'iali'i Laumua Tunufa'i

Tohunga Ahurewa (Priestly Experts:
Hoturoa Barclay-Kerr

Tohunga tārai waka (Expert canoe builder) (Expert en construction de canoës) :
James Eruera

NOTE BY THE PROGAMMER
The redemptive tale of waka builder and captain Lilo Ema Siope's final years, the stunning LOIMATA, The Sweetest Tears is a chronicle of journeys - journeys of migration, spirituality, voyaging, healing and coming home. Confronting intergenerational trauma head on, the Siope family returns to their homeland of Sāmoa. For Ema's father, this is his first time back to his birthplace since leaving in 1959. The result is a poignant yet tender story of a family's unconditional love for each other, and a commitment to becoming whole again.

Ema was born and raised in South Auckland as a child of Samoan migrants. She captained both the Haunui Waka Hourua and Aotearoa One, both of which belong to the great waka master Hoturoa Barclay-Kerr. Ema's key role in the revival of voyaging saw her become an important mentor for future generations of voyagers.

Directed by Ema's friend Anna Marbrook, the project developed alongside the pair's friendship while spending time together on the waka. LOIMATA, The Sweetest Tears builds on Marbrook's previous documentary works which highlight both the resurgence of voyaging and the silencing of its history by colonisation, while extending a raw and stirring tribute to an extraordinary truth seeker. - Lana Lopesi (NZIFF 2020)

2021 | 18th FIFO (Festival International du Film Documentaire Océanian) digital edition |Tahiti, Polynésie Française
* won: Grand prize FIFO - France Télévisions 2021

2020 | NZIFF 2020 - Whānau Mārama New Zealand International Film Festival /// At Home - Online /// 24 Jul-9 Aug 2020 /// Auckland (New Zealand)
* Premiere
* World Premiere in cinema: at ASB Waterfront Theatre, in Auckland, on Saturday 25 July at 7.00PM
www.asbwaterfronttheatre.co.nz/new-zealand-international-film-festival/2020/loimata-the-sweetest-tears/