Two student filmmakers from Unitec in Auckland are about to hit the big-time with their short film, Waiting.
After recently winning Best Short Film at the New Zealand International Film Festival, the Kiwi tale has now been selected to screen at the Toronto International Film Festival next month.
Waiting writer Samual Kamu says he never expected the film to be this successful.
"I thought it was just going to be another short film pushed out into the atmosphere of other short films, but it's been a blessing," he told Newshub.
The story is about two young boys waiting for a phone call at a booth outside a south Auckland dairy. One of the boys has a letter he believes is from his father, promising to phone him that day.
But he never does.
After losing his own father at a young age, Kamu drew on his own experiences to create the story.
"Writing that in the script was hard to do, but knowing that kid was a reflection of me," he said.
The film's director Amberley Jo Aumua also lost her father as a child, and says the story - set in her home suburb of Manurewa - resembles parts of her own life.
"You know I live in front of a park, the dairy is around the corner, so you know all those little things fit into the script and how I envisioned it and it was the only way I could honestly tell the story," she told Newshub.
The pair created the 12-minute film as part of their graduate-year studies at Unitec.
While it's a sad story many can relate to, they wanted viewers to feel a sense of hope after watching it.
"Just because you come from a poor background doesn't necessarily shape your future," Kamu said.
He won't be travelling to Toronto with Aumua, because he's now studying to become a secondary school drama teacher.
Aumua, however, wants to continue working in the film business. She says her experience working with the film's young actors has encouraged her to continue mentoring young people.
"I do want to help and support the up and coming Pacific, Māori, New Zealand storytellers, all of them."
She'll travel to Toronto in early September.
Newshub.
