A documentary about the push for transgender rights in Tonga is set to screen in New Zealand later this month at the Doc Edge international festival.
Leitis in Waiting is screening at Wellington’s Roxy Cinema on May 19 and 20 and on May 26 and 27 at the Q Theatre in Auckland.
The feature documentary is about Joey Mataele and an intrepid group of Tongan leitis who fight rising intolerance in the South Pacific Kingdom.
A Fakaleiti, who prefer to call themselves leitis, is a Tongan male who behaves in a relatively effeminate manner, similar to Samoan fa'afafine.
In the film, Joey, a transgender woman of noble descent organises a beauty pageant, protects a young contestant rejected by her family and clashes with American-financed evangelicals threatening to resurrect back colonial-era laws that criminalise the leitis.
The filmmakers said the documentary had "unexpected humour and extraordinary access to the Kingdom's royals and religious leaders".
"Joey's emotional journey reveals what it means to be different in a society ruled by tradition, and what it takes to be accepted without forsaking who you are," the filmmakers wrote in a release.
The New Zealand screenings will also serve as the launch of the film's Pacific impact campaign.
The campaign aims to challenge colonial-era laws still in eight Pacific countries that stigmatise, threaten, and criminalise LGBT lives as well as support local human dignity work and promote human rights.
It is spearheaded by the Tonga Leitis Association, Pacific Sexual & Gender Diversity Network, and Asia Pacific Transgender Network.
The documentary and launch are timely with attitudes to sexual minorities including transgender having been a discussion point following the comments of Wallaby Israel Folau, who said gays go to hell unless they repent.
A chorus of people in and out of rugby opposed Folau’s comments including Hurricanes captain TJ Perenara, who wrote in a series of critical tweets that Polynesia had been sexually diverse since forever.
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