Joey Joleen Mataele, an activist for the rights of transgender women in Tonga and Chairlady of the Board of the Pacific Sexual and Gender Diversity Network (PSGDN), said discrimination, equality and acceptance are important issues in the Pacific for the LGBTQI people.
Read MoreWe need people from all backgrounds not just the LGBTQI communities but also every possible stakeholder to speak from their privileged position to ensure that we eradicate all possible manifestations of bigotry, prejudice and discrimination.
Read MoreHow did the story of Transgender women fighting for acceptance in Tonga come to the attention of US based film makers?
They were invited by the Tonga Leitis Association to come and screen the Kumu Hina Documentary during the Miss Galaxy Pageant and when they came I had already started thinking maybe I'll talk to them about how we can do something to be able to share our stories.
America’s role in fanning the flames of division in places like Tonga is laid bare in the film. It follows an American-financed evangelist spouting a western notion of gender, advocating for the criminalisation of the leitis and spreading the message that their lives are sinful.
Read MoreA new documentary screening in New Zealand this week focuses on the lives of the leitis of Tonga, transgender women with traditional roles at court and in church. The film, called “Leitis in Waiting,” shows that they also face discrimination and even punishment. We have more from Neal Conan in today’s Pacific News Minute.
Read MoreThe plight of Tonga's LGBT community is under the spotlight with the released of a new documentary Leitis in Waiting. Appearing in the documentary and travelling with it is Lord Fusitu'a, a noble, a member of the Tongan parliament, and a champion of the rights of LGBT people and women.
Read MoreIf 'life unscripted,' Doc Edge's tagline, makes a truth claim that is liable to elicit a raised eyebrow from anyone who happens to have taken a Film 101 paper, there is nevertheless something to be said for the immediacy, freshness and urgency proper to documentary filmmaking.
With 74 docos from across the globe, and offering a number of excellent homegrown pieces amongst these, this year's Doc Edge has something for everybody. There's food, sex, politics, adventure, drinking and dancing to be had; kind of like a wild party, but one from which you get to go home sans hangover or broken bones. Here's our top picks.
Read MoreA film documentary, 'Leitis in Waiting', has won the audience award, after premiering at the Festival of Commonwealth Film 2018 in London earlier this month. The film is about Joey Joeleen Mataele and the Tonga leitis, a transgender minority group fighting for equality in Tonga.
“I’m overwhelmed and I thank God for all his blessings and for all the love and for all the support and to be recognised from the Commonwealth is a milestone for the work of the Tonga Leitis Association.”
Read MoreThe film ‘Leitis in Waiting’ has won the ultimate accolade at the first ever Festival of Commonwealth Film held in London – announced as the winner of the ‘Audience Award’.
The Festival aims to focus on human rights across the Commonwealth, and the inaugural festival featured seven films and a shorts programme.
Read More"Leitis in Waiting" explores the contradictions facing trans people on the South Pacific island kingdom.
Read More“A movie about transgender women fighting for acceptance in Tonga hopes to bring about change in the Pacific island nation - and help local activists start over after a cyclone smashed their main office, a leading gay rights campaigner said.
Leitis in Waiting, which has its European premiere at the Festival of Commonwealth Film in London on Sunday, follows Joey Mataele, a prominent transgender activist, as she organises a beauty pageant amid growing pressure from religious groups.”
Read MoreThe Commonwealth Points of Light award recognizes outstanding individual volunteers - people who are making a change in their community. They are heroes who had an idea they decided to make a reality. Their actions have changed lives and their stories can inspire thousands more to get involved or start their own initiatives.
Read MoreA Tongan feature documentary about a transgender minority group fighting for equality will premiere at the Festival of Commonwealth Film at the Britsh Museum in London next month.
Read MoreThe Kaleidoscope Trust's work in the U.K. to advance equality and human rights for LGBT people globally has brought us into contact with inspiring trans activists, including Joleen Mataele, an LGBT activist from the South Pacific. Joleen has been working as a community organizer and advocate in Tonga, where homosexuality carries a prison sentence of up to ten years, since she was fourteen. In 2007, she co-founded The Pacific Sexual and Gender Diversity Network (PSGDN), a trans-fronted advocacy group that represents the interests of LGBTQ people in the Pacific region. The Trust's Louis Staples interviews Joleen in the lead-up to the London premiere of "Leitis in Waiting" in the Festival of Commonwealth Films.
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