Cook Islander gains Diploma in Film Making

When Henry Ah-Foo Taripo won a scholarship to study film making in New Zealand, he could hardly believe it because he had applied four years in a row and had almost given up.
Once he realized that he could follow his dreams by means of a Department of Human Resources scholarship, he took to his studies at the SAE Institute based in Parnell with great enthusiasm.
His studies were broad based and he learned software programming for film, computerized making of film, camera operating, directing, producing, writing, scripts, screen, audio and lighting.
It was also a very intensive schedule with students expected to put in six day weeks including his work experience with his cousin and good friend, Sela Apera who also happens to be a producer-director of Apera Productions.
In November they have collaborated on a documentary with Henry as researcher, production assistant and camera operator. In fact, they have worked on several projects through the year with Sela explaining that she wanted to encourage Henry by providing work experience and paid employment within the industry. These included work with VOX TV German Television in a branding campaign shot in Raroronga and Aitutaki in January 2009 and a Toll NZ-Toll Ipec training DVD and another for Toll NZ for road safety and welfare.
In September, another good friend, Stan Wolfgramm employed Henry to assist with his Pacific Beat Street television series shown on TV3 in Auckland as a trainee camera operator and assistant film crew.
Henry made sure that he emailed regular updates to HRD and as soon as he returned to Cook Islands recently, he headed straight down to them to show his grades and the production work he had achieved during the year.
Henry will graduate with a diploma in January 2010, but he will not be resting on his laurels as he has already applied for a degree level course to specialize in directing, producing and writing film.
Sela is such a cheerleader for her cousin Henry and they have made plans to collaborate on productions together to bring the stories of Cook Islanders to life. Both have an acting background and they have a great understanding of the industry and note that individual Cook Islanders have done well such as Anna Rasmussen who produces the Just Juice commercials and Stan Wolfgram with his television series and the fashion shows. They also note that New Zealand Maori and the Samoan community seem more visible because they collaborate with each other, and they feel that coming together in that spirit of collaboration will similarly raise the profile of the Cook Islanders in the industry even more.
Henry has given copies of two short films he has worked on this year and presented them to CEO of CITV, Jeane Matenga who has promised to screen them on local television. The first is called Blood or Water and the other is Te Reo o te Tupuna.

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