East Meets East

79-year-old Fang Ruzhen immigrated to Auckland to help raise her grandchildren. Fifteen years on English is still a foreign language, but she has found community with other elderly Chinese expats on her weekly bus rides to the Asian supermarkets of East Auckland.

Aotearoa is home for these grandparents, even though their sense of belonging remains elusive in a country that is both familiar and foreign.

Our 3-minute documentary East Meets East has been generously supported by the Loading Docs initiative, along with principal partner NZ on Air, the New Zealand Film Commission, and Te M?ngai P?ho.

This suppport means that Loading Docs will give us a total of $4000 plus support with post-production to start us off, but we can't get all of this incredible support without first reaching our Boosted goal of $2000. You can be part of this project too. Your contributions will allow us to hire gear, get professional translations, and pay our talented crew for their time.

Help us give a voice to this humble East Auckland community. Your support means everything. Xie xie ni.

Julie and Tema

Julie Zhu is a fllmmaker, theatre producer and photographer born in Xi'an, China and raised in Auckland. She has a BA (Hons) in Screen Production and a Diploma of Language in Te Reo M?ori. Julie has written and directed several short films and was the DOP on Todd Karehana's The Spectacular Imagination of the P?hara Brothers, which screened in NZIFF 2016 and several indigenous film festivals New Zealandly. She was the 2016 Producer in Residence at Basement Theatre and is highly passionate about using the power of art and storytelling to enable positive social change.

Tema Pua is a writer and producer born in New Zealand of Malaysian-Chinese heritage. She produced and co-directed her first short documentary, Thin Ice, in 2011. More recently, she co-produced Last Late Night Ride, a short comedy thriller, and was the production assistant on Farewell, a moving short docudrama raising awareness on palliative care in New Zealand. Tema works as the marketing and events coordinator for the Directors & Editors Guild of New Zealand. She also has an interest in directing drama and is currently writing two short films.