Learn more about Samson's pathway to becoming a Filmmaker and Director.
Video transcript
[Music playing]
[Aerial shot of Manukau City]
I don't think people like kids of our days will understand what it was like to get treated to go to the video store.
And I remember early on, like, knowing that I had my relationship with my grandfather watching old spaghetti westerns.
But I knew from the beginning that I was just a real obsessed child with movies, and there was just one TV show on Triangle TV at that time in the early 90s by David Hartnel, and he had like ‘behind the scenes’ footage of films.
[Samson is talking in a film studio]
That was rare. There was no internet at the time, I think, it was late 90s, and he would showcase, interview actors and show, like, the stunt work behind all of this, this, you know, the films that I watched. And I was like, fascinated. I was like, holy crap, dude, you do this for a living.
I was like, I wanted to do that. I love the aspect of combining all the elements of the creative toolkit that I have. I love dance, music, I love, you know, writing even though I hate it. I love filmmaking and working with people. That's like an infinity gauntlet for me to create my own reality.
And it's like I say, we're the OG storytellers, like indigenous people. And you know, as Pacific Islanders, we just know how to light up a room.
It's like within us. It's in everything we do, we’re the type of people that, you know, we can turn a funeral into a Zumba class like to celebrate life and we, we do that.
We all have something within us I think that's natural for our people. I believe that's why our people are like, we have a lot to contribute to this world.
We are special.
You have to be obsessed. You have to love it because you're gonna hate it, like in any in any field you at any career path you go through, you're gonna have a love and hate relationship with it because it's real hard.
It's very difficult. There's like a lot of long nights, there's a lot of sacrifices that you have to make.
And if you stick around long enough, you'll make it.
And I think time and patience will help you grow and develop your skills in anything, but in terms of like myself as an artist, I think you have to be so obsessed and focused on what you do and you don't have to care about too much of what other people are doing.
You just have to focus on what makes you unique and how you tell your story.
From kindergarten to high school, art was always my thing.
I was one of those kids that would draw on the exam papers.
I did drama in high school, thanks to Mr Riley and I didn't do photography and all of that stuff until later when I went to art school. At the time it was called MSVA, Manukau School of Visual Arts, I got a Bachelor Visual Arts, but I think at this point of time, like, the kids now or the generation after, like, under us, they're at a point where they can use anything at their disposal.
Like you have no excuse to kind of like learn from the University of YouTube, learn off TikTok. There's no, like, one set way of getting there. I think you gotta study life.
To be a a filmmaker, you gotta study people, read books, write, reflect, repeat, shoot. Shoot.
Like, just have a camera shoot something. Many of the greats will say the same thing.
Talofa lava, I’m Samson Jones Vaotuua, also known as my film creative artist's name as Samson Rambo.
I am from the villages of Afega and Fagaloa in Samoa and I went to Tangaroa College from the beautiful place of Otara in South Auckland.
I'm the eldest of three. I'm a filmmaker. I'm a film director. I'm an actor. I'm a poet. I'm a dancer. I'm an artist.
And this is my story of being an artist.