Kahuetahi Kaiha is an actor, director and producer from the Marquesas Islands. A resident in New Zealand since 2018, he returns this year to FIFO to present his film ‘Küī’, screened at the 16th Night of Oceanian Fiction.
Committed and authentic. Kahuetahi Kaiha is passionate about the audiovisual world. Originally from Ua Pou in the Marquesas Islands, he is now an actor, director, and producer. Already awarded at the FIFO with a short fiction film “Find where I belong” in 2023, the Marquesan now based in New Zealand returns this year to the Festival with a new fiction “Küī”. A fiction inspired by a true story. Kahuetahi likes to tell true stories.
Being inspired by people and these everyday heroes animates him and allows him to convey messages. His hobby: the quest for identity. Leader of the Marquesan cultural troupe Kakaia, Kahuetahi invites the new generation to find their way and their voice.
If today, the Marquisan humbly believes he has succeeded in his professional journey, he returns to his beginnings: “I started with training at an actor’s school for a year, in New Zealand. It was very, very hard at the beginning to get into the middle,” he recalls.
Arrived in 2018 in Aotearoa and after his training, Kahuetahi goes through castings but admits that as a Polynesian, very few roles are assigned to him apart from playing Māori roles. “Even if we are quite similar in Oceania, our English accent is completely different, so we have necessarily more trouble,” the actor points out.
Pierre Kaiha, his father and his greatest inspiration
During a large part of his childhood, he lived isolated from the rest of the island of Ua Pou with his family. Having grown up in a mountain in complete cultural immersion with a sculptor father (Pierre Kaiha -Editor’s note), Kahuetahi never forgets where he comes from. “The artist who inspires me the most is my father. His creative process, from beginning to end, pushed me to start. Every time I start something, inevitably, it brings me back to his way of creating and it nourishes me spiritually. I hope in my turn that my work can spiritually nourish people,” says the man.
He says today that he is very grateful to his family, his community, his people, all the people who helped him grow professionally. “I will never forget the people who were there at my beginnings. I am grateful to everyone and my audience. Without all this, nothing could have happened,” bows Kahuetahi. Humble and authentic, he always has a moving thought for his father but also his partner, “his pillar, his second part of the canoe”.
This Ju-Jitsu adept continues to pursue projects as much as an actor as a director. Passionate about the directors who are Alfonso Cuarón, Alejandro González Iñárritu and Guillermo del Toro, he has at heart to show in his films an authentic Polynesian. “There are many films that are made about Polynesians but I have the impression that they do not recognize each other. This does not reflect their reality. So today, I would like to show our culture, our roots, our people and say that we exist,” insists Kauetahi. Hard worker, he would like the new generation to discover their cultural identity. “Today, you have to be grounded and not just satisfy each other’s egos but connect,” says the director.
Today, Kahuetahi claims to be an ambassador of Polynesian culture. Projects full of head, the one who speaks fluently French, Marquesan, English or even Spanish, does not exclude returning to settle in the Fenua. He doesn’t forbid himself either from going elsewhere to better tell the stories of the fenua.
Küī: a harsh reality
Küī is a New Zealand fiction directed by Kahu Kaiha. Inspired by a true story, the 11-minute fiction tells the story of Küī, a 12-year-old girl. Faced with the absence of her mother and her father’s alcoholism, she is forced to grow up too quickly. She then takes care of her brothers and faces the harsh realities of an adult life.
Credits: Jenny Hunter – FIFO Tahiti
Photo: Studio Marama – FIFO Tahiti
French