Sāmoa’s storyteller: Arran Rogers films Pacific narratives for those far from home

A Sāmoan filmmaker says his passion lies in capturing Pacific stories “the right way” for those unable to return to their homelands.

Arran Rogers, born, raised, and based in Sāmoa, dedicates his life to capturing cultural narratives, having filmed across Micronesia while producing stories for Fresh, such as following a master carver as he crafts a canoe.

Speaking to Tofiga Fepulea'i on Island Time, Rogers says his motivation is to capture Pacific stories “the right way".

“Also, sharing it to the people around the world because I know a lot of families in New Zealand, we have our grandmothers, grandfathers, and sometimes they're not able to travel back to Sāmoa,” Rogers says.

He adds this sentiment was what drove him to capture Moemoana Safa’atoa Schwenke’s journey, who is a former Miss Samoa and Miss Pacific Islands.

“Her grandmothers, they live in Australia and New Zealand, and they weren't able to travel back and forth, so giving them the opportunity to see the stories their granddaughter was doing around the Pacific was definitely a motivation for me.”

How lockdowns led to filming

Rogers says videography started for him while being trapped in Australia during the COVID lockdown period, after initially visiting for a holiday.

He says while there, he decided to join the Matavai Pacific Cultural Arts and was a member for the three years he was stuck overseas.

“During lockdown at Matavai, we couldn't have people come into the studio to learn the classes, so we came up with the idea to have the classes online,” Rogers says.

“That’s where we just upskilled ourselves, and I ended up filming the classes, we had Moemoana editing the classes - that’s where my videography journey started.”

Rogers says he started in film with an iPhone, eventually upgrading to a Canon and then a Sony camera.

He calls YouTube his “best friend”, as it has been integral to learning more about filmography, alongside collaborating with other filmmakers.

Future prospects

Rogers says he aims to collaborate with well-known Pacific videographers and dreams of being a Pacific Director, based in Sāmoa.

“The way I'm trying to portray my work is I want to work towards being a videographer, like a [Director on Photography] on a film set, or even direct the films.

“There’s so people many I want to work with. They are mainly overseas in Australia and also in New Zealand, definitely the uso Carlin Leota, Franz Liu, and Ben Mika.

“I definitely want to collaborate with them down the line, but I have got to work my way up first.”

Watch Arran Rogers’ full interview below.

Rogers also aims to direct full-length features anchored in Sāmoan heritage, particularly the legends of Sava’i, as well as capture stories from Falealupo, such as the story of the Goddess of War, Nafanua.

“We hear a lot of the legends, there's legends in the books, but I feel like it's not shown enough through video,” he says.

Rogers has a friend who is a carver in Falealupo, and every time he visits to film, there is something spiritual about the way he speaks, which he believes should be captured only on film, he adds.