Three hours’ sleep and a last-minute location swap: Inside a Pacific 48-hour film race

Three hours of sleep, a dangerous filming location and a last-minute change of plan were just some of the hurdles facing a Fijian film crew racing to finish a short film in 48 hours.

For Zane Mallam, a member of Fiji's Team Tideframe, the inaugural People of Pasifika 48hour Film Challenge or POP48, was as much about learning to work under pressure as it was about making a film.

“I probably only got like three hours of sleep in between. The hardest thing to get sorted was the logistics of everything,” Mallam says.

POP48 brought together 20 teams from the Cook Islands, Fiji, Sāmoa, and Solomon Islands from 4-6 September.

Each team had to write, shoot and edit a four-to-six-minute short film within the same 48-hour window.

They were also given the same set of creative requirements including a culture theme, a mandatory line of dialogue and a specific prop, before choosing their genre.

For Team Tideframe, one of the biggest problems came before filming had properly got under way.

Embed Pasifika TV video announcement of teams:

Mallam said the crew had planned to use a particular location, only to find the wet-season conditions made getting there unsafe.

“We thought we had sorted out our location initially until we went to go check it out. In Fiji it’s the wet season. So to walk to the location would have been really dangerous. There's mud and rocks everywhere.

“We had to think on our feet and quickly switch up. We need another location in such a short amount of time. We got it done, not easily, but we got it done somehow.”

That pressure is at the heart of the challenge.

Team Fiji for POP48. Photo/PasifikaTV

Rather than having weeks or months to develop a project, the filmmakers had to make decisions quickly, work with what was available and still produce a finished film by the deadline.

Mallam says opportunities like POP48 are important for a Pacific creative industry that is increasingly producing its own stories and styles.

“Something like [POP48] is definitely needed for creative people like that to exercise their creative minds and see how far they can take it,” he says.

“If anything, they'll learn something new from what they're currently doing and they can implement it in future projects that I'd like to work with. So this is definitely something I'd like to see more of in Fiji.”

Listen to Zane Mallam’s full interview below.

The competition was organised by Pacific Cooperation Broadcasting Limited through its Pasifika TV platform, with local hosts FBC TV, TV1 Sāmoa, Tavuli News and Pacific Standard Time supporting teams in each country.

Nicole Rex Taofinu’u, POP48 Visionary and acting Chief of Content, told Pasifika TV the event showed the strength of emerging talent across the participating countries.

“Not only were the hosts on fire, but the talent oozing from these four Pacific countries is incredible,” Taofinu’u says.

For Mallam, the value of the challenge goes beyond who eventually wins.

He says Fiji is already witnessing a new wave of editing styles and creative work emerge online. He believes competitions like POP48 can give filmmakers a place to test those ideas.

The 20 films are now being prepared for public release on the Pasifika TV website.

Public voting opens on 23 September 2026, where audiences across Aotearoa and the wider Pacific region can decide which team earns the grand prize.

The winning team will receive a trip to Hawai’i to attend an international filmmaking workshop in October.

As Mallam puts it, the challenge gave Pacific creators a chance to “test their limits, stretch creative muscles and take control of cultural narratives”.