WOLLONGONG ART GALLERY - Wollongong NSW Australia
A free screening and talanoa with Joleen Mataele on Sunday, August 24, 2025 - 6:00-7:00 PM at the Wollongong Art Gallery, 46 Burelli Street, Wollongong NSW Australia.
More info HERE.
Teariki Productions presents the second year of Te Kūki ‘Āirani Film Festival. Running from 6 August to 10 August, this year's theme is Vaine Toa (Warrior Women). Over 80% of the films showing will have either a leading female cast or is written, directed and/or produced by a female filmmaker.
Special Screening of ‘Leitis in Waiting’
Black Maria Film Festival’s Hudson County Movie Tour - Hoboken Historical Museum, Hoboken, NJ - Program 4 - Wednesday June 5, 2019 - 7:00PM - Selected shorts from the Black Maria collection
Celebrate PRIDE at the Palace! with this inspiring documentary by Dean Hamer, Joe Wilson & Kumu Hina Wong-Kalu.
Leitis in Waiting is a raw yet tender portrait of Joey Mataele and the Tonga leitis, an intrepid group of native transgender women fighting a rising tide of religious fundamentalism and intolerance in their South Pacific Kingdom.
Doors will open 30 minutes prior to each showing. Tickets are $8.50 General and $7.50 for Seniors & Students. Tickets available now at the Box Office and ONLINE!
Celebrate PRIDE at the Palace! with this inspiring documentary by Dean Hamer, Joe Wilson & Kumu Hina Wong-Kalu.
Leitis in Waiting is a raw yet tender portrait of Joey Mataele and the Tonga leitis, an intrepid group of native transgender women fighting a rising tide of religious fundamentalism and intolerance in their South Pacific Kingdom.
Doors will open 30 minutes prior to each showing. Tickets are $8.50 General and $7.50 for Seniors & Students. Tickets available now at the Box Office and ONLINE!
The Isabelle Lake Memorial Lecture is held in Perth each year on May 17th, the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Intersexism and Transphobia (IDAHoBIT). This year the lecture will be given by Tongan transgender woman Jolene Mataele. Mataele has recently featured in the documentary Leitis In Waiting, a film that follows a group of transgender women fighting for their place in the island kingdom.
Join Oakland Museum of California and the Center for Asian American Media Festival (CAAMFest) for the Oakland premiere of the award winning documentary, Leitis in Waiting. This film tells the story of Joey Mataele and the Tonga Leitis, an intrepid group of transgender women fighting a rising tide of religious fundamentalism and intolerance in their South Pacific Kingdom.
FREE PROGRAM — The story of Joey Mataele and the Tonga Leitis, an intrepid group of native transgender women fighting a rising tide of religious fundamentalism in their South Pacific Kingdom. Their emotional journey reveals what it means to be different in a society ruled by tradition.
Film Q&A - Exploring intersections between LGBTIQ, Climate Change, & the Pacific.
CSM 10th Annual Asian Pacific American Film Festival - Fri May 03, 2019 - Starts at 5:30 pm - Sponsored by the CSM Ethnic Studies Department and the Philosophy and Psychology Departments.
Pacific Islanders in Communications (PIC) presents PIC EXCHANGE in partnership with the Honolulu Museum of Art, Doris Duke Theatre. PIC EXCHANGE is a community engagement screening series that brings community members together in an inclusive way to share, learn, discuss and get involved with issues that are pertinent to the Pacific.
On May 2, we're offering a FREE screening Leitis in Waiting, a story of Tonga's evolving approach to gender fluidity through a character-driven portrait of the most prominent leiti in the Kingdom, Joey Joleen Mataele, a devout Catholic of royal descent. The film will be followed by a panel discussion.
Doors open at 6:30pm
Screening begins at 7:00pm
Panel discussion begins at 8:00pm
Skyline College of San Bruno offers two screenings of Leitis in Waiting, one from 11AM to 1PM and another from 2PM to 4PM. The public is welcome, and we are providing free snacks and drinks. Immediately following the screening at 11AM to 1PM, the campus Queer and Gender Alliance club is hosting a discussion for our students regarding LGBTQ+ identity.
TranScreen is Amsterdam’s Transgender and Gender Diverse Film Festival 2019 is proud to present the Netherlands premiere screening of Leitis in Waiting and the 2019 festival launch.
An official side-event of the 18th Session of the UN Forum on Indigenous Issues, Cine, Memoria y Resistencia is a collaboration between Indigenous organizations from across the Americas including: CLACPI (Coordinadora Latinoamericana de Cine y Comunicación de los Pueblos Indígenas), IsumaTV, Wapikoni and NAISG (Native American & Indigenous Student Group at NYU).
Celebrate the latest in Native film at the Native Cinema Showcase in New York. Featuring three days of screenings, the showcase provides a unique forum to engage with Native filmmakers from across the Americas.
A combination of full-length features and shorts, dramas and music videos, the films represent contemporary perspectives and themes of Indigenous people as they experience the world. All screenings are free, and seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis. All programs are subject to change. The full schedule is available on the museum’s website.
The Sebastopol Center for the Arts' annual award-winning Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival is a 4-day celebration of non-fiction film. The festival will feature extraordinary documentaries to be shown at different venues in historic downtown Sebastopol, with filmmakers and subjects in attendance from far and abroad and as close as Sebastopol.
C’est l’histoire de Joey Mataele et des leitis Tonga, groupe transgenres qui luttent contre la montée du fondamentalisme religieux et de l’intolérance dans leur royaume. Plein d’humour imprévu, ce voyage sensible dévoile ce que veut dire être différent dans une société gouvernée par la tradition, et ce que coûte d’être accepté sans renoncer à ce que vous êtes.
23 mars 2019 - 15:30 - Palais des congrès
NAU MAI KI MĀORILAND — Welcome to Māoriland Film Festival, Aotearoa’s International Indigenous Film Festival. Each March, MFF welcomes Indigenous filmmakers from around the world to Ōtaki to celebrate Indigenous creativity and storytelling in film.
The precarious role of queer people in traditional Tongan society is threatened by a rising tide of neo-colonial intolerance.
Friday 22 March 2019 20:30 - NFT3 - Sold out!
Saturday 23 March 2019 11:45 - Studio - Sold out!
Sunday 31 March 2019 19:40 - Studio
BFI Flare: London LGBTQ+ Film Festival offers a vibrant and precious space for debate, compassion, community and empowerment. In a world where many people fear and loathe difference, audiences and filmmakers at BFI Flare defiantly assert that love is a human right. We celebrate sexual and gender diversity – all this, while watching great films from around the globe.
This year’s BFI Flare cover art from creative agency Studio Moross goes to the heart of that celebration of diversity within the LGBTQ+ community. We wanted it to stimulate dialogue, but also be clean and stylish; to be sexy and promote body-positivity – asserting people’s right to love their bodies and be loved, whether or not they conform to gender norms. And we wanted it to celebrate queer culture now and into the future. We’re so excited to share the results.
In keeping with the social justice mission of USF, the festival seeks to make the university a center for the promotion of human rights, as well as a platform to raise consciousness to the violations of human rights in the U.S. and elsewhere around the globe.
The global LGBTI family has come together in Aotearoa New Zealand this week for the ILGA World Conference: more than 500 persons from almost 100 countries have gathered in Wellington celebrating the past and strategising for the future of this diverse movement.
A special screening for Members of Parliament, sponsored by Parliamentarians for Global Action, and hosted by New Zealand MPs Adrian Rurawhe and Anahila Kanongata’a-Suisuiki. Joleen Mataele, Lord Fusituʻa, and other special guests will be on-hand to lead a post-screening discussion on efforts to Decriminalize and Promote and Protect the rights the lives of LGBTI people in the Pacific Islands.
A film screening & panel sponsored by HPU’s School of Social Work - Friday, March 15, 6-8:30pm at Hale Na’au Pono, 85-888 Farrington Hwy, Waianae, HI with panel members Joe Wilson (Film Producer), Cathy Kapua (Kua’ana Project), and Dr. Renee Rumler (Lavendar Clinic). Light meal/refreshments will be served. Questions? Please contact Jessica Garlock at jgarlock@hpu.edu
Kapiʻolani Community College hosts its 31st annual International Festival March 12–14. The festival features guest speakers, music, dance, art, films, literature and poetry to showcase the diversity of international cultures worldwide. All events are free and open to the public.
On Tues., March 12, 1:00-3:00 in the Lama Library Alcove, the festival screens “LEITIS IN WAITING” - Hosted by Kelli Nakamura, Kapi‘olani CC with Guest Speakers: directors Joe Wilson & Dean Hamer
The Brisbane Queer Film Festival is this year celebrating its 20th birthday and has unveiled its 2019 program of queer feature films, documentaries and short films.
This year’s theme of the long-running festival is “Reflection” to highlight the power of films to create awareness, change and acceptance not just within the mainstream society, but within the queer community itself.
“The 20th edition is a reflection of where we have come from and the visibility we have stood for in these 20 years, of holding space for our communities to gather and be visible,” organisers said.
“The festival returns in 2019 to present, indulge and empower LGBTIQA and gender diverse film, filmmakers and screen content.”
These ladies are tired of waiting! When religious fundamentalism comes to Tonga, the proud indigenous transgender women known as leitis refuse to quietly fade away. From the team that produced audience fave Kumu Hina (MGFF15). On sale now here.
The Mother Tongue Film Festival is a collaboration between Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, and Smithsonian Folklife. This multi-day event celebrates the United Nations International Mother Languages Day (February 21) by showcasing recently produced feature and short-length films about the cultural richness of Indigenous and endangered languages.
The festival celebrates cultural and linguistic diversity by showcasing films and filmmakers from around the world over four days of screenings in Washington, D.C. All events are free.
Broadway Performance Hall - 6:00pm - Preceded by short film “AfterEarth” - As rising sea levels threaten the loss of their motherland in Hawai’i, the Philippines, China, and North America, four women take a stand to preserve the volcano, ocean, land, and air for future generations.
Come meet Kumu Hina and other Native Hawaiian cultural practitioners, talk story, and watch Leitis in Waiting under the stars in the beautiful Maui Nui Botanical Gardens!
This free event begins at 5, with the film starting at 6:45 pm - ALOHA MAUI PRIDE Festival
El próximo 21 de enero comienza el quinto Festival internacional de cine y artes indígenas en Wallmapu que se desarrollará en la ciudad de Temuco y localidades cercanas. En esta ocasión, son 49 las películas que hacen parte de la selección oficial, las que representan las voces de pueblos de todo el orbe.
El tema central que propone el festival para poner en diálogo en territorio ancestral mapuche son las diversidades sexo-afectivas o diversidades sexuales ancestrales. Por esto, la mirada plural de los pueblos originarios se hace presente para abordar las experiencias y reflexiones sobre vivir sexualidades y expresiones sexo afectivas no hegemónicas desde la mirada indígena.
Camino al quinto Ficwallmapu y en alianza con el Kolectivo mapuche Rangiñtulewfü, Ficwallmapu presenta Leitis in Waiting (Dean Hamer y Joe Wilson), una de las cinco películas que abordan las diversidades sexo-afectivas desde los pueblos originarios y comunidades afro. La película presenta a una comunidad de mujeres transgéneros que habitan la isla de Tonga y que son conocides como “Leitis”, elles denuncian cómo en la actualidad están sufriendo a propósito de una escalada de fundamentalismo desde sectores religiosos, particularmente la Iglesia Evangélica, y cómo hacen frente a estas violencias.
Presented by Title IX — For more information, contact: Karla Silva-Park, Title IX Coordinator - (808) 235-7468 - karlas@hawaii.edu
Presented by Title IX — For more information, contact: Karla Silva-Park, Title IX Coordinator - (808) 235-7468 - karlas@hawaii.edu
AM/NESIA: Forgotten “Archipelagos” of Oceania - Shorts Program 2 - October 14, 2019
Charlton & Woolwich Free Film Festival is back! Our fourth festival will take place from Friday 6 to Saturday 14 September 2019.
Our goal is to get people watching, talking about, and making more queer films. We want to screen movies that people might not otherwise get a chance to see and to create inspiring and informative events alongside challenging inequality and barriers to accessing the arts.
Micro Galleries is beyond proud to announce it is screening #LeitisInWaiting as part of its Micro Galleries Kathmandu program, with permission from the indomitable Joey Joleen Mataele and in partnership with the incredible organisations who ceaselessly work to assist LGBTIQ+ communities: BlueDiamondSociety, Asia Pacific Transgender Network Planet Ally .
We are humbled & honored to announce that the Nuku'alofa Film Festival NFF, in partnership with Digicel, will host a public screening of LEITIS IN WAITING on Wed., Nov. 21, 7:30pm in Digicel Square.
Tonga Leiti's Association members, movie producers Ilaisaane Sisi'uno Helu & Hinaleimoana Wong, and other special guests will be on-hand for a post-screening talanoa...
Let's fill the air with peace, love, & understanding!
The Society for Visual Anthropology’s Film & Media Festival screens work by students, professional anthropologists, and professional filmmakers at the American Anthropological Association’s annual conference.
Details TBA here.
A screening featuring personal appearances by director Dean Hamer and film star Joey Joleen Mataele. Quezon City International Pink Film Festival is a project of the Quezon City Pride Council in partnership with the Quezon City Government and The Philippine Initiative on LGBT Pride Advocacy Inc. It is a year long project that promotes awareness and education through film. It is the only LGBT Film Festival in the Philippines that envisions at making the country a hub for the biggest LGBT festival in Southeast Asia.
From the filmmakers of Kumu Hina (SDAFF ‘14), and co-produced by Kumu Hina (Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu) herself, LEITIS IN WAITING is a look at the fight for basic human rights in the Kingdom of Tonga. Event Details HERE.
Red Nation International Film Festival™ (RNIFF) The Authentic Voice of American Indian & Indigenous Cinema™ is dedicated to breaking the barrier of racism by successfully replacing American Indian stereotype with recognition, new vision, arts, culture and economic prosperity by placing American Indian Filmmakers at the forefront of the entertainment industry and to introduce American Indian Filmmakers to larger, global mainstream audiences while championing Native Women in Film & Television and giving voice and inspiring native youth with our dedicated program Native Youth Matter™ – If I Can See It I Can Be It.™
Special events across the Pacific Islands continue this week in Kiribati, with a screening & community conversation with Joey Joleen Mataele hosted by Boutokaan, Inaomataia ao Mauriia Binabinaine Association (BIMBA) at the New Zealand High Commission, with support from the International Trans Fund and the Equality and Justice Alliance.
Join us before the film for a special afternoon tea social event. Joey Mataele from Leitis in Waiting will join us for a Skype Q&A after the film. Details HERE.
The Summit will hold its inaugural Film Series in Miami-Beach, featuring showings by filmmakers from the Miami-Florida area, the Caribbean, Latin America, and beyond, highlighting the richness and diversity of independent filmmaking. The selected films broadly engage with the major themes of this year’s Summit, encouraging thoughtful conversations around borders and migration, ecological struggles, gender politics, and economic inequality.
This year's festival reflects stories of resilience–portraits of strength and action by people who are rising up, breaking new ground, and pushing their communities forward.
NATIONAL FILM & SOUND ARCHIVE - The Pasifika Film Fest (PFF) showcases the art of Pacific storytelling through film while also working to inspire Pasifika writers, directors and actors to explore links to their culture. Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/264862130902003/
QUEENSLAND MULTICULTURAL CENTRE - The Pasifika Film Fest (PFF) showcases the art of Pacific storytelling through film while also working to inspire Pasifika writers, directors and actors to explore links to their culture.
ASIA PACIFIC QUEER FILM FESTIVAL ALLIANCE SHORTS
1. Lady Eva
Director: Hamer Wilson, Wong-Kalu
Tonga and USA/2017/11 mins
In Tongan and English with English subtitles
A brave young transgender woman sets off on a journey to become her true self in the Pacific Island Kingdom of Tonga – with a little inspiration from Tina Turner along the way.
SILO 2018 (Salon International de Livre Oceanien) will be held on Friday 7, Saturday 8 and Sunday 9 September in Nouméa, at the Tjibaou Cultural Centre.
The screening of "Leitis in Waiting" will be followed by a community conversation with Ms. Gaëlle, director of Diversité Nouvelle-Calédonie, and artist and community activists Peter Sipeli.
Stay tuned for details about a series of screenings and community dialogue events in-development with the University of the South Pacific, UNDP, and other local, national, and international human rights organizations.
Sponsored by the USP Student Association and Pacific Youth Council
Samoa premiere of "Leitis in Waiting" at the 3rd Regional Conference for ILGA Oceania, the first time ever that ILGA will be featured in a Pacific Island nation.
The conference will unpack what it means to be fighting for Our Lands, One Ocean, Our Rights!
BKKSR is Bangkok’s first screening room to support independent films, pave the way for emerging filmmakers, and being a platform to promote cultural contents. Presenting a vibrant program of independent film and documentaries and retrospective classics, the BKKSR is a new hub for film enthusiasts and fans of international films. LEITIS IN WAITING screening details to-be-announced soon HERE.
A screening of "Leitis in Waiting" - under the French title "Joey and the Leitis" in a dynamic festival whose aim is to develop links between the artistic and cultural rebirth of the First Peoples and the cultural dynamism of a great metropolis, in a sustainable development perspective based on friendship among peoples, diversity of sources of expression as a collective treasure to be shared and through recognition of the specificity of First Nations and Inuit. Details HERE.
Details here.
Preceded by a cultural performance by Joey Mataele, Sedrick Vanisi, and members of UTOPIA San Francisco.
NATIONAL FILM & SOUND ARCHIVE - The Pasifika Film Fest (PFF) showcases the art of Pacific storytelling through film while also working to inspire Pasifika writers, directors and actors to explore links to their culture.
This collection of trans short films celebrates the diverse voices of the trans community. From Austria to Tonga, from France to the Philippines, witness global trans activities as they take a stand.
A special screening for the 150 delegates from the Pacific and other countries attending the 2018 Pacific Human Rights Conference organised by the Pacific Sexual and Gender Diversity Network (PSGDN) and its partner agencies including Pacific Community (SPC) Regional Rights Resource Team (RRRT), Diva 4 Equality, Haus of Khameleon, Rainbow Pride Foundation, and the Youth Champs for Mental Health.
Tickets and more info HERE.
This film can be purchased as a Film + Forum Pass for our special discussion forum Where to from #METOO. For more information, please visit our Film + Forum page.
This screening will be followed by a Q&A with directors Joe Wilson and Dean Hamer, as well as Joey Mataele, the film’s main protagonist.
For tickets & more info click HERE.
Ethnografilm seeks to enhance our understanding of the social world through film. From the 3rd through the 7th of April 2018 in Paris, France, the festival featured over 100 works by documentary and academic filmmakers.