LIANA - Episode 1 "Collide" (Pilot)

Just a dejected young woman battling an identity-crisis, caught between obeying mum's traditional Samoan values or exploring Western Gen-Z freedoms where there are no morals.

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The creator of the show, Sione Sisifa, born in Auckland of Tongan heritage (Ha'ateiho and Lofanga), moved to Melbourne, Australia at the age of 4.

He started his creative journey as a music producer / DJ and developed as a songwriter first but had always kept his DSLR on hand as a keen photographer.

Although he hadn't been trained in either he continued learning and practicing the craft outside of his office job.

A couple of years later Sione created Shotcaller Studio as a platform to express his photography / videography work and when the start of the pandemic hit, he found himself stuck at home without a creative outlet.

During this time he had time to reflect on his experiences growing up in Australia & the landscape of film/tv there and decided there was an opportunity to create something for our Pacific Island people that they could relate to and represented their lived experiences.

This was where the idea of 'LIANA' was formed.

From there he came across Sharrayah Temita's reels (lead actress on Liana) online and reached out to her to collaborate on what was originally going to be a short film.

He finished writing the pilot and started shooting solo doing everything from pre to post production. 

Since the pilot dropped he has received an outpouring of support from all over the world, receiving heart felt messages about how people have been impacted emotionally by it, which for Sione, has been the greatest gift to come from all the hard work.

He's currently back in writing mode, recruiting more crew (no more flying solo), and preparing to roll out more eps!

He'll be creating a crowd fund and a patreon to help generate more resources to fund these important stories!  More details in the video below