Speaker

Hope Papali'i

Producer

Hope Papali'i is a passionate and ambitious 28-year-old producer with a strong foundation in scripted film, television, and documentary. With a deep commitment to Indigenous storytelling and representation, she brings strong leadership, cultural integrity, logistical clarity, and authenticity to every project she produces.

In 2025, she co-produced First Place with Eileen Lee, a feature film written by Mario Faumui. The story explores themes of identity, Polyfest, leadership, and community through the lens of a young Samoan girl and released on Coconet TV in early 2025. Hope is especially proud of this project, which she describes as a story told with true authenticity — by the people, for the people.

Her earlier work includes the 2023 drama Inky Pinky Ponky, a Tongan fakaleti coming-of-age story that was nominated for Best Drama at the NZTV Awards and screened at imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival in Toronto. She also co-produced The Boy, The Queen and Everything in Between (2024), a web series exploring trans and drag identities in Aotearoa, and produced Fresh Fairytales Season 2, which was nominated for Best Children’s Programme at the 2024 NZTV Awards.

Hope joins the "Hook, Hold, Repeat: capturing rangatahi attention online" session at the 30th Spada Conference.