DIVERSITY AND AN ANDROID SERVED UP IN MOTHER’S DAY ANTHOLOGY
Next weekend, talented Kiwis including Miriama Smith, Kura Forrester and Roxie Mohebbi will honour Mother’s Day in diverse ways in Motherhood Anthology, airing on TVNZ
+ and TVNZ 2.
The anthology features five entertaining stories across a range of genres unified by the theme of “motherhood”, inspired by the Ma¯ ori, Pasifika, Pan-Asian, LGBTQIA+ communities of Aotearoa.
Smith plays Nuku in Rule of Mum and tells Spy her character has an unhealthy preoccupation with her son’s love life. “Nuku’s heart is in the right place, but at some point, she needs to accept that her baby is growing up and he’s going to have to make his own way in the world,” says Smith.
In real life she says every day is Mother’s Day when you’ve got a kid like her son. “He lights up my universe and has plenty of beautiful nannies and aunties who shower him with love as well.”
Mohebbi (recently seen on New Zealand screens in the acclaimed series Miles from Nowhere) stars in
Give Me Babies.
Her character, Ari, is a 20-something MMA fighter living at home with her parents, with a mum who doubles as her coach and who plans everything in her life — including with whom she should have a baby. Next Sunday Mohebbi will celebrate Mother’s Day by watching the anthology with her “iconic maman”, Paris, who has a cameo in the episode, making it extra special. Forrester was honoured to play the role of “Mum” in Ahi in the Stars, about a Ma¯ ori boy from the coast seeking answers to his mum’s disappearance after their move to Auckland ends in tragedy.
“It’s a beautiful, heartbreaking story about a mother and son,” Forrester says. “I always feel lucky to be able to step into these roles and experience other people’s lives for a moment.”
The fourth anthology, Mother Hood, co-directed and written by Harry McNaughton and Jaycee Tanuvasa, tells the story of a newly crowned Mother of a vogue house who must rely on the wisdom of her birth mother to get her wayward adopted children ready for their runway debut.
Tanuvasa is one of the pioneers and choreographers of New Zealand’s ballroom vogue scene. “I drew a lot from my fa’afafine and femme queen-ness and it led us to this real, genuine, hilarious, camp, precious and fab episode,” says Tanuvasa.
McNaughton says working with Tanuvasa, her family and her community, and being able to watch them shine was one of the best creative experiences he has had.
“Literally everything exceptional in this episode is from them, and I can’t wait for Aotearoa to see it,” says McNaughton.
The final story is Amah , about a career-driven mother enlisting an android helper to raise her son in accordance with traditional Malaysian Chinese values. When the artificially maternal nanny judges the woman to be an unfit mother, she must fight for her family and her sanity.
As her husband had just undergone major surgery, the writer of Amah, Angeline Loo, was juggling parenting while filming. “I had the major guilts about disappearing for 14 hours and then prepping for hours more when I got home,” she says, “and it’s incredibly difficult to be a great parent as it is a vital and important role.”
Loo says it’s important for parents to also nourish their creativity outside of their identity of being parents.