Tom's Dairy

Directed and Written by:
Oscar Kightley

New Zealand International Film Festival: 2013

Tom’s Dairy, written and directed by Oscar Kightley (Sione’s Wedding, bro’Town), screened in NZIFF - New Zealand’s Best in 2013, as well as winning Best Short Film at 2014’s Belize International Film Festival and screening in Festivals in Bristol, Honolulu and Melbourne.

Tom’s Dairy is a poignant but humorous coming of age tale about a young Samoan boy growing up in West Auckland in 1981 - the year space invaders first arrived at the corner dairy. The film explores the innocence of an eleven year old trying to find his place in this changing world at a time when people trusted their neighbours not to nick the milk money and the dairy was almost a marae for the local kids.

Oscar Kightley has either written, directed, or starred in multiple films and television shows, as well as performed as part of long running comedy group The Naked Samoans. In 2009 he became a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit - For Services to Television and Theatre.