Boys Will Be Girls — In Editing

Length 6 mins

Boys Will Be Girls looks at Samoa’s Fa’afafine: boys who are brought up as girls. This short film is about their unique lives, their accepted place in society and their attitudes towards sexuality. Samoa is a tiny Polynesian island in the South Pacific. With a population of 177,000 the islands are considered to be unspoiled by some and primitive by others. The island nation is obsessed with religion and sport. Spend some time wandering around the capital Apia and you will notice that Samoan’s are religiously devout people. There are five churches on the main street all of which have service after service on Sunday as hundreds of Samoans come from the surrounding villages to attend mass. Despite the heavy presence of religion there is a surprisingly strong Transvestite community, which is seemingly completely accepted by the locals.

Tara, the manager of Sails See front restaurant, for example, wears her hair in a ponytail. Some days she is dressed as a woman and some days as a man. That’s because Tara was brought up as a Fa’afafine. From the age of eight years Tara had no use for boy’s things, She acted and dressed like a girl and helped her mother around the house.
Tara, who lived in Sidney Australia for several years, says that being a Fa’afafine is not Samoa’s expression of being gay.
“The difference is that Fa’afafines do not have sex with each other or with gay men,” she says in an interview. “That would be disgusting. We only have sex with straight men.”
This sometimes sounds ridiculous to outsiders but to Samoan’s is makes sense. Many Samoans who do not identify as gay will date Fa’afafine on occasion.
This short movie explores Samoa’s Fa’afafine community. It features interviews with Tara Apa, a bar manager from Apia and Blondie Ropati a travel consultant who does a Shirley Bassey drag show at Sunflower lounge bar on Friday and Saturday Nights.
This is set against the backdrop of Samoa which is has often be described as paradise on earth. There are general views of palm trees, the markets, the fish markets and the docks, as well as the villagers playing rugby at dusk.
The aim of the documentary is to celebrate diversity and show there need be no conflict between diverse groups of people. The fact that Fa’afafines exist in Samoa does not make the locals any less devout.
This is a pilot project aimed to be viewed by public broadcasting executives and grant and funding institutions with a view to raising money to do a longer half hour or hour long documentary for PBS shows such as POV, Wide Angle, or Frontline World. This longer documentary will explore the history, plight and current life of Fa’afafines in Samoa. It will also attempt to explore cultural roots and the reasons why Fa’afafines are less numerous than they were in previous times.