Tauranga youth reveal new local feature film 'The Man She Weeps'

An up and coming new feature film called ‘The Man She Weeps’ has had its first press launch here in Tauranga. The film set to release in Mid 2021, with filming commencing in October, is from the local TCSC Entertainment Group. The group started as a few friends gathering, creating, and choreographing dance numbers. Now, TCSC is an established arts organisation providing quality entertainment.

“TCSC Entertainment Group is an organization established to produce high-quality work that is thought-provoking, justice speaking and inspiring to the audience and the viewer and this film is no different,” Says Samuel Tomaszyk. Sam is the director of the film and also the artistic director of the TCSC Group. 

“The Man She Weeps is a story of friendship, love and comedy to tackle, breakdown and inspire those who are in real-life situations that many of us experience.” 

“The Man She Weeps is a film of a girls story of courage, bravery, self-discovery and adventure.” Explains Sam. “The film is a journey about Victoria, a girl who goes and seeks these attributes for herself.” 

Sam says that the story follows Victoria who was once joyful about her life until the unfortunate passing of her father which took a toll on Victoria and her mother. Time was getting tougher as, someone who once was passionate about adventure and exploring, now wanted to stay home (although her Mother being rather mean to her made this even harder to do so). 

One day Victoria passes tracks with the Commentor an eccentric happy man who has been awaiting the meeting of Victoria for quite some time. With a little bit of kidnapping, the Commentor manages to take Victoria into an out of world experience in a very different world. The 2 of them grow close together all whilst aquatinted, and make friends with The Painter, Soleil the contortionist and Francais the slightly odd and thick-skinned love interest. Over time Victoria realises that all isn’t well for the world she has been placed in and that La Reine the queen is suppressing her people and causing mischief in the lands.

Co-Director of the film, Paige Carson-Wilson, announced the main characters for the film and expressed her excitement about finding a very talented cast.

Lead character Victoria is played by Kylie Betts. 

Francais is played by Fletcher Oxford. 

La Reine is played by Larissa Downey. 

The Commentor is played by Jackson Pool. 

La Peintre is played by Abigail Griffiths and Soleil is played by Sarah Clumont.

Adding to the locality of this film, Sun Down, a local Tauranga singer, is providing and scoring most of the music for the film. During the press release, we were treated to a performance from Sun Down where she performed a selection of songs. ‘Koi Fish Pond’ was one of the songs she performed and wrote for the film.

Mayor Tenby Powell wrapped up the night commemorating the groups work and congratulating them on writing a full film over a Zoom call amid the Covid-19 lockdown back in March. 

“This is a really important industry for the Bay of Plenty,” says Powell. “Around New Zealand, the film industry generates about 3 billion dollars.” Powell describes how good it would be to bring in 5% of that revenue from the film industry for the Bay and give jobs to many local talents.

The Man She Weeps is also looking for anyone interested in being extras when filming starts in October. You can find out more by emailing the team: [email protected] or heading to the TCSC’s website