PACIFIC MOTHER received multiple awards at the 2023 Doc Edge Film Festival including Best New Zealand Feature, Best New Zealand Director, Best New Zealand Editing, Best New Zealand Cinematography. Entertainment reviewer Graeme Tuckett wrote in Stuff NZ, “Pacific Mother is a stunning – stunning – looking film, with many minutes of undersea photography in crystal clear Pacific waters…See this film on a big screen, if you get the chance. It really is a bit special.”
As freediving couple Sachiko Fukumoto and William Trubridge navigated maternity systems for the birth of their first child, it awoke in them a fierce realization about the lack of choice many parents face. Director Katherine McRae follows Sachiko as she connects with ocean women from around the Pacific, from Hawai’i, Tahiti, the Cook Islands, and Aotearoa New Zealand. Through their interwoven stories, the film explores the importance of community, reclaiming traditional birthing knowledge and the connection between caring for the planet and nurturing both parents and their children.