{"id":48923,"date":"2026-02-24T11:03:44","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T19:03:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=48923"},"modified":"2026-02-24T11:05:32","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T19:05:32","slug":"my-name-is-pati-rebecca-tansley-2026-new-zealand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=48923","title":{"rendered":"My name is Pati (Rebecca Tansley 2026): New Zealand"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Lisa Trivell. Viewed at SBIFF.<\/p>\n

\"PeneThis is a incredible story of a Samoan tenor Peni Pati who sings his way from humble upbringing to famous opera houses.He grew up in Samoa having an incredible loving and supportive family that instilled great discipline and determination to follow is his musical talent. He is being compared to Pavarotti as far as voice, stature and presence. He started a band with his brothers and worked in their neighborhood and in their church. Soon the band gained attention starting to perform more widely. One important scene was when Pati decided to let his brothers go on singing the more folk style music whereas he decided to further his music training on his own. His biggest break was to sing as a replacement For Romeo and Juliet with just a few hours notice.This is an amazing story about following your passion.<\/p>\n

The director Rebecca Tonsley and Editor Thomas Gleeson worked hand and hand with Pati’s sister Torres Pati who shot home footage throughout his childhood up to when he was discovered. His sister was very determined to document the development of Pati’s voice and career. The film combined older footage with rehearsals and performances. I thought the editing was very smooth transitioning from intimate family scenes to live performances. There were also many close up cut aways of Pati singing at different locations showing his facial expressions and incredible exuberance and passion for singing opera <\/span>\u00a0The editing was superb it had great rhythm and was very comprehensive in what it put together to document Pati\u2018s career so far..\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The lighting was realistic throughout the film. It gave you the feeling that you were in their small town and church witnessing the community setting. The archival footage shot in Samoa to the lighting and environments of the different opera houses was a beautiful contrast. The sound also had this contrast throughout the movie \u00a0combining the \u00a0recordings from small clubs in Samoa to the grand musical orchestration of prestigious opera houses around the world.<\/p>\n

A pivotal scene was when he performed at the Opera House in Italy and tore the house down. In this scene his family came to visit him before this major performance.It is said that he was not going to perform that night because he was not feeling well, but as soon as his family entered, he broke down in tears gaining confidence and energy. He has gone on to perform in opera houses world wide, San Francisco, France, Vienna, London, Munich and the Metropolitan Opera.<\/p>\n

I feel that this film is definitely worth your time. I was mesmerized by it and would watch it again. I have not been an opera fan up until now, but this movie could change my mind. Of course,Pati is a phenomenal talent to be compared to Pavarotti. He sang \u00a0quite a few arias throughout the film, but it was edited so well with a backstory that really brought the art of opera alive. I\u2019m sure this movie will get a lot of attention and that Pati has an illustrious career ahead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Lisa Trivell. Viewed at SBIFF. This is a incredible story of a Samoan tenor Peni Pati who sings his way from humble upbringing to famous opera houses.He grew up in Samoa having an incredible loving and supportive family that instilled great discipline and determination to follow is his musical talent. He is being […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":249154,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75,3,441],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-documentary","category-films","category-santa-barbara-film-festival-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/249154"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48923"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48923\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49115,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48923\/revisions\/49115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}