United States

Rugby’s first global superstar was also one of its most private — a shy, gentle giant caught between two worlds, whose story mirrors Aotearoa’s own coming of age.

In many respects, Vea Mafile’o and Gavin Fitzgerald’s documentary on Jonah Lomu is a story representative of Aotearoa’s own emergence into the 21st century: a young nation of the South Pacific, still finding its footing in an increasingly commercialised world.

Born in South Auckland as a first-generation Tongan and son of a minister, Jonah would transcend his humble beginnings and become rugby’s first real international superstar.

However, it was his childhood in the Kingdom of Tonga that was his foundation, and the film brings never-before-seen insights into his formative years, utilising personal photos and videos, as well as interviews with his mum Hepi and brother John, to trace his origin story.

The film tracks Jonah’s rise to fame from his schoolboy playing days at Wesley College, to his disappointing All Blacks debut, through to his dominant performance at the 1995 Rugby World Cup — drawing on archival interviews with Jonah himself and his former manager Phil Kingsley Jones, alongside former teammates and coach Laurie Mains, to illuminate his meteoric rise to stardom.

But, while the documentary celebrates his highlight-reel career, it goes beyond the rugby field, examining how Jonah’s breakthrough on the international stage coincided with rugby’s shift from an amateur sport into professionalism — setting him on a collision course between the cultural values of his traditional upbringing and the pressures of relentless international media attention and intrusions into his personal life and relationships.

What the world saw was a giant. But to those closest to him he was a shy, gentle and private man, navigating between two very different worlds. His kidney disorder would inhibit a career that had only scratched its potential — and rob a young family of a father who existed quietly behind the legend.

– Heperi Mita

NB: This is part of the broader 2026 Pacific Island Film Festival to be held 17-20 September 2026 in NYC

Ever thought about the benefits of moving back to NZ? How about going back to found a startup and fuel the next generation of NZ’s economy? If we don’t go back, how can we help from abroad?

Vignesh Kumar, Bowen Pan, and Maya Pan are at the coal face of NZ tech and capital! They’ve all had significant careers in hyper-scale with some of the biggest tech companies in the world. Now they’re back in NZ helping (many!) companies find that same scale. Come and hear from them in NYC at the next Flat White Meetup.

Thanks to Icehouse Ventures, Kea, and Jewett Farms + Co for helping to put this on! Rockstars, the lot of you!

Franzus Social is a monthly dinner club for Kiwi & Aussie expats living in the USA. Operating in Dallas, Houston and New York, we bring together settled expats — the ones who’ve been here a few years — for a curated dinner at a great local restaurant on the second Wednesday of every month.

Small tables of five to eight. No name tags, no networking pitch, no awkward icebreakers. Just good food and the easy company of people who get your references without the translation — the slang, the sport, the sense of humour, the shared shorthand of home.

Whether you’ve been Stateside three years or fifteen, this is where you find your people. Mateship, monthly, and familiarity without the plane ride.

New Humans: Memories of the Future will inaugurate the New Museum’s expanded building with an exploration of artists’ enduring preoccupation with what it means to be human in the face of sweeping technological changes. New Humans will trace a diagonal history of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries through the work of more than 150 international artists, writers, scientists, architects, and filmmakers, highlighting key moments when dramatic technological and social changes spurred new conceptions of humanity and new visions for its possible futures.

Presenting new and recent works by artists including Sophia Al-Maria, Lucy Beech, Meriem Bennani, Cyprien Gaillard, Pierre Huyghe, Tau Lewis, Daria Martin, Wangechi Mutu, Precious Okoyomon, Berenice Olmedo, Philippe Parreno, Hito Steyerl, Jamian Juliano-Villani, Andro Wekua, and Anicka Yi in the context of works by twentieth century artists and cultural figures such as Francis Bacon, Constant Nieuwenhuys, Salvador Dalí, Ibrahim El-Salahi, H.R. Giger, Kiki Kogelnik, Hannah Höch, Tatsuo Ikeda, Gyula Kosice, El Lissitzky, Lennart Nilsson, Eduardo Paolozzi, Carlo Rambaldi, Germaine Richier, and Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, New Humans illuminates artists’ evolving visions of the future. The exhibition surveys the myriad shapes that humanity might take, from robots and cyborgs to haunting, seemingly alien life forms, and moves beyond the field of art by bringing together utopian architects, sci-fi filmmakers, and eccentric writers who imagine physical, virtual, and even post-human worlds. In an age when technological advancements and their unintended consequences seem to be accelerating at uncontrollable rates, New Humans proposes art as a collective form of creative prognostication—a vital self-portrait of the humans we may become.

New Humans: Memories of the Future is curated by Massimiliano Gioni, Edlis Neeson Artistic Director; Gary Carrion-Murayari, Kraus Family Senior Curator; Vivian Crockett, Allen and Lola Goldring Curator; and Madeline Weisburg, Senior Assistant Curator; with Calvin Wang, Curatorial Assistant. With thanks to Lexington Davis, former Curatorial Fellow; Laura Hakel, former ISLAA Curatorial Fellow; Clara von Turkovich, former ISLAA Curatorial Fellow; and Ian Wallace, former Curatorial Assistant.

Simon Denny is represented by Lett Thomas in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland

To find more exhibitions around the world by New Zealand artists, visit ArtNow.NZ