Book overview
Saturday Movies Hele'uhila Tokonaki is about the fun of going to the movies in your village in Tonga last century. This book shares how the movies were set up and the ingenuity of local boys who always tried their best to sneak in without paying to watch. It tells the story of one teenager who created his own role as translator-entertainer, complete with megaphone, much to the enjoyment of the audience. Movies came to Tonga after the WWII with local entrepreneurs holding movie shows in villages. They'd hire a building, often the local school. Then they'd travel there, bringing along the films and all the gear they needed. For many years this included an electric generator because there was no electricity outside of Nuku'alofa. The book is presented in Tongan and English parallel text to support language learning. Paragraphs in both languages are matched on each page to facilitate readers' immersion in the languages. It is B1+ in the CEFR framework. It is presented in Arial font and with double spacing for ease of reading.
