Masina Alae Taule'alo is a Samoan/Australian film director, editor, animator, sound recordist, illustrator and a photographer based in Melbourne in Australia.
For 10 years, he has been learning how to make videos using a personal camcorder and a range of Adobe software. He has published them on Youtube since 2016. Since 2018, he has written and directed his debut short films Paua on the Beach (2018) and Straight Home (2019) and also worked as an animator for work experience at Healthily.
In 2020, he directed Eight Steps (2020), a short documentary about his challenging experience in Australia's education system, which has been screened at 15 film festivals and won 2 awards for "Documentary Short". He also made an appearance in indie documentary film FridAy (2021).
He worked as a sound recordist and an editor for student short films Hide and Scream (2021) and Foxes in Love (2022) and also edited an advertisement for National Institute of Circus Arts, a university based organisation.
Between 2022 and 2023, he has written and directed his first feature length documentary film Atypical Learning (2023), which screened at 10 film festivals and won two awards for “Best Documentary Feature Film”. He also wrote and directed Masked Out (2024), a thriller short film about Autism masking, which won three awards for "Best Student Film".
He was diagnosed on the Autism Spectrum at 7 years old and has had mixed interests in creativity and a huge fascination in film. His Autism spectrum and passion helps him to focus on developing his creativity skills and work hard producing content.
He is currently studying at Swinburne University of Technology and has since completed his Bachelor of Screen Production. He currently aims to use his Autism Spectrum perspective and philosophy to accurately portray Autism in film and television; as his way of advocating for Autism Acceptance and neurodiversity.
When he is not working or directing any of his projects, he is keen to work on other films, as a sound recordist, animator, storyboard artist, editor and production assistant.