Tena koe
Please find attached Maori Television publicity releases for features screening on the week of Monday Oct 17 to Sunday
Oct 23.
These include:
HONE TUWHARE
Monday October 17 at 8.30 PM
An enchanting portrait of one of New Zealand’s favourite poets screens on Maori Television this week with the broadcast
of Greenstone Pictures’ documentary HONE TUWHARE. Tune in and be swept up into the wonderment and the power of
indigenous poetry!
SHOMOTSI
Tuesday October 18 at 8.30 PM
An anthropology-based documentary that reports on the everyday life of a South American Indian river community. SHOMOTSI
is a report-based documentary on the routine life of the title subject – an Ashenika Indian living a small jungle
village on the border of Brazil and Peru.
TWO TOWNS OF JASPER
Sunday October 23 at 9.00 PM
This 2002 compelling feature is a collaborative effort between one black and one white film maker about the 1998
racially-motivated murder of James Byrd Jr in Jasper (Texas, USA). Marco Williams and Whitney Dow used segregated film
crews to document parallel perspectives on the events and mood in Jasper over the course of the trials. The result is an
award-winning documentary film screening on Maori Television this week.
ENDS
PUBLICITY RELEASE
FOR RELEASE MON OCT 17 TO SUN OCT 23
HONE TUWHARE: WORDS OF WONDERMENT ON MAORI TELEVISION
An enchanting portrait of one of New Zealand’s favourite poets screens on Maori Television this week with the broadcast
of Greenstone Pictures’ documentary HONE TUWHARE (Note to media: Monday October 17 at 8.30 PM).
Hone Tuwhare (Ngapuhi) is regarded as one of the most distinguished poets in Aotearoa and the hour-long documentary by
acclaimed film maker Gaylene Preston provides an important glimpse into the workings of a genius and indigenous mind.
Told without narrative voiceovers and in the slice-of-life genre, the documentary looks at the lovable and eccentric
poet doing what he does best – reading to young rangatahi at school performances, mulling over the turn of a phrase at
his Kaka Point retreat and waxing lyrical about poetry with Kerre Woodham.
“Poetry is a prestigious thing, it’s the heart of man, it’s the first thing we utter. From the beginning of everything,
humanity, earliest peoples, noble savage, blue skin – everywhere we’ve been chanting and making poems to the Gods.”
Tuwhare was born in 1922 in Kaikohe (Northland) and his first collection, No Ordinary Sun, was published in 1964. At the
time, he was working as an apprentice at the Otahuhu Railway Workshops and had managed to publish a handful of poems in
publications like the New Zealand Listener.
He was approached by Blackwood Paul of Paul’s Books to publish more, but Tuwhare was intimidated at first. “I only had
six or seven poems and I said ‘no you can’t’ because I thought you needed 100 for a book,” he says.
With several prompts from fellow colleagues R.A.K. Mason, painter Ralph Hotere and others, Tuwhare metamorphosised into
a poet worthy of the highest distinctions in Aotearoa.
Tune in and be swept up into the wonderment and the power of indigenous poetry as HONE TUWHARE screens on Maori
Television this Monday October 17 at 8.30 PM.
Ends
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION FOR HONE TUWHARE
Year 1996
Duration One hour documentary
Censor Parental Guidance Recommended (PGR)
Language English language
PUBLICITY RELEASE
FOR RELEASE MON OCT 17 TO SUN OCT 23
THE EVERYDAY LORE OF THE JUNGLE ON MAORI TELEVISION
An anthropology-based documentary that reports on the everyday life of a South American Indian river community screens
on Maori Television this Tuesday October 18 at 8.30 PM.
SHOMOTSI is a report-based documentary on the routine life of the title subject – an Ashenika Indian living a small
jungle village on the border of Brazil and Peru.
In this compelling and humanistic video, local village film maker Valdete (Shomotsi’s nephew) provides an affectionate
portrait of his uncle and his people.
The documentary allows viewers to accompany Shomotsi in his everyday routine of working and caring for his children, of
going to a local celebration, taking a trip to town for his pension cheque, telling legends and going shopping.
With endearing images and economy of dialogue, the documentary treats viewers to a depiction of the Ashenika: their
friendships, traditions, relationships with Mother Brazil and modernity, and above all, their sense of humour.
SHOMOTSI won the UNESCO Award at the International Ethnographic Film Festival in Rio de Janeiro in 2001 when it was
launched and has featured in several film festivals within Brazil itself.
SHOMOTSI – scenes from another world on Maori Television this Tuesday October 18 at 8.30 PM.
Ends
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION FOR SHOMOTSI
Year 2001
Duration One hour documentary
Censor General Exhibition (G)
Language English and Portuguese languages with English language sub-titles
PUBLICITY RELEASE
FOR RELEASE MON OCT 17 TO SUN OCT 23
TWO TOWNS OF JASPER: ONE CRIME, ONE TOWN, TWO SIDES
“Once in a while, there’s a documentary that comes along that really strikes a chord. This is raw, it is provocative and
it is controversial – an uncensored look at racism in our country of America.”
Talk show host Oprah Winfrey describes the power of TWO TOWNS OF JASPER – the feature-length documentary screening on
Maori Television this Sunday October 23 at 9.00 PM.
The 2002 compelling feature about the 1998 racially-motivated murder of James Byrd Jr in Jasper (Texas, USA) won the
Outstanding Documentary Award at the 2002 Pan African Film Festival and silver in the Best International Documentary
category at the Hot Docs film festival in Toronto that same year.
On June 7 1998, a sleepy east Texas town awoke to the news of a horrifying crime. Early that Sunday morning,
African-American resident James Byrd Jr was viciously beaten, chained to the back of a pick-up truck and dragged for
three miles until his body was torn apart.
Three white men – John William King, Lawrence Russell Brewer and Shaun Berry – all with ties to the Arayan Nation, were
arrested and charged with kidnapping and murder.
TWO TOWNS OF JASPER is a collaborative effort between one black and one white film maker – Marco Williams and Whitney
Dow – with the directors using segregated crews to document parallel perspectives on the events and mood in Jasper over
the course of the trials.
After spending the year apart following the trials, with each film maker capturing the reactions from their respective
ethnic groups, they came together with editor Melissa Neidich to create a coherent and moving narrative. The result is
TWO TOWNS OF JASPER.
The documentary has met with rave reviews in The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Variety magazine, the New York
Times and more when it was released in 2002 due to its potent and honest depiction of contemporary race relations in the
United States.
Shocking and vital, TWO TOWNS OF JASPER screens on Maori Television this Sunday October 23 at 9.00 PM.
Ends
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION FOR TWO TOWNS OF JASPER
Year 2002
Duration One hour documentary
Censor Adults Only (AO)
Language English language