Wairoa Maori Film Festival Ready to Go!

Wairoa Maori Film Festival Ready to Go!

IN TWO WEEKS TIME, the seventh annual Wairoa Maori Film Festival will once again celebrate the best of Maori and indigenous film making. "The festival is ready to go," says Festival Director Leo Koziol, "We now have close to 40 film makers booked in from near and far, including two guests from Taiwan, two guests from Canada, and two guests from Australia."

A highlight of this year's festival is a bumper new crop of Maori and Pasifika themed short films, curated in part with the assistance and support of the New Zealand International Film Festival.

In 2012, the Wairoa Maori Film Festival is curating a programme of recent Maori and Pasifika short films for the New Zealand International Film Festival, with screenings to occur in Auckland and Wellington. “We are excited to be working alongside the country’s largest film festival to profile Maori and Pasifika film and acting talent,” says Festival Director Leo Koziol. "We thank Bill Gosden and his team for their foresight in supporting Maori and Pasifika film making."

Up to seven short films will be selected by the Wairoa programming team for these two high profile short film screenings in New Zealand’s two largest centres, and audiences will be able to preview these films and more at the Wairoa Maori Film Festival at Kahungunu Marae in Nuhaka. Some of the films screening in Wairoa:

LAWNMOWER MEN OF KAPU by Libby Hakaraia, produced by Tainui Stephens, is the result of a community based papakainga film making project at Libby's home marae of Kapumanawhiti. Based on a true story of three competitive lawnmower men, the film has a largely non-professional cast of locals. The film is having its first public screenings at two film festivals on the same night, on the opposite sides of the world: LAWNMOWER MEN OF KAPU is playing on June 1 in Wairoa and on same day at the indigenous DREAMSPEAKERS film festival in Calgary, Canada.

THE DUMP is the first film by Hamish Bennett (Te Arawa, Ngapuhi, Kai Tahu) and it had its international premiere at the Dallas International Film Festival in April. "The authentic, heartfelt way in which the story’s protagonist, 11-year-old Utah, narrates his thoughts about his family during a visit to his loner father shows how such a man can be both a hero and a disappointment. As the kid learns about his father’s all-encompassing job... we learn how real and genuine he actually is, and realize that despite his absence, his status as a role model to Utah is more solid than most dads." http://diff2012.dallasfilm.org/this-years-unintended-diff-theme-dads/

WHAKATIKI is directed by Louise Leitch with a script written by Bernadette Murphy (Te Atiawa). The film was incomplete until their producer entered it into a competition. Whakatiki was one of only seven films worldwide, and the only short film, to be awarded post-production funds in the 25th Annual Women In Film Foundation’s Film Finishing Fund. The grant awarded to Whakatiki was generously donated by Netflix, America's largest online streaming film and television service. WHAKATIKI then went on to hold its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York in April.

BABY STEPS by Mark Ruka (Ngapuhi). Tiki Taane makes his acting debut in this touching story of the challenges of being a Dad in the modern world. The film has a posthumous connection to another musician, Pauly Fuemana. Tiki Taane, looking through some of the unpublished works left to him by Pauly Fuemana, found a song on an unmarked CD that, in collaboration with Fred Renata, became an evocation for the film and is now on the soundtrack.

NINE OF HEARTS by Briar Grace Smith (Ngapuhi, Ngati Wai) is the first time the acclaimed playwright and feature film writer has helmed a short film in a directing role. Trembling with energy and a kind of hybrid Maori / Pakeha spiritual magic, NINE OF HEARTS is a short film like no other to emerge from Aotearoa, and is about the cards Gen, a Pakeha mother of three Maori children, has been dealt and the the cards she is choosing to play now.

Other brand new short films on the programme include LAMBS by Sam Kelly, TAYLOR by Rachel Ross, STUMPED by Jack Nicol, THE DEALMAKER by Lennie Hill, GRAFFITI WEEKEND by Helmut Marko and WILD SUNDAY by Tia Barrett. Decision will be made after the festival regarding which of these short films will screen at the New Zealand International Film Festival.

Playing alongside the expansive selection of short films are a dozen features, documentaries, and student shorts from New Zealand and around the world. Venue for the Wairoa Maori Film Festival is Kahungunu Marae, Nuhaka, located only 40 minutes from Gisborne and 25 minutes from Wairoa. Guests at the festival have the option of Marae Stay in Nuhaka, hot pools in Morere, or beachside accommodations at stunning Mahia Beach.

This year, for the first time, a chartered bus will travel from Auckland to Nuhaka, return. For only $50, festival attendees can have their transport needs met, and then for only $120 for the festival pass they get a full weekend of films, all meals, the gala Hawaiian Luau dinner and marae stay accommodation in the stunning 1950s Kahungunu Marae.

Premiere sponsor for the Wairoa Maori Film Festival is the New Zealand Film Commission. We thank the New Zealand Film Commission for their generous support in making the festival possible.

Please email maorimovies@gmail.com or phone 06 837 8854 for any booking enquiries or media interviews.

ENDS

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