Native Now! Media Art Showcase at Wairoa

Native Now! Media Art Showcase at Wairoa

International Media Artists to Be Profiled at Wairoa Maori Film Festival

New Zealand Maori, Australian, Samoan, Canadian and Egyptian media artists are being profiled at the Wairoa Maori Film Festival. The theme for this year's film festival is "Native Now!" with the festival profiling indigenous media artists from around the world.

A collection of works are being profiled at the Gala Awards Dinner, projected in a new state-of-the-art sound and video system installed at the Gaiety Theatre, Marine Parade, Wairoa.

The line-up for the Gala Dinner includes:

Mana Wairoa - by Marta Szymanska, Charlotte Graham & Leo Koziol. A collaborative animation of a Charlotte Graham artwork created by Polish animator Marta Szymanska.

Whakataka Te Hau- Candida Keithley. A wananga set to dramatic context, from the 2nd Maori film festival back in 2006, starring Noa Campbell and Rob Mokaraka.

Bunurong – Jenny Fraser (Australia). An animated work by Murri artist, a manifestation of an Aboriginal aesthetic to communicate old and new cultures across languages and other borders.

Taniwha - Mika media art/music video - Mika artiste extraordinaire presents his latest visual explosion work "Taniwha" a premiere presentation with live accompaniment,

Blood Clot - Rosanna Raymond (Samoan) - media art. Rosanna Raymond pushes boundaries in this 'visceral' work which will be presented with live accompaniment.

Tai Whetuki - (PHOTO ABOVE) by Lisa Reihana media art - recently premiered at the Auckland Festival 2015.Visually striking and emotionally provocative, Tai Whetuki is a powerful new video work by leading multi-media artist Lisa Reihana (Ngapuhi, Ngāti Hine and Ngai Tu) which delves into Māori and Pacific cultural practices pertaining to death and mourning. Haunting and evocative images, accompanied by an elemental soundscape take us on a journey through the intensity and spectacle of communal mourning, in a reflection on grief and the transition of the spirit.
Groundbreaking and courageous, Lisa Reihana is internationally renowned as an artist working across both digital and physical platforms.

Also screening at the festival are the following media art works:

Lori Blondeau (Canada) - Unpacking the Whiteman
Alban Wady El Neel - Mohamad El Hadidi (Egypt)
Iskenderia - Mayye Zayed (Egypt)

Lori Blondeau is a Cree/Saulteaux artist working primarily in performance art, but also occasionally in installation and photography. In Unpacking the Whiteman, Blondeau teaches, seduces and sets her white capture free. By gutting fish, smashing berries and waltzing in red stilletous the character she portrays (partially based on Pocohontas and the old Lakota woman in a Man Called Horse) Blondeau demonstrates to the captive sheerly through actions and gesture the skills needed for survival - food preparation and romance!

Alban Wady El Neel and Iskenderia both come from the Egyptian production collective of Alexandria entitled named Rufy's. Iskenderia is an experimental work showing scenes from the canon of films made in Alexandria, set against footage of the newly discovered underwater palace of Cleopatra.

Also of mention at the Wairoa Maori Film Festival is the experimental feature film on Sunday morning, ANOTHER TRIP TO THE MOON (below) by Indonesian film maker Ismael Basbeth. The film is a "magical surrealist journey of Asa, daughter of a shaman, who confronts her own mother, fighting for her own life and freedom" in the style of both Kanakan Balintagos (Auraeus Solito) and Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives).

ENDS

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