NZIFF Selects Tuhoe Tame Iti Film
Screening in Auckland on July 19 & 22 and Wellington August 4 & 5
THE PRICE OF PEACE, a powerfully moving documentary by investigative journalist Kim Webby is having its World Premiere
in the New Zealand International Film Festival on July 19.
The film tells the story of the 170 years of intensely troubled relationship between the Crown and Ng?i T?hoe, through
the prism of prominent activist Tame Iti and his family.
Tame Iti is New Zealand’s best-known political activist and a man accused of running military style training camps in a
remote part of New Zealand. He is also a man of peace, a loving father and grandfather, a kaumatua of his Ng?i T?hoe
tribe, an artist, a performer, who has spent his life advocating for M?ori rights.
THE PRICE OF PEACE shows how Iti’s life changed forever on October 15, 2007. In the dead of night, heavily armed police
in military style uniform raided his home and the homes of many others in what became known as the infamous “terror
raids.”
For the next six years he fought to clear his name and the name of his T?hoe people. The film follows Iti through the
Court system, through his jail sentence, and is with him on his return home.
The film places the “terror raids” and subsequent events in the context of history, from the confiscations and scorched
earth raids of the 1860s right up to the signing of the historic Deed of Settlement in 2013 and the Crown’s formal
apology in 2014.
For filmmaker Kim Webby, this film began when she made an hour-long documentary for M?ori Television, October 15, which won the Grand Prize at the 2011 Wairoa M?ori Film Festival and then screened in Tahiti at the Pacific
International Documentary Film Festival (FIFO).
In Tahiti, the judges and the audience all had one question: what happens next? So, as soon as she arrived back, she
started filming the p?whiri for the Urewera Four about to go on trial the next day. And she kept on filming for three
more years.
From the NZIFF programme: “Kim Webby’s background in investigative journalism is put to riveting use in this documentary
about Tame Iti and the Urewera Four, taking a criminal case of national interest to explore a greater social issue.”
THE PRICE OF PEACE is directed by Kim Webby, produced by Christina Milligan, Roger Grant and Webby through production
company Conbrio Media Ltd. Director of photography is Jos Wheeler, editor Cushla Dillon.
Made in association with New Zealand On Air and M?ori Television with funding assistance from Te Kotahi a T?hoe and the
New Zealand Film Commission
Screening in Auckland on Sunday 19 July 1:00pm and Wednesday 22 July 1:45pm Sky City Theatre.
Screening in Wellington Tuesday 4 August 6:15pm and Wednesday 5 August 1:30pm Soundings Theatre Te Papa.
Screening dates for other centres TBA.
ENDS