Wairoa Maori Film Festival 2010

Festival Director Leo Koziol and film Director Ken Khan (”Love Has No Language”)

Audiences Enjoy the Best of Maori & Indigenous Film at the Wairoa Maori Film Festival & the Matariki National Film Programme

By Leo Koziol (Rakaipaaka, Kahungunu), Festival Director

During the months of June and July this year audiences in Wairoa, Nuhaka, Invercargill, Auckland, Wellington, Waitakere City, Papakura and Gisborne enjoyed the best of Maori and indigenous film at the Wairoa Maori Film Festival and its Matariki National Film Programme.

The Wairoa Maori Film Festival has evolved to become a national film arts project, with screenings across the country occurring around the “hub” event of the four-day festival in Wairoa itself. Screenings across the country are presented as part of local Matariki festivities, including the Wairoa event itself which is now firmly part of the local annual Matariki celebration calendar.

Over two thousand audience members enjoyed the best of Maori and international indigenous film at forty separate film screenings occurring at various museum, arts centre, marae and cinema venues north, south, east and west right across the motu.

Wairoa Maori Film Festival 2009

The main event was the Wairoa Maori Film Festival, held in Nuhaka and Wairoa from June 18th to 21st 2009. With the unfortunate closing of the local Gaiety Cinema venue, festival organisers shifted the film screenings to marae in Nuhaka (Kahungunu Marae) and Wairoa (Taihoa Marae), as well as converting the local War Memorial Hall into a café/cinema venue for the Opening Night Gala and Festival Awards Dinner. This year’s theme was “Kia Tau Te Rangimarie” – “Peace In Our Time” with a number of peace-themed films screening over the weekend.

Prior to the official commencement of the festival, a special screening of archival films played at Kahungunu Marae in Nuhaka. The Kahungunu Marae Committee of Nuhaka have always played a special role in the festival, hosting film-makers at a pre-festival dinner and then taking the delegation to Wairoa the following day. Festival organisers therefore felt it only appropriate to return this manaakitanga by holding a special screening for the local Nuhaka community.

The screening played to a full house at Kahungunu Marae, the highlight being works from the NZ Film Archive of the opening of Kahungunu Marae in 1949 and scenes from the feature film “Broken Barrier” filmed in Kahungunu Marae in 1954. The audience watched in wonder at images of their whanau from days gone by. Also screening was a short documentary on local dolphin celebrity “Moko,” and a TVNZ documentary on local kuia Tumanako Taurima and Manu Sinclair, both of whom celebrated their 80th birthdays in 2008.

The next day the festival proper commenced with the Official Powhiri at Taihoa Marae. Guest film makers, dignitaries and Festival Patrons were welcomed by kaumatua and representatives of the marae, with kapa haka groups from Wairoa College, Te Kura Kaupapa Maori I Te Wairoa and the Taihoa Marae Kohanga Reo.

The Opening Night Gala was held at the Wairoa War Memorial Hall, with a series of short films and documentaries. The Wairoa Maori Film Festival took pride in premiering of a number of new Maori short films. These included “Warbrick” directed by Pere and Meihana Durie, “Mokopuna” directed by Ainsley Gardiner, and “Kehua” directed by Wiremu Grace.

Two days of continuous film screenings were then presented on the Saturday and Sunday at Taihoa Marae. Festival planners this year chose not to split screenings between venues, enabling festival attendees to view the entire festival programme, indeed a feast of film and as one special guest remarked “food for the soul.”

The centrepiece of the festival each year the Festival Awards Dinner. This year the dinner had a sombre tone, with so many tangi recently occurring in Wairoa and across the country. Attendees held a minutes silence to remember the many great people sadly lost to us over the past year.

Recipient of the Festival Prize that night was Vincent Ward’s feature docu-drama “Rain of the Children.” Vincent’s documentary was a “sequel” to his 1978 film “In Spring One Plants Alone” about the life of Puhi, Tuhoe kuia and former wife of the son of Maungapohatu Prophet Rua Kenana.

Other award recipients on the evening were “Warbrick” by brothers Pere and Meihana Durie, which received the Aotearoa short film audience award, “Tnorala Baby Falling” by Aboriginal film-maker Warwick Thornton that received the international indigenous entry prize, and “Taking the Waewae Express” by Andrea Bosshard and Shane Loader, which received the Aotearoa feature drama/documentary prize.

Brothers Pere and Meihana Durie acknowledged the support of the Wairoa Maori Film Festival in 2005 via the festival’s scholarship programme. The brothers mentioned how the funding from this scholarship went into the development of the film “Warbrick” which had now become a reality.

Live entertainment once again was Mohaka-born psychedelic guitarist Billy TK Sr., this year presenting the “Billy TK Experience” with a raft of other talented Maori musicians, including Brannigan Kaa. Also premiering on the evening was emerging Wairoa talent “Young Truthy” (Jordan Koziol Repia) who perfomed to a rapt audience of local Nannies and Aunties.

A truly special part of the festival each year has been film makers attending and presenting their film works. Their presence makes the festival more of a “wananga” type experience, an opportunity for the local community and guests to the festival to engage in the important korero of how you translate your local community stories and histories to the film screen.

This year was no exception. Pere and Meihana Durie and Mike Jonathon introduced their short films on Friday. On Saturday, Director Ken Khan introduced the unique Bollywood- Maori collaboration “Love Has No Language” starring Shortland Street’s Ben Mitchell. On Sunday, Richard Green presented his award-winning Treaty education drama “Te Whare The House”. The same day Craig Fasi presented the “Pollywood 2009” programme, now an annual part of our Wairoa festival programme.

Film maker Mike Smith was a guest at the festival, and he presented his new documentary “Swine Flu Epidemic,” a very topical and indeed troubling analysis of the crisis currently facing our society and health system.

Film makers and the Wairoa community gathered on the closing night Sunday for the double feature of Vincent Ward’s “In Spring One Plants Alone” and “Rain of the Children” at Taihoa Marae. Another successful Wairoa Maori Film Festival had made its presence felt in Wairoa and in the indigenous film world.

Matariki National Travelling Film Programme

The Matariki National Travelling Film Programme was founded in 2008 as a means to take Maori and indigenous films to audiences across the country who may not have the means or opportunity to travel to Wairoa for the full festival experience.

Last year, the festival made a go of commercial film venues in Wellington and Auckland, but this year alternatively opted for arts venues and museums, including Te Papa Tongarewa, Corban Estate Arts Centre, Hawkin’s Theatre Papakura, and the Galatos Auckland venue operated by MIC Toi Rerehiko.

Each screening garnered a diversity of audiences, from small rural communities to hipster inner city dwellers, from marae-based screenings to a commercial multiplex in Levin. Local organisations helped out extensively with local marketing to draw busy audiences, with the screenings included in national, regional and local Matariki festival promotions in all the various locations.

This year it all began on June 6th in Invercargill, at the inaugural Southland Matariki Short Film Festival curated by the Wairoa Maori Film Festival. A special selection of seven short films was presented, each to represent one star in the Matariki constellation.

Presented on the travelling short film programme were three films funded by the NZ Film Commission – “Aphrodite’s Farm”, “Journey to Ihipa” and “Patu Ihu” – Mike Jonathon’s independently funded “Shadows” and two music videos – “Tangaroa” featuring Tiki Taane and “Tuia” featuring Ariana Tikao (Louise Potiki-Bryant Director).

Over the Matariki period, this travelling short film programme was present in Wellington (at Te Papa), Levin (at the wonderful new “Nua” Film Festival spearheaded by Hiona Henare), Gisborne (the new Dome Cinema) and at five venues in the Auckland region (Hawkin’s Theatre in Papakura; Corban Estate in Waitakere City; Awataha Marae on the North Shore; Auckland Central Library; and Galatos, Karangahape Road).

Each screening at each venue had its own unique spirit and range of activities. In Invercargill, Angela Newell of Venture Southland put together a “package” evening with a lecture on the Matariki constellation by a local astronomy expert and Kapa Haka from the local Invercargill High School kapa haka group. The strains of “Paikea” and “Rongomaiwahine” were sung into the rafters far from the distant spiritual hub of Tairawhiti East Coast, in the deep south and in the shadows of the Takitimu ranges.

At Invercargill, I made connection to Nuhaka cousin Jade Gillies, a local film producer who has worked extensively with the local community TV station and is planning to travel to Wairoa for the 2010 festival. We also made a professional connection for a local Director who was so impressed by Mike Jonathon’s performance in “Shadows” that he has offered to cast him in his new WWI short film.

Similar stories occured elsewhere in the country, such as a film maker in Levin who hopes to be shortlisted for the Te Paepae Ataata project and interest from film-makers in Hamilton and Auckland wishing to establish a Producers Pod in association with the Wairoa Maori Film Festival and its travelling programme.

Future Planning for 2010 Festivities

At the AGM directly following the Wairoa event, Festival Chairperson Huia Koziol confirmed the success of the ongoing project that is the Wairoa Maori Film Festival, and on behalf of the festival board confirmed that the date of the next festival is Queen’s Birthday Weekend 2010, June 3rd to 7th 2010, venues Kahungunu Marae, Taihoa Marae and Wairoa War Memorial Hall.

The theme of the 2010 festival will be “Waka,” and it is hoped to have waka on the Wairoa River as part of the festival celebration next year. The board acknowledged the support of the local community that made the festival such a great success. Taihoa Marae was the primary host and festival hub this year, and this role will continue. Local businesses were very supportive, with the Wairoa Visitor and Lyalls Chemist putting up window displays and the local Oslers bakery distributing the programme. The Wairoa District Council was a particularly important supporter, once again sponsoring the event for the positive profile the event garners locally and nationally.

The Matariki National Film Programme is now a successful “spin-off” of the Wairoa project, with numerous venues confirming interest to present films once again in 2010, and interest expressed from other communities interested in partaking in the unique Maori and indigenous film experience. Dialogue with venues in Raglan, Dannevirke, Nelson, Masterton and Sydney (our first international screening) has already commenced in regards to planning for the 2010 event.

Festival organisers in the coming year are also planning to assist film-makers to develop their film projects, supporting emerging Maori Directors in their vision, and helping local film-makers tell local stories. A Producers Pod has been established with agreement by independent Waikato based film-maker Garth Watene as the first participant in this programme. There is also the concept of a Wairoa Music Video project on the drawing board, building on the huge ongoing success of Wairoa College students at Pacifica Beats.

The Wairoa Maori Film Festival is also keen to be supportive of other community and independent film festivals in New Zealand. We have indicated support of the Magma Short Film Festival in Rotorua, participated in the Aotearoa Film Festival in Auckland last year, and took a delegation to experience the awesome world class Hokianga Film Festival up north. The Hokianga Film Festival is put together every two years by the dynamic Heather Randerson, wife of the late Barry Barclay. Both Barry and Heather travelled to Wairoa for the festival in 2006, where we presented a full retrospective of Barry’s feature film works.

What has been lost by Barry Barclay’s passing was only highlighted further by the screening of Graeme Tuckett’s important film work “Camera On The Shore.” Watching this film, I remembered my many conversations with Barry, about how important it is to take our Maori films back to the “ahi kaa,” to the local communities where the films are set and the stories are from.

Our shift to a marae-based focus for the Wairoa festival I hope reflects this. For me personally, taking the archival films to my home whanau community in Nuhaka was in a small way a means to honour Barry’s memory.

Above my village sits the mountain of Moumoukai, which if you look at it closely resembles the face of an ancestor. As our indigenous films flickered that night in the shadow of Moumoukai, I can only hope that he perhaps only slightly turned his head towards the village to see what was going on. Perhaps he even opened one eyelid to look and listen, and then no doubt returned once again to his deep slumber of the souls essence everlasting.