The Ngā Whanaunga showcase displays some of the finest Māori and Pasifika stories you will ever see in the short film format. Curated by Leo Koziol (Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Rakaipaaka), director of the Wairoa Māori Film Festival, and guest curator Craig Fasi (Niue), director of the Pollywood Film Festival, this quality collection should be high on your list of screenings to consider this NZIFF.
We posed a few questions to a few of the filmmakers about their shorts.
First of all, can you sum up your film in exactly eight words?
JACK WOON: Step Up meets Whale Rider minus the whale. (Rising Dust)
POATA ERUERA: Only the gifted few see the spirit world. (Pūmanawa: The Gift)
DARREN SIMMONDS: True self expression carries risk and requires courage. (INC’d)
REBECCA COLLINS: It’s an exploration of our forbidden spiritual past. (Tohunga)
What kind of reaction are you hoping to elicit from the NZIFF audience?
WOON: I’d be most happy if the audience walk out of the screening with a sense of pride. It’s a celebration of what makes New Zealand so special. Our little country is home to the most incredibly talented hip-hop dancers in the world as well as the one-of-a-kind spiritual landscape of the Hokianga. The audience should come out of that cinema as if it’s Eden Park, screaming ‘Go Kiwis!’
ERUERA: A sadness that Christianity has bulldozed shut many cultural and spiritual doors.
SIMMONDS: Tears. I want them to feel inspired. I want them to consider what is important in their lives.
COLLINS: A sense of loss.
Tell us how you felt when you first showed your completed short film to someone.
WOON: Hungry? I can’t remember, most probably nervous and tired. But I do remember at our cast and crew screening, hearing the young Palace dancers in the audience cheer out loud and feeling the positive energy from all of the team, and just thinking that it was all worth getting covered in dust for.
ERUERA: First, I hoped they would “get it”. Second, stoked that I had told a story from the Hokianga that would be shared with other Iwi in the Nga Aho Whakaari initiative ‘Aho Shorts’, and third very proud of the cast and crew for a fantastic job on a 22K budget.
SIMMONDS: I was proud and pleased that they were moved by the story.
COLLINS: Nauseous.
If you met someone who hadn’t experienced a quality Māori Pasifika short film before, what short would you want to show them?
WOON: Two Cars One Night and O Tamaiti.
ERUERA: Tama Tu or Two Cars One Night. Both by Taika Waititi.
SIMMONDS: INC’d (smiley face). I think Ross and Beth (playing in NZ’s Best 2014) is also a beautifully shot film with a simple yet powerful story.
COLLINS: Two Cars One Night.
Do have any plans or desires to attempt a feature film anytime soon?
WOON: Of course! I don’t think I’m that good at making short films. I’d like to see if I’m any better with a feature.
ERUERA: Lots of desire. The closest project would be an adaptation of Sue McCauley’s novel The Tropic of Guile.
SIMMONDS: Yes, definitely. I am in prepoduction on a feature film going into production in October. It’s about an elderly homeless man who befriends a runaway teen in order to rescue him from a life on the streets; and in the process, they become each other’s salvation.
COLLINS: Nope.
