East Coast Dreaming ~ A Message From The Festival Director SINCE THE DAWN OF CINEMA, film makers have The East Coast life is a life I lived as a boy in been fascinated by the romance and adventure of Nuhaka. I think of me and my cousin Nicky sitting stories set in the South Seas. Seafaring adventure under the table eating the matchstick ends as Aunty stories in the tropics. Robinson Crusoe! Romantic Vera and her entourage played Canasta up above, stories of stout, stiff upper-lipped Englishmen drinking sweet Bushells tea, chain smoking and wooed and weakened by the temptation of love speaking a patois of Pākehā, Māori and some with a Pacific maiden. Mutiny on the Bounty! Epic significantly severe swearing. I go back to Manutai wild tales of noble savages in the time before. Rapa Marae and all the Aunties call me “My Darling” and Nui! But these stories were not made by the “My Baby” and all of a sudden I’m five year’s old Natives, nor told by the Natives. In many instances, again and life feels timeless and right once again. the lead roles of the Native Maiden or the Savage In 2005, the Wairoa Māori Film Festival burst on the Chief were played by white actors in “brownface.” scene at what seemed like a new day for Māori film In Aotearoa New Zealand, almost every Pākehā film making. We were on the cusp of something new. maker has been fascinated by the Māori world - Te Don Selwyn got funded and made an all Māori cast, Ao Māori - and has made us the subject of their all Reo scripted feature MĀORI MERCHANT OF romances, their dramas and their action flicks. VENICE. Witi Ihimaera saw his story WHALE RIDER Geoff Murphy: UTU. Rudall Hayward: REWI’S LAST up on screen, directed by Pākehā Niki Caro. And STAND, TRAIL OF TE KOOTI. Vincent Ward: RIVER Māori were showing up at the Oscars: Keisha QUEEN. Roger Donaldson: THE BOUNTY. Jane Castle-Hughes up for Best Actress; Taika Waititi up Campion: THE PIANO. James Napier Robertson: for Best Short (for TWO CARS, ONE NIGHT that DARK HORSE. Curtis Vowell: FANTAIL. eventually became the smash hit BOY). Neither won the Oscar, but we didn’t care, we’d come of age For many years our iconic Māori filmmakers and a new time for Māori cinema had arrived. including Merata Mita, Don Selwyn and Barry Barclay fought for the voice of Māori to be told Back in 2005, a baby sperm whale swam up the from a Māori perspective. Each of them made Nuhaka river with its mother, hung out, and turned landmark works that were the first in a whole new around and went back out to sea – on the weekend genre of film named, by Barry Barclay, as “4th of the first Wairoa Māori Film Festival. Cinema.” Ten years later, it seems this portent has proven First cinema is the mainstream films of Hollywood, right. Māori are making Māori stories, and taking perpetuating mainstream values and stereotypes; them to the world. Taika Waititi is internationally second cinema, auteur works of the 1960s New acclaimed, both as a director and an actor. Witi Wave; third cinema, films of the so-called “Third Ihimaera’s THE PATRIARCH is in production with Lee World”; and fourth cinema, native film makers Tamahori at the helm. And a dream of our giants of telling native stories for native audiences. From a Māori film world – a Paepae for Māori film by Māori camera on the shore, as the coloniser sits parked in film –birthed to life THE PA BOYS by Himiona Grace. his boat, plane or spaceship offshore… The Wairoa Māori Film Festival is now helping Our founding film makers all started out in Māori film makers distribute their films across the documentary and commenced the important work country and around the world. We have a voice and of creating deeply authentic works, reflections of a place at the New Zealand International Film daily life in Māori communities. And they came to Festival. We distribute to and partner with film the East Coast to film them. festivals in France, Canada, Australia, the Cook Islands, French Polynesia, the USA and Hawaii. Both NGATI (Barry Barclay) and MAURI (Merata Wairoa suddenly has a new state-of-the-art cinema Mita) ebulliently document moments of daily life on and film production facility – Wairoawood, anyone? the East Coast of New Zealand, a timeless place And once again, we will all gather in Nuhaka for kai, with stories about gentle people living simple lives; kōrero, hot pools and a film hui – for a weekend of gentle lives imbued with wairua deeply connected East Coast Dreaming. to the natural and supernatural world around them. – Leo Koziol, Ngati Rakaipaaka, Ngati Kahungunu WAIROA MĀORI FILM FESTIVAL 2015: PROGRAMME Friday May 29th Sunday May 31st Kahungunu Marae, Nuhaka Kahungunu Marae, Nuhaka 3 pm Official Festival Powhiri 8 am Breakfast 4 pm Registration 9 am Black Panther Woman 5 pm Wahine Shorts 9 am World Shorts II 5.30 pm Welcome Hakari Dinner 10 am Another Trip to the Moon 6 pm Māori Shorts I 10 am My Legacy 8 pm Feature Presentation: Umbrella Man 11 am Circle of Life 11.30 am Confessions of Prisoner T Saturday May 30th 12.30 pm Lunch Kahungunu Marae, Nuhaka 1 pm Road to Paloma (R) Jason Momoa 8 am Breakfast 1 pm Te Kati - Goethe Mystery 9.15 am World Shorts I 2 pm Tatau 10.30 am Genome 3 pm The Dark Horse 11 am Māori Shorts II 3 pm Te Reo O Te Whenua 12 pm Lunch with VR Demo 5 pm Closing Dinner 12.30 pm 4th Cinema Academic Panel 1.30 pm The Māori New Wave Panel Sunday May 31st 3 pm The Dead Lands (R) Gaiety Theatre, Wairoa 3 pm Hawaiian Shorts 10 am Wairoa Māori Film Festival Presents... A collection of Family-Friendly New Zealand Saturday May 30th short films to celebrate the reopening of the Gaiety Theatre, Wairoa Gaiety Theatre 6 pm Ribbon Cutting with Mayor of Wairoa 3 pm Umbrella Man 6.30 pm Red Carpet Reception 7 pm Māori FiLM Awards Gaiety Grand Gala! Sunday May 31st Keynote: Gaylene Preston ONZM, Native Morere Tea Rooms, Morere Now! Media Art Showcase, Live Music 7 pm Bush Cinema - Underground Shorts NATIVE NOW! Media Art Works: 9 pm DJ Set - Daughters of Hathor with Mana Wairoa - by Marta Szymanska, Media Art Projections Charlotte Graham & Leo Koziol Whakataka Te Hau - Candida Keithley Monday June 1st Tangaroa Whakamautai - Shae Stirling Kahungunu Marae, Nuhaka Jenny Fraser - Bunurong 9 am Poroporoaki and Taniwha - Mika Formal Closing of Festival Blood Clot - Rosanna Raymond Tai Whetuki - by Lisa Reihana The Wairoa Māori Film Festival is presented as a “Film Hui” or Wananga. All attendees are required to register for the festival weekend. Some international works are screened unrated for education purposes. WAIROA MĀORI FILM FESTIVAL 2015: SPECIAL EVENTS MĀORI FILM AWARDS GAIETY GRAND GALA GAIETY CINEMA, SATURDAY: RECEPTION AT 6 PM * GALA AT 7 PM 6 pm Ribbon Cutting at Gaiety Cinema 6.30 pm Red Carpet Reception 7 pm MĀORI FILM AWARDS GAIETY GRAND GALA – 10TH BIRTHDAY 3-Course Dinner, Awards Presentation, WIFT Mana Wahine Award Presentation to Chelsea WinstanLey Keynote Address: GayLene Preston ONZM Evening concludes with: Native Now! Media Art Showcase MANA WAIROA - Marta Szymanska & Charlotte Graham BUNURONG - Jenny Fraser TANIWHA - Mika BLOOD CLOT - Rosanna Raymond TAI WHETUKI - by Lisa Reihana 10.30 pm Bus Returns to Nuhaka 4TH CINEMA: ACADEMIC PANEL KAHUNGUNU MARAE, 12.30 PM SATURDAY Kōrero: What is 4th Cinema? What makes a Māori movie, a Māori movie? Join us for an elucidating and intellectual academic panel, Chaired by Festival Director Leo Koziol (Ngati Kahungunu, Ngati Rakaipaaka) with guest panellists: • Dr. Davinia Thornley, University of Otago • Deborah Walker-Morrison, University of Auckland • Dr. Ella Henry, Te Ara Poutama, University of Auckland THE MĀORI NEW WAVE KAHUNGUNU MARAE, 1.30 PM SATURDAY What is this so-called “New Wave” in film making that is sweeping the world? In Ireland, the economic crash meant funding streams for film makers went dry from both the private sector and the public sector. So instead of sitting on the sidelines waiting for funding to come in, they started self-funding and crowdfunding their own independent feature films, to dramatic effect. Today we talk with Māori film makers going the micro-budget and crowdfunding route: Hiona Henare on Native in Nuhaka, Lennie Hill on Umbrella Man, and Mark Ruka on Barcrawl. Joining them are NZ-based Samoan director Nikki Si’ulepa (Ma) and NZ-based Irish producer Kim Hegan (54 Gandhi Road) who have similar projects on the boil. With: TONN NUA? Peter McKeown, 2015, 22 minutes, Ireland (English language) Tonn Nua? is an inquisitive documentary into contemporary Irish cinema. The film focuses on the rise of micro-budget productions over the last number of years. Speaking to a number of filmmakers and industry professionals, Tonn Nua? charts this cinematic growth and notes where this development might lead. WAHINE SHORTS I KAHUNGUNU MARAE, 5 PM FRIDAY HORSE New Zealand 2012 12 min Director/Writer Jessica Bluck (Pākehā) This story is inspired by an incident in 1869 during the New Zealand land wars when a young trooper Michael Noonan carrying military dispatches was shot at Lake Waikaremoana by an ambushing party. Jessica Bluck is a film maker and commercial director. Her whanau originally hail from Nuhaka. MA New Zealand 2014 16 min Director/Writer Nikki Si’ulepa (Samoa) Producers Nikki Si’ulepa & Ngaire Fuata Ma is a widowed matriarch of a family that has grown up and moved away and lives alone with her substitute family of dolls and collectibles.