Cinéma

South Pacific New Wave: Māori Cinema as a Cultural Renaissance

Wednesday, August 7 - 6 pm
McCord Stewart Museum

Free Screening

South Pacific New Wave: Māori Cinema as a Cultural Renaissance

The Māori cinema of Aotearoa New Zealand has been going through a transformational renaissance over the past fifteen years, with over a dozen new Native-made feature films, many fully or largely in the Native language. At the same time, these films have been box office successes, with Māori and Pacific films now comprising the majority of NZ top films of all-time. This transformation did not happen by accident, it comes after many years of struggle and activism by filmmakers such as Merata Mita, Barry Barclay and Witi Ihimaera. Leo Koziol (Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Rakaipaaka) is founder and festival director of the Wairoa Māori Film Festival, and he presents a visual essay, a journey into Māori cinema in its contemporary context. Particular focus is made upon Māori wahine (women) filmmaking, focusing on the film Waru as a seminal work in the emergence of new Māori female talent. Short films, excerpts and trailers will be screened as part of this presentation.