Kath Akuhata-Brown

Inspired by an ancient Māori story in which nature intermingles with a child’s love, Washday depicts – with tremendous sensitivity and compassion – a grieving father and daughter coming to terms with a significant death in 1960s New Zealand.

When a young fakaleiti falls in love at St Valentine’s Highschool, she must navigate her way through a world of intolerance and bigotry to find happiness - in an unexpected place.

Under the celestial guidance of Matariki, Māori elder Hamo and local delinquent Jo form an unlikely bond on a road trip. As they confront past traumas and each face their demons, their shared path becomes a journey of healing, community, and reconciliation.

A Māori elder must bear the burden of carrying the spirits of her ancestors to their sacred mountain.

At once tranquil and bracing, Tu Neill and Jim Speers’ film is a portrait of a seaside town and its vanishing way of life. Though it is now slowly emptying, Ayukawa was once a thriving coastal community, its success based on a practice rooted in tradition, custom, and ceremony: whaling. Through the voices of local elders, the film conveys how that form of hunting developed into the lifeblood of the town before cultural changes, international condemnation, and strict regulation brought it to the brink of non-existence.

Laundry is a character-driven joyful comedy about a happily married but frustrated woman, struggling to find intimacy due to the demands of raising a family.