Calvin Tuteao

Once Were Warriors

In a violent relationship, it takes a mother’s strength to save herself and her children from the man she loved. Once Were Warriors is a violent love story set against a contemporary urban backdrop.

The Dead Lands

Hongi, a Maori chieftain’s teenage son, must avenge his father’s murder in order to bring peace and honour to the souls of his loved ones after his tribe is slaughtered through an act of treachery. Vastly outnumbered by a band of villains led by Wirepa, Hongi’s only hope is to pass through the feared and forbidden “Dead Lands” and forge an uneasy alliance with a mysterious warrior, a ruthless fighter who has ruled the area for years.

Kawa

A psychological drama of a family in crisis. Kawa, a successful Māori businessman in Auckland, New Zealand, is forced to reveal his lifelong secret - that he is gay.

Crooked Earth

Will Bastion returns home from the army after an absence of 20 years to bury his father, the former chief of thee Maori tribe, Ngati Kaipuku. The eldest son, he is reluctant to inherit his fathers role, so it is taken more willingly by his younger brother, Kahu. Kahu is the leader of a band of drug dealers and trouble-makers who ride horses through the middle of town, wrecking peoples gardens. Under the guise of refusal of a land settlement, Kahu makes a large marijuana deal with some murdering city folk. Will must choose between loyalty for his brother and his father, Maori tradition, and contemporary financial issues.

We Are Still Here

In a sweeping tale that spans 1000 years and multiple generations – from the distant past to the 19th century, the present day and a strange, dystopian future – this landmark collection traces the collective histories of Indigenous peoples across Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific. Diverse in perspective, content and form, traversing the terrain of grief, love and dispossession, they each bear witness to these cultures’ ongoing struggles against patriarchy, colonialism and racism.

Cousins

Connected by blood but separated by circumstances, three cousins spend a lifetime in search of each other.

The Pā Boys

The Pa Boys is an energetic, uplifting road movie capturing the best of New Zealand's culture, beauty, talent and music, whilst exploring themes of identity, friendship and discovering your roots.

Kōkā

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.

Once Were Warriors

In a violent relationship, it takes a mother’s strength to save herself and her children from the man she loved. Once Were Warriors is a violent love story set against a contemporary urban backdrop.

The Dead Lands

Hongi, a Maori chieftain’s teenage son, must avenge his father’s murder in order to bring peace and honour to the souls of his loved ones after his tribe is slaughtered through an act of treachery. Vastly outnumbered by a band of villains led by Wirepa, Hongi’s only hope is to pass through the feared and forbidden “Dead Lands” and forge an uneasy alliance with a mysterious warrior, a ruthless fighter who has ruled the area for years.

Kawa

A psychological drama of a family in crisis. Kawa, a successful Māori businessman in Auckland, New Zealand, is forced to reveal his lifelong secret - that he is gay.

Crooked Earth

Will Bastion returns home from the army after an absence of 20 years to bury his father, the former chief of thee Maori tribe, Ngati Kaipuku. The eldest son, he is reluctant to inherit his fathers role, so it is taken more willingly by his younger brother, Kahu. Kahu is the leader of a band of drug dealers and trouble-makers who ride horses through the middle of town, wrecking peoples gardens. Under the guise of refusal of a land settlement, Kahu makes a large marijuana deal with some murdering city folk. Will must choose between loyalty for his brother and his father, Maori tradition, and contemporary financial issues.

We Are Still Here

In a sweeping tale that spans 1000 years and multiple generations – from the distant past to the 19th century, the present day and a strange, dystopian future – this landmark collection traces the collective histories of Indigenous peoples across Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific. Diverse in perspective, content and form, traversing the terrain of grief, love and dispossession, they each bear witness to these cultures’ ongoing struggles against patriarchy, colonialism and racism.

Cousins

Connected by blood but separated by circumstances, three cousins spend a lifetime in search of each other.

The Pā Boys

The Pa Boys is an energetic, uplifting road movie capturing the best of New Zealand's culture, beauty, talent and music, whilst exploring themes of identity, friendship and discovering your roots.

Kōkā

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.

The Last Saint

Minka is a teenage Polynesian boy living in the heart of the city. With his P-addicted mother well on the way to going completely off the rails, three people enter his life - each with a promise - each with the power to destroy.

Elevation

A Maori gang member and a Neo-Nazi become trapped in an elevator and must put aside their differences to escape their predicament; all the while dealing with an equally racist Chinese maintenance worker.

Matua

When a Maori teacher reluctantly accepts the task of teaching two strangers, he is forced to confront and reconcile with his past by unearthing family secrets.

The Man Who Lost His Head

Martin Clunes stars as a straight-laced museum curator who finds himself travelling to New Zealand to settle a dispute with a Maori community about an ancient carving - with unexpected consequences.

In Dark Places

In Dark Places is the gripping story of an innocent man, imprisoned for two decades for a crime he did not commit, and an ex-cop's heroic battle to win him his freedom.

Hitch Hike

On a trip to find his birth mother, 18-year-old Aaron is forced to hitch a ride with a rough- looking stranger, Maka. Out of fear, Aaron rejects Maka’s friendship, but when the reunion with his mother doesn’t go quite as planned, he discovers that the stranger may just be the man to help him after all.

Lawless

An undercover cop who has been undercover for too long has to prepare to make the biggest bust of his career to arrest a drug lord, is suddenly betrayed by a person he least suspects and finds himself on the wrong side of the law. Now framed for a crime he didn't commit, he is determined to uncover his betrayer.

Waitangi Day: What Really Happened

This docudrama follows an imaginary news reporter who travels back in time to cover the days leading up to the Treaty of Waitangi's signing on 6 February 1840. Dropping the usual solemnity surrounding Aotearoa's founding document, it uses humour and asides to camera to evoke the chaos and motives behind the treaty. This clip features a confrontation between Hone Heke and representatives of the Crown.

Home Kills

It's desperate times for a small rural home kills and butchery service, as big business begins to threaten their livelihood the owners fall into offering a new service - killing people, to make ends meet.

The Difference Between Pipi & Pūpū

When estranged son, Tai, is called home to Aotearoa to his father Putty's deathbed, he is forced to confront a painful past after years of avoiding it. Once inseparable, Tai and Putty would spend hours together fishing and joking around. However, after a family secret is revealed, their relationship falls apart.

The Feathers of Peace

This remarkable film traces the final impact which both races had on the indigenous Moriori of the Chatham Islands. Moriori were a peaceful people who vowed never to take up arms against another human being. They were capable of defeating the invaders, but chose not to. Drawing inspiration from Michael King's seminal book Moriori, The Feathers of Peace brings the truth about what happened on the Chathams to an even wider audience. To do that, the film uses modern television news techniques and dramatized documentary.

Smog

Thick, deadly smog blankets the globe, reducing visibility to less than a few metres. In a secluded farmhouse, a woman and her overbearing husband attempt to find resources and survive using a series of walking trails crafted from ropes and stakes. One night, the woman is alerted to the presence of someone or something else deep in the smog. Desperate to escape the farmhouse, the woman attempts to meet the unknown and risk everything to leave her loveless and abusive relationship behind.

Xena: Warrior Princess

Xena is an infamous warrior on a quest to seek redemption for her past sins against the innocent. Accompanied by her comrade-in-arms Gabrielle, the campy couple use their formidable fighting skills to help those who are unable to defend themselves.

The Brokenwood Mysteries

In a seemingly quiet country town the newest resident, Detective Inspector Mike Shepherd, finds that murder lurks in even the most homely location.

Legend of the Seeker

The adventures of woodsman Richard Cypher, who discovers that he was born to fulfill a prophecy of becoming a guardian hero to oppressed people. With the help of a mysterious woman named Kahlan and a wise old wizard named Zedd, he must stop a ruthless and bloodthirsty tyrant from unleashing an ancient evil and enslaving the world.

Hercules: The Legendary Journeys

The legendary son of Zeus journeys across the earth fighting monsters and helping people.

The Shannara Chronicles

A young Healer armed with an unpredictable magic guides a runaway Elf in her perilous quest to save the peoples of the Four Lands from an age-old Demon scourge.

The Bad Seed

Two brothers from the same dysfunctional family, having escaped the desperate days of their early childhood, find their newly ordered lives falling apart when one becomes a suspect in a murder.

Super City

Super City was a New Zealand television comedy series starring Madeleine Sami. Season one was directed by Taika Waititi while season two was directed by Oscar Kightley.

Underbelly NZ: Land of the Long Green Cloud

Underbelly NZ: Land of the Long Green Cloud is a six-part New Zealand television mini-series. The series originally aired from 17 August 2011 to 21 September 2011. It was the first Underbelly series to be created outside of Australia, and depicts events prior to and concurrent with Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities.

Burying Brian

Burying Brian is a New Zealand television series produced by Eyeworks Touchdown which premiered on Television New Zealand's TV ONE on 2 July 2008, and ran for 6 episodes. The series is about Jodie and her three female friends. At the beginning of the first episode, Jodie's husband Brian dies during a domestic dispute. Jodie believes that she may go to jail for his murder, but her friends convince her not to report the death, but instead to bury the body and make it appear that he has run off with another woman. Although the series was a ratings success, no further episodes were made after the first season.

This Is Piki

"This is Piki" is a Maori drama series produced by well known actor Cliff Curtis, also featuring Temuera Morrison, most often recognized for his role as "Jake Heke" in the powerful drama "Once Were Warriors". Another of a growing list of series and films in which the Maori language is front and center, "This is Piki" has been welcomed as a vehicle in which indigenous peoples, such as Pacific Islanders, present and represent themselves: their cultures, stories, identities and histories. Also playing a central role is Tia Maipi, the main actor in "Born to Dance", along with many other experienced Maori and Polynesian actors such as Calvin Tuteao from "The Last Saint", among other films.