Mana Waka

Spooked is a contemporary conspiracy thriller arising from the mysterious death of Kevin Jones, who thought he was just buying second-hand computers, until he looked at the data left on the discs. Was kevin murdered or did he simply get drunk and crash his car? Investigating journalist Mort Whitman says he will find out, even if it kills him. The film is based on material from the book 'The Paradise Conspiracy' by Ian Wishart.

In 1981, the New Zealand government invited the South African rugby team to tour New Zealand. This effectively split the country in half. Patu! is the story of the protest movement, HART (halt all racist tours). This documentary shows footage of protester meetings, rugby games and various beatings meted out to protesters from police.

Boy, an 11-year-old child and devout Michael Jackson fan who lives on the east coast of New Zealand in 1984, gets a chance to know his absentee criminal father, who has returned to find a bag of money he buried years ago.

In New Zealand in the 1860s the native Māori people fought the British colonials to keep the land guaranteed to them by treaty. The warrior Te Wheke fights for the British until betrayal leads him to seek utu (revenge). The settler Williamson in turn seeks revenge after Te Wheke attacks his homestead. Meanwhile Wiremu, an officer for the British, seems to think that resistance is futile.

Ralph Hotere (Te Aupōuri) is regarded as one of New Zealand's greatest artists. This documentary by Merata Mita provides a perspective on his world, largely by way of framing his extensive body of work. Hotere remains famously tight-lipped throughout, but there are interviews with artists, friends and commentators, alongside scenes of Hotere working and of his contemporary home context. Mita's impressionistic film is set to a Hirini Melbourne-directed score of jazz, Māori and pop songs, and poetry reading by Hotere's first wife Cilla McQueen.

Rewi Rapana returns to the small country town of Te Mata after his family has left the district. His arrival rekindles old tensions as well as renewing family ties. He is seeking an identity and a permanent place to call home yet desperately hiding a secret from his past. Oddly enough there is one person with whom he finds peace of mind. She is an old woman known as Kara. A special relationship develops between Rewi, Kara and Kara’s great granddaughter Awatea.

Coming of age story about Viki a young pacific islander attempting to escape the stifling conformity of island culture. Inspired by the myth of the Warrior Woman, Viki recovers from the death of her father and fights for justice and freedom for her community.

A documentary that takes a retrospective look at the influence of Mau Piailug, a native from the tiny Micronesian atoll of Satawal, in reviving the art of non-instrument navigation in Polynesia. Relying solely on his knowledge of celestial bodies, oceanic currents, and natural markers, Mau guided the traditional sailing canoe Hokulea on a 1976 voyaging to Tahiti, a journey not completed in more than 600 years. For Native Hawaiians, this expedition signaled an exodus from the cultural doldrums of the previous century. Sail along on this remarkable journey and share Mau's story of reinvigoration, reconciliation, and redemption of a people as the master wayfinder and teacher that breathed life back into the sails Polynesia's voyaging tradition.

Saving Grace - Te Whakarauora Tangata is the final work of director Merata Mita, who passed away suddenly before the film could be completed. The film addresses some of the deepest and most distressing issues Māori communities face, and shows how extraordinary creative solutions are being provided by Māori communities themselves. Mita asks Maori men to front up to some grim realities by talking openly and honestly about the violence and abuse that has plagued their communities for many years. The film is a personal response to this violence, with Mita making a case for a return to an older model of Maori manhood, when men were the ones who sweetly sang the children to sleep. “Merata intended the documentary to count in ways that mattered deeply to her and to change perceptions of abuse and violence by using themes of responsibility, redemption, revitalisation, forgiveness and, most of all, love.” - Carol Hirschfeld, Māori Television.

With the resurgence of taonga pūoro, one musical instrument remains conspicuously absent from Māori music —pahū (drum). In this documentary Te Pahū, composer Hirini Melbourne (ONZM) and ethnologist Te Warena Taua trace the history of pahū, from musical accompaniment to being the manawa (heart) of communication and communities. Musicians and carvers bring to life the lost beat of pahū by creating a version using modern techniques. Pioneering Māori filmmaker Merata Mita (Patu!) directed Te Pahū, while Rawiri Paratene (Whale Rider) co-wrote and produced it.

Merata Mita, Leon Narbey and Gerd Pohlmann’s powerful documentary Bastion Point: Day 507 depicts the eviction of protestors from Bastion Point during the struggle for Māori land rights.

An East Coast community in Ruatōria, New Zealand attempts to live in autarchy according to the tenets of their movement. Bob Marley, a prophet of our electronic age, is the soundtrack to the everyday lives of these Māori who feel closer to their own roots by observing a blend of Afro-Carribean Rastafarianism and the Ringatū faith. Merata Mita's camera respectfully portrays this singular cultural dialogue. The outsider cultures of Jamaicans, Ethiopians and Māori have come together, vibrating to a common cosmic chord. They find an underground brotherhood, across continents and seas.

Keskidee, a small Jamaican bird resilient in the face of hardship, is also the name of a self-help black arts centre in London, and the theatre group who work there. Keskidee's actors and musicians were brought to New Zealand to work with communities who face similar day-to-day dilemmas and who might be encouraged to express their frustrations and anger in drama, poetry and music. Keskidee were to act as a catalyst. the film shows some of their work and their response to the people they met. Tribal elders try to show keskidee the depth of Maori roots in the land, and the complexity and pain of their present struggles: against the loss of Aroha; against the laws of pen and paper; the alienation of their land; the suppression of their language; the devaluation of their people and culture.