Also please check out our Special Events section, for a range of special screenings, events and presentations. Special Events >

Join us for a special Maori Film Makers Networking event, presented in association with Nga Aho Whakaari - Maori in Film & Television Inc.

˜RECEPTION, Gaiety Cinema, 7 p.m. Friday 30th May

CAME A HOT FRIDAY - OPENING NIGHT
1985 Mirage Films NZ 96 mins 35 mm

JOIN US as we honour the memory of Don Selwyn in one his best dramatic roles, classic kiwi comedy set in heartland NZ 1949. Wes Pennington and loyal mate Cyril are ripping off small-town bookmakers in one of the last great scams of horseracing. Snags arise when they become involved in a tangle of events that provoke mayhem of extraordinary proportions. Assistance comes in the form of an alliance with the Tainuia Kid.  With Billy T. James.

Preceded by:

HUSH Director: Dena Curtis

Ethel and her friend Mary resort to an unlikely occupation at night to top up their pensions. Ethel’s daughter is horrified when she discovers they are not really “playing cards”.

NANA
2007 Australia 5 mins Director: Warwick Thornton

Nana’s granddaughter thinks Nana’s pretty special. She loves her Nana because she helps the old people, and Nana’s got everyone under control.

THE FREEZER
1997 NZ 13 mins Director: Paolo Rotondo

A day in the life of two unlikely debt collectors.

˜OPENING NIGHT GALA, Gaiety Cinema, 8 p.m. Friday 30th May

˜SPECIAL SCHOOLS ONLY SCREENING, Gaiety Cinema, 1 p.m. Friday 30th May

RANGI’S CATCH (Feature Film)
1973 NZ 93 mins Director Michael Forlong

Two escaped convicts attract the attention of John and Jane Murray and their friends Rangi and Hemi after stealing clothes from the Murray's remote sheep farm. The children track the crooks down through Picton, Wellington, Waitomo, the Wanganui River and Rotorua. Starring Temuera Morrison, Ian Mune, and Don Selwyn.

Preceded by:

KOHA: PEP SCHEME TE WHAEA
NZ 1984 27 mins Director Selwyn Muru

Unemployment among young Maori people is a major problem. A successful scheme at Waiatarau, Auckland could be a model for others to follow. The brainchild of educationalist and actor Don Selwyn assisted by Brian and Georgina Kirby and others, has given young people confidence, self-esteem and mana.

˜RANGI’S CATCH, 3 p.m., Gaiety Cinema, Sunday 1st June

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THE LOST TRIBE
1983 NZ/Germany 114 mins 35 mm Director John Laing

An anthropologist disappears in New Zealand while looking for a lost tribe, so his wife and his twin brother go to look for him. With John Bach and Don Selwyn.

Preceded by:

TIGA E LE LLOA
2006 NZ 35 mm Director Popo Lilo

Three Samoan boys face the harsh reality of living in a traditional Samoan family in urban Auckland.

˜THE LOST TRIBE, Gaiety Cinema, 2 p.m. Monday 2nd June

TOI WHAKAATA: THE ART OF FILM

Join us for the opening celebration of Wairoa Maori Film Festival’s first audio-visual installation centre, with a special breakfast reception, followed by continuous looped screenings of the following four audio-visual installation works:

UNCLE TASMAN

By Natalie Robertson (Aotearoa)

Uncle Tasman: The Trembling Current That Scars The Earth is a deeply personal audio-visual installation work by Natalie Robertson. Robertson draws on customary and contemporary mythologies of land and place to examine paradoxes of economic development and environmental destruction.

OTHER [WIZE]

By Jenny Fraser (Australia)

Other [wize] celebrates the lives of the Yugambeh family members that first survived outside their traditional homelands working on pastoral properties in the North of Oz.

MEETING BARRY BARCLAY

By Linda T. (Aotearoa)

Tuafale Tanoai Graduating Exhibition for Bachelor of Visual Arts, Auckland University of Technology  “I like to tell stories in different ways. To help create histories that link the past to the present. To help re-address colonial issues and to feed into decolonizing minds. I use performance installation art for the excitement and interactivity. It’s unique and only happens once… My future memories are created with a camera.”

ARAHURA

By Michelle Lee (Aotearoa)

An indigenous audio-visual interpretation of place. Michelle Lee is a recent AUT graduation of Master Of Visual Arts.

MESSENGER DANCE

By Belinda James (Canada)

A 20 minute excerpt of Messenger Dance, from a 3-Act ballet about the Pueblo Indian Revolt of 1680.

˜BREAKFAST OPENING EVENT, Taihoa Marae, 8 a.m., Saturday 31st May

˜SCREENING DAILY Taihoa Marae, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday 31st May to Monday 2nd June

Te Paepae Ataata is a new feature film script development fund that aims to identify and support Maori filmmakers. The first submission date for scripts is 7 July 2008. If you are interested in applying or would like to know more, then please come along to this one hour workshop on Te Paepae Ataata.

˜TE PAEPAE ATAATA, Taihoa Marae (Kaumatua Room), 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday 31st May

Join us for this special screening of local and national historic films from the New Zealand Film Archives. This special $5 screening promises something special, including live piano accompaniment of historical silent footage from the early 20th Century. Presented in association with the New Zealand Film Archive.

˜MANA WAIROA – FROM THE NZ FILM ARCHIVES, Gaiety Cinema, 3.00 p.m. Saturday 31st May

JOIN US for the Festival Awards Night and Maori Musical Extravaganza!

Awards to be presented this evening are:

Following the Awards presentation, dinner will be served and the entertainment will commence. Musical entertainment for the evening if Maori guitar legend Billy T.K.!

Festival Entrants:

International Indigenous Entries (Prize: Festival Trophy):

Dramatic Works

Documentaries

Dramatic Short Films (Aotearoa)
(Prize: Festival Trophy)

Documentaries (Aotearoa)
(Prize: Festival Trophy)

All of the above entries are also elegible for the Festival Prize (Trophy & $500 Cash Prize).

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Billy T.K. – Maori Music Legend!

Billy T K has been wooing NZ audiences since the 60s with bands such as The Sinners, Human Instinct & Powerhouse.

1996 saw him on stage in Auckland playing with Carlos Santana. 2002 he was a headliner at WOMAD. These days he performs regular gigs around NZ with such artists as Billy T K Junior and Emma Paki.

2004 saw the release of his first CD of collected works spanning 30 years and includes Powerhouse tracks with Tony Littlejohn and Mahia Blackmore, studio tracks from the 80s & 90s and a track from movie about Indian mystics which Billy laid down some music for.

His music still reflects his early infliuences of Hendrix, Santana & McLaughlin and every time he plays the young people are gobsmacked and the oldies relive the past.

˜FESTIVAL AWARDS & BILLY T.K., Wairoa War Memorial Hall, 7.00 p.m. Saturday May 31st

WITARINA HARRIS RETROSPECTIVE

We honour the memory of Witarina Harris with a special retrospective screening of the classic “Under The Southern Cross” feature film. A special $5 screening presented in association with the New Zealand Film Archive.

UNDER THE SOUTHERN CROSS
UK 1927 60 mins (Silent)

A young man emigrates from England having been wrongly accused of a crime. In NZ he takes a job on a Hawkes Bay sheep farm, where he quickly adapts to the life and falls in love with Hazel, joint owner of a nearby station. The station manager also fancies Hazel, she rejects his advances. Silent, with Live Piano Accompaniment.

Preceded by:

NGA RIPO – DOCUMENTARY
WITARINA HARRIS

She was a songbird, a big sister and a star of the silent screen – 101-year-old Witarina Harris (Te Arawa) passed away early 2007, just a month after agreeing to share her birthday celebrations and her remarkable philosophy of life with this documentary series.

˜WITARINA HARRIS RETROSPECTIVE, Gaiety Cinema, 1p.m. Sunday 1st June

UTU
1983 Utu Productions NZ 116 mins Director Geoff Murphy CLOSING NIGHT
(Entry by Gold Coin Donation)

The feature film classic Utu is our closing night film, a free screening and Poroporoaki for the Wairoa Maori Film Festival 2008. Leading a group of colonial troops through his country, a scout, Te Wheke, finds a burning village whose inhabitants have been massacred. It is a military blunder, the village was 'friendly' and the dead are Te Wheke's people. The horror drives him to seek utu. With Anzac Wallace, Bruno Lawrence and Wi Kuki Kaa.

˜CLOSING NIGHT, Gaiety Cinema, 6.00 p.m. Monday 2nd June