Press Release: Indigenous Struggle to be Profiled at Wairoa Maori Film Festival
Embargoed Until Monday May 17th 2010
OVER NINE MONTHS OF WORK BEHIND THE SCENES has now come to fruition with the release of the festival programme of the WAIROA MAORI FILM FESTIVAL 2010. The festival event starts in Wairoa on Thursday 3rd June, then on to Nuhaka (Wairoa District) from Friday 4th June through to Monday 7th June (Queen’s Birthday). Hosts for the weekend are the Taihoa Marae Committee and Kahungunu Marae Committee. The full programme is now online: www.manawairoa.com
The global indigenous struggle for human rights will a significant focus of the weekend’s film programme, with films screening in particular from Canada, USA, Hawaii and Argentina.
On Saturday morning is THE OCTOBER SILENCE from Argentina. In October 1947, during J D Peron’s administration, in a place called La Bomba hundreds of indigenous Pilaga People were massacred and thus vanished. Sixty years later survivors reveal the details.
Later on Saturday is OLDER THAN AMERICA, with Director Georgina Lightning in attendance. Gripping and often unsettling, Older than America is a potent thriller about the legacy of Indian Boarding and Residential Schools in the USA and Canada, and the true horror of this little discussed part of North American history. Earlier that day, short film SAVAGE by Anishinaabe film maker Lisa Jackson also touches on similar themes.
Then on Sunday is A GOOD DAY TO DIE by film makers David Miller and Lynn Salt (Choctaw tribe). This film is a special preview of a documentary on American Indian movement (AIM) co-founder and leader Dennis Banks. It looks back at his life and the actions that changed the lives of Native Americans forever. The preview screening is occuring at the same time as its World Premiere in Oklahoma, at the deadCENTER film festival, with the tribes of Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek and many others in attendance.
Monday the festival concludes with two fascinating documentaries. Fresh from screenings at the Maui Film Festival (where it won best documentary) and at special fundraiser screenings in Hollywood and Pasadena, HAWAII A VOICE FOR SOVEREIGNTY profiles centuries of struggle by the native Hawaiian people, from the earliest days of colonisation to today. Film maker Catherine Bauknight is hoping to be in attendance.
The the festival closes with REEL INJUN, Neil Diamond’s fascinating documentary on the history of Native American’s portrayal in Hollywood films, with a wide range of footage from hundreds of films, and interviews with Clint Eastwood, Jim Jarmusch, John Trudell, Adam Beach, Grahame Green, and Russell Means.
The universality of the indigenous struggle is a theme that emerges at this and numerous other films at this year’s Wairoa Maori Film Festival. Join us, at Taihoa Marae, Wairoa on Thursday 3rd June, then on to Kahungunu Marae, Nuhaka (Wairoa District) from Friday 4th June through
to Monday 7th June (Queen’s Birthday).
STOP PRESS: PREVIEW SCREENING Join us at a Special Invitation Only Preview Screening of REEL INJUN with film maker NEIL DIAMOND in attendance, at the Big Picture Wine Cinema, 22 Jellicoe Street at the Fish Markets, Auckland, at 6 pm Tuesday May 18th. Places at this event are limited, so please rsvp to maorimovies@gmail.com to secure a seat.
Press Release authorised by: Te Roopu Whakaata Maori I Te Wairoa – Wairoa Maori Film Festival Society Inc. Contact: Huia Koziol, Chairperson, Wairoa Maori Film Festival Ph 06 837 8854 email: maorimovies@gmail.com
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