February 03, 2015
Prime film of Poi E
The man who made a film about Bob Marley’s Western Springs concert has another Maori musical moment in his viewfinder.
Mount Zion director Tearepa Kahi is taking on the story of Poi E and how Dalvanius Prime returned home and brought hope to a struggling community by creating a song that topped the charts.
He says the inclusion of the song in the movie Boy reminded him of what it meant to him as a young person.
" The breakdancing the video clip the song the beat the piupiu sound it really hit me and affected me when I was a younger man. It felt like the first time I saw Maori on screen being who they were, the funkiest dudes in the country and just these fullas tearing it up. So now that we are 30 years on it is time we look back at the Patea Maori Club and Dalvanius and the bopper and everything. And bring that story to light because the story of the song is an incredible underdog story " he says.
Tearepa Kahi will be in Patea filming the club at Friday’s Paepae in the Park event, and he hopes to complete the movie by the end of the year.
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