February 19, 2016
Short film shares West Papua drama
It’s hard to get film cameras into West Papua, so Wellington filmmaker Tere Harrison has used what’s close to hand to make a short documentary drama setting out the plight of the xx territory.
West Papua has been under the thumb of the Indonesian military since that country grabbed it during what was supposed to be a decolonisation process.
There have been continuing protests about the killing and imprisonment of independence activists and the exploitation of the territory’s resources, but Ms Harrison says she was struck by how few Maori seemed aware of the issues or joined the protests.
Set in the clubrooms of the Hunters rugby league club, Run It Straight tells the story of a community who open their hearts to the hard story of West Papua.
Ms Harrison says mashing up drama, poetry and documentary footage was inspired by whakapapa, the most powerful form of Polynesian storytelling.
"There’s an enormous amount of documentary work done on this issue of West Papua. There are very little drama pieces and I think that engages polynesian story telling. It's reflective of polynesian storytelling so it was important to have that element," she says.
Tere Harrison’s 15-minute documentary Run It Straight will be available for free viewing tomorrow online through the Run It Straight Facebook page.
https://www.facebook.com/Run-It-Straight-535367289952855/?fref=ts
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