June 03, 2016
Mother’s touch remembered in Wairoa Film Fest
Wairoa is gearing up to host international filmmakers and local film buffs for this weekend’s Wairoa Maori Film Festival.
Director Leo Koziol says seven Canadian indigenous filmmakers have come down to show their films and share their experiences.
There’s a wide range of short films, including some that will be shown in cities later in the year as part of the New Zealand Film Festival, and some big local crowd pleasers like Born To Dance, Mahana and Hunt For the Wilderpeople.
Mr Koziol says the festival will also be a memorial and a tribute for his mother, festival co-founder and chair Huia Koziol, who died last month.
He says one of the last things he did with her was preview the Maori shorts for the festival, and they were particularly taken by Whenua from Tuhoe Filmmaker Kararaina Rangihau about a whanau dealing with the death of their mother.
"You know I think the whole thing with film and with storytelling is that you can find some sense of solace and art and that is what our storytelling has always been about. We've always told great stories of our ancestors and we've always been great storytellers so that's a big part of the weekend," he says.
Leo Koziol says the Wairoa Maori Film Festival will also include the New Zealand-Tahiti co-production Lost Pearl, the directorial debut of Temuera Morrison.
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