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Poi E: The Story of Our Song opened the New Zealand International Film Festival last night to a standing ovation.
The documentary by Tearepa Kahi weaves together archival footage with present day interviews with participants in making the first Maori language number one hit.
It includes a previously unheard demo recording of the song on the night it was written, sung around Ngoi Pewhairangi’s kitchen table in Tokomaru Bay with Dalvanius Prime knocking out the rhythm on his ukulele.
A second screening has already sold out, and tickets to a third screening in Manukau on Sunday July 24 are selling fast.
The premiere finished with members of the Patea Maori Club on stage at the Civic Theatre doing the song that took te reo Maori around the world.
The Patea Maori Club will perform Poi E at 6pm this evening as part of Te Korakora on Federal beside SkyCity.
And on Saturday at the Auckland Film Festival there’s the Nga Whanuanga Maori and Pasifika short films as selected by Wairoa Maori Film Festival director Leo Koziol.
Copyright © 2016, UMA Broadcasting Ltd: www.waateanews.com
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