August 04, 2016
Maori philosophy shared through cinema
Two Kahungunu film buffs are in Canada sharing the story of Maori filmmaking.
Wairoa Maori Film Festival director Leo Koziol and Auckland University academic Deborah Walker-Morrison will speak at an international symposium on indigenous cinema during the World Social Forum in Montreal.
They will also show films at the Autochtone Montreal First People's Festival and the Ottawa-based Asinabka Film and Media Arts Festival.
Mr Koziol says a highlight for him is showing Kaporangi Kiriata, a short archival film of his late mother Huia Koziol performing a poi in Los Angeles in 1959.
The newly-formed International Network of Aboriginal Audiovisual Creation has included it in a programme of 14 short films depicting the cycle of life.
"We played it at the Wairoa Film Fesitval and of course, what is the poi if not the circular motion of Maori creativity. Sometimes these synergies just present themselves to you. It's just a real great privilege to have that in there representing both my late mother and the Wairoa Film Festival," he says.
Leo Koziol is today at Kahnawake, the scene of an armed stand off in 1990 between Mohawks and the Canadian authorities, for a screening of The Price of Peace, the Kim Webby documentary about Tame Iti and the Te Urewera raids.
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