August 23, 2017
Wahine directors share perspectives at Toronto Film Festival
A film directed by nine Maori women, Waru, has been chosen for the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival.
Also on the programme is the psychological thriller Human Traces, written and directed by Nick Gorman and set on a small sub-Antarctic island, and Unitech screen arts student Amberly Jo Aumua's short Waiting, about the hunger for family connections experienced by youngsters within Maori and Pacific communities.
Waru, produced by Kerry Warkia and Kiel McNaughton, is a feature film made up of eight 10-minute short films around the tangi of a small boy who died at the hands of his caregiver.
Each vignette is written and directed by Maori women filmmakers, including writer/ directors Briar Grace-Smith, Casey Kaa, Ainsley Gardiner, Katie Wolfe, Renae Maihi, Chelsea Cohen and Paula Jones, director Awanui Simich-Pene and writer Josephine Stewart-Te Whiu.
Each of the eight vignettes was shot in a single day and tell their stories in a single, continuous shot in real time.
Waru was made with investment from Te Mangai Paho, NZ On Air, Maori Television and the New Zealand Film Commission, and will be released in New Zealand by Vendetta Films.
The Toronto International Film Festival is regarded as an ideal platform for filmmakers to launch their careers and to premiere their new work.
It runs from 7-17 September.
Copyright © 2017, UMA Broadcasting Ltd: www.waateanews.com