June 06, 2018
Thrills aplenty in Wairoa Film Festival
There were honours a plenty at the weekend's Wairoa Maori Film Festival, as film afficianados and whanau gathered at Wairoa's Gaity Theatre and Nuhaka's Kahungunu Marae to celebrate indigenous film making.
Producer Ainsley Gardiner received the seventh annual Women in Film & Television Mana Wahine Award for two decades of indigenous storytelling including films like Boy and The Breaker Upperers.
Renae Maihi was named the first winner of the Whakapapa Film Festival of Italy Prize, which is a residency to work in southern Italy.
Maihi was one of the eight directors of Waru, which won the Mana Wairoa Grand prize.
Festival director Leo Koziol says he was excited by the emerging talent coming through, such as the short Mouse directed by Lani-Rain Felton.
"Miriama McDowell is the lead actress in this edgy romantic thriller. Lani is actually off to New York in a couple of months to make her first feature film so it's amazing to see these young Maori filmmakers emerging doing amazing things," he says.
Highlights of the festival can be seen in Auckland next month at He Wiki Kiriata Maori – Maori Film Week organised by the Wairoa team as part of Auckland Council's Matariki festival.
Copyright © 2018, UMA Broadcasting Ltd: www.waateanews.com