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Download AudioPreparations are well underway for the Māoriland Film Festival, which this year will be held in Ōtaki from June 29 to July 3.
Director Libby Hakaraia says because of Covid-related disruption to film production, they have had a rich variety of films to choose from – including two features in te reo Māori.
The festival has been timed to sit within a month-long festival of light, Matariki Ramaroa, starting at Paraparaumu on July 24 and offering various music, art and theatre performances along the Kapiti Coast.
“Māoriland isn’t about ‘let’s run every event possible.’ We wanted to hold the space for iwi Māori of the Kāpiti Coast to put together a whakanuia for Matariki before it became another Briscoes’ sale or Warehouse sale or whatever. We wanted to make it foundationally Māori. It is our traditional festival as Māori and we wanted to make sure we held that space,” she says.
Libby Hakaraia says often the magic of the festival is in the unplanned moments, such as the five tohorā which swam by last year during an impromptu concert by Maisey Rika at a bonfire on Ōtaki Beach.
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