The festival runs from 18 to 22 March.

The theme is Me Reretau - Be in Balance. It offers stories that seek harmony in an increasingly discordant world.

The seventh annual festival will present over 120 films and 69 events from 92 indigenous nations while hosting filmmakers from communities around the world.

"The programme is packed with New Zealand and southern hemisphere premieres of shorts, features and documentary films that show the exceptional storytelling of indigenous peoples from across the globe," MFF2020 festival director Libby Hakaraia said.

Young Maori film-makers have programmed a Maoriland Rangatahi Film Festival which will show short films made in January during Our Lens workshop in Taiwan and Sápmi.

The festival will open with the premiere of Kiwi-sized blockbuster The Legend of Baron To'a, directed by Tainui filmmaker Kiel McNaughton

The festival will also feature non-screen-based artistry including:

• The visual arts gallery Toi Matarau.
• Tamoko, carvers, weavers, and jewellers will be working around the Maoriland Hub
• A keynote address will be given at Rangiatea church
• NATIVE Minds a series of interactive discussions with guest speakers from New Zealand and abroad will examine how indigenous thinking shapes our existence and our view of the world.
• Maoriland Tech Creative Hub (M.A.T.C.H) will also present virtual reality demonstrations.
• Filmmakers in attendance will be put into groups to plan and produce a film in just 72 hours.

In 2019 the Maoriland Film Festival was attended by 12,500 visitors.

Click here to see the full programme

Click here to purchase tickets. Or call 0508 iTICKET (484 253)

Source

• Supplied
• nzherald.co.nz
• Image: festhome.com

The festival featured 25 short films from a variety of genres and garnered 1 million views during the two-week period following its July 14 launch.

Maria was judged the Most Popular Film, determined by votes cast by viewers.

It centres around the loss and strain faced by a family after the passing of a young child.

The script was written by Taofia Pelesasais. Karin Williams produced the film which was was directed by Jeremiah Tauamiti.

The title role is played by Leiataua Si'ulepa who at 80 years-old is fast making a name for herself acting in New Zealand.

Maria is the matriarch of a large Polynesian family who lies bedridden and silent, unable or unwilling to speak after a long illness.

When a family crisis strikes, she gets some unexpected help as she struggles to reunite her fractured family.

Williams says the film is based on a true story from Pelesasais' own family and the passing of his niece.

He wrote the script as a tribute to the women of his ‘aiga - extended family - and their resilience.

He wanted to show the quiet strength of mothers who shoulder the burden of responsibility for elderly parents and young children, often in silence.

The film was shot in Pelesasais' home community of Rotorua, in New Zealand's North Island.

Watch the movie

Source

• RNZ
• PBS
• PBS
• FaceBook
• Image: Festival.vonline

Hollie Fifer's film The Opposition won the Grand Prize at the International Pacific Documentary Film Festival, FIFO, in French Polynesia, in February.

The documentary is about the struggle to stop the eviction of 3,000 people from a decades-old squatter community to make way for an Australian-backed property development that promised a hotel, marina and exhibition centre.

Bulldozers were used to clear a waterfront residential area in Papua New Guinea's(PNG) capital Port Moresby and make space for the development

However Australian property developer, Paga Hill Development Company (PHDC), was given a 99 year lease on the land where many families had been living for four generations.

Selected to screen at DocEdge last year, The Opposition, was pulled at the last minute because of a court challenge.

The documentary was cleared for international release in July.

Fifer was in PNG in 2012 as a student filmmaker. She made contact with Dame Carol Kidu, the Australian-born PNG MP; she was the only woman in parliament and had became leader of the opposition.

While they were talking, Kidu suddenly got a phone call alerting her to the fact that demolition of Paga Hill was underway.

Fifer went with Kidu and filmed what happened: houses being demolished, distressed people being pushed around by police.

Kidu's was arrested as she protested against what was taking place.

Subsequently Kidu quit parliament; she became a consultant for PHDC and her relationship with the community and the filmmakers began to change.

She took legal action against the film. Her case was rejected.

Source

• scoop.co,nz
• theaustralian.com.au
• smh.com.au

The programme includes multi-award winning features, documentaries and short films, two of which are nominated for Oscars

There are 121 Features, Shorts, Documentaries, Workshops, Korero and other special events over five days.

Movies include:

• 8 New Zealand premieres of multi-award winning international Indigenous feature films.
• 100 films from 15 countries and 71 Indigenous nations
• 35 New Zealand films
• A majority of film and videos created by Indigenous female directors (60%)

Among the many and varied festival activities are:

The Maoriland Storytelling Tent.
It will provide a relaxed forum for filmmakers and film fans to talk about the work and the ideas seen on screen.

Bingo Shorts
An evening of bingo and comedic short films. Everyone is invited to bring a pen, play some bingo and have a big laugh.

The Maoriland Rangatahi Film Festival
The first Maoriland Rangatahi Film Festival is curated by Nga Pakiaka - a group of award- winning young filmmakers (aged 12 - 16). They have viewed films from around the world to put together a programme for their peers.

The Maoriland Rangatahi Film Festival will feature:

• The Maoriland Rangatahi Gala; with live performances
• An international food festival called the Kainaval
• Two whanau outdoor screenings of the blockbuster and multi-award winning NZ film, Hunt For The Wilderpeople and the Oscar-nominated animation movie, Moana.
• An opening keynote address by award-winning 14-year-old actor Julian Dennison (star of Hunt For The Wilderpeople) and his mother Mabelle.

Maoriland Closing Night Party with Chocolate Box
Chocolate Box has spent 4 years building a reputation around Wellington and throughout Aotearoa, as a show not to be missed. They recently performed at the Wellington Waitangi Day Celebrations, Wellington Jazz Festival, Homegrown, Tora Tora Tora, and Sound Splash festivals.

Book a ticket

Source

• Supplied
• maorilandfilm.co.nz
• Image: facebook.com

Pumanawa it tells the story of a young woman with a traditional Maori spiritual gift who is attracted to a devout Christian whose views could threaten that heritage.

Director Poata Eruera says the writers, Marie Thompson and Wayne Te Tai, come from Mitimiti.

"And it was a lovely little story and of course it's such a Catholic bastion up there that the story is essentially the conflict between church and matakite, and who better to write it than two people who are involved in both areas," Continue reading

The film centres around the sexual abuse committed by Father Lawrence Murphy.

The New Zealand Herald reviewer Peter Calder says "The church would always say it was an American problem or an isolated problem or a few bad apples. This film gives the lie to that excuse: this was systematic and the cover-up was handled in the Vatican."

Sean Murphy, (not related) writing on the Catholic Education Resource website suggests and alternative point of view. He says that the Vatican was not involved in a cover up. "The cover up of Murphy's crimes was the work of Milwaukee Archbishop William Cousins. Weakland, his successor, continued to conceal them for some time and let him function as a priest until almost a year after his retirement with virtually no restrictions."

Murphy does not critique the film as a whole, but "its misrepresentations of the Murphy story, which Mr. Gibney could have told with much greater effect had he paid attention to the evidence, and allowed the evidence to guide his film-making." He then proceeds to examine that evidence.

Sean Murphy is a Catholic layman. He retired from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in 2009 after almost 35 years' police service. While not a specialist in sexual assault, during the course of his service he was responsible for the investigation of current and historical sex crimes against children and adults (including false allegations), leading, in one case, to the conviction of a Catholic priest.

Source

• The New Zealand Herald
• Catholic Education.org
• Image: Lostinthemultiplex.com