The programme is out for the 12th annual Māoriland Film Festival.
The festival offers 130 films and digital works from 86 Indigenous nations. This year’s festival theme, Ko te mauri, he mea huna ki te Moana, reflects the life force of the ocean and the resilience of Indigenous communities.
21 features and 104 shorts (playing across 13 programmes), representing 86 indigenous nations from 27 countries, make up the bulk of the festival offer, which also includes some digital works and industry-specific activities – of which there’s more info still to come.
The festival will open with the premiere of Kath Akuhata Brown’s debut feature Kōkā, and includes the previously-announced world premiere of DreamWorks’ Shrek – Kātahi Te Korokē.
Five other NZ features join the mix: James Ashcroft’s The Rule of Jenny Pen and Miki Magasiva’s Tinā, plus three doco titles: Paula Whetu Jones & Tamara Azizian’s doco The Doctor’s Wife, Katie Wolfe’s The Haka Party Incident and Julian Arahanga’s The Stolen Children of Aotearoa.
There are far too many NZ shorts to name individually, but a few titles will be familiar from their recent festival runs, including Awanui Simich-Pene’s First Horse and Chantelle Burgoyne’s Hifi Ulu, plus some very new arrivals like Allan George’s Mirumiru, currently fundraising on Boosted, and Wait, Wait, Now! from Ramon Te Wake, a winner at FIFO last weekend with feature Trans & Pregnant.
Māoriland Film Festival runs 26-30 March in Ōtaki.
