OPINION: Of all the film festivals that are held in Aotearoa every year, the Māoriland Film Festival is my absolute favourite.
The Māoriland festival has been around since 2014. Apart from Covid interruptions, the festival has been proudly presenting films and speakers from all over the world for a decade now – and bringing to Ōtaki, on the Kāpiti Coast, as interesting a selection of things to do and see as you could ever hope for.
Most years of the festival’s existence I have made the trip up from Wellington. It’s always been a highlight of the year.
Māoriland is a celebration of Indigenous and First Nations film-making. In partnership with other film and documentary festivals from around the world, Māoriland is – for this fumbling Pākehā anyway – the doorway at the back of the wardrobe that leads to a whole new world of story-telling and fresh points of view.
