This story was originally published on The Spinoff.
One of the many crack-up conversations in Marlon Williams: Ngā Ao E Rua – Two Worlds happens when the musician visits his mum in Lake Kaniere. They are heading out on a walk in the infamous wild West Coast weather, and Williams has forgotten his raincoat. “Hopeless,” his mum jibes from the driver’s seat. “You haven’t got enough clothes on, no wonder you always get sick.” Williams stays silent. “So,” Mum moves on. “When are you going to Haast to record your waiata album?”
It’s a moment that symbolises so much of what the documentary is about – the reality of someone holding many different identities at once, including being both a petulant teenager getting growled by his mum and an award-winning, globe-trotting musician on the cusp of making his first album entirely in te reo Māori. “Different parts of me, I guess,” Williams reflects when visiting his marae in Tōrere, soon adding “uncle” to that growing list of roles.
