Māori/Pacific

Filmmakers Chris Pryor and Miriam Smith lived at Jerusalem on the Whanganui River and have produced a lively, visually beautiful picture of the local community and the three Sisters of Compassion stationed there.

Internationally lauded Auckland filmmaker Pietra Brettkelly (The Art Star and the Sudanese Twins) accompanies 16-year-old Māori scholar Ngaa Rauuira Pumanawawhiti to Yale and a critical turning point in his education.

Fascinating, admiring documentary by Dan Salmon about NZ ‘outsider artist’ Susan King who stopped talking aged four and has produced more than 10,000 drawings throughout her life, now sought by art dealers worldwide.

In his most visceral and impassioned outing since 1995’s La Haine, actor/director Mathieu Kassovitz has made a propulsive action movie dramatising the extraordinary French military response to a New Caledonia hostage-taking in 1988.

Mathurin Molgat’s comprehensive documentary about the past and future of the mighty kauri centres on an inspiring artisan: Northland luthier Laurie Williams.

Tātarakihi tells the story of a ‘journey of memory’ taken by a group of Parihaka children following in the footsteps of their male ancestors who were transported south after the Taranaki land confiscations of the 1860s.

This lyrical documentary inducts us into the surprising world of Tongan Futa Helu and his Atenisi Institute. Probably the world’s smallest university, this unconventional institution proudly stands apart from church and state.