Taonga of Maori cinema

Leo Koziol is the man behind the Wairoa Maori Film Festival.

Every year for the past 10 years, Leo Koziol and his family, who have Polish and Kahungunu roots, have put together the Maori Film Festival.

Leo had been living in America for a few years and came home in 2001 to his hometown of Nuhaka and wanted to start up a Maori Film Festival after seeing how a Maori film festival had been done in France.

So he did his research and realised "no one had started one that was happening every year for Maori films," Koziol says.

Thus the Maori film festival came to life and in its first year 300 short Maori and indigenous films played over a five-day period.

"We see all the films as works of art, of high art as taonga of Maori cinema," says Koziol.

After the Gaiety Cinema in Wairoa shut down, the festival simply moved to the Kahungunu Marae, an "intimate and cosy setting" where it has been held for the last five years.

With the industry being so small, Koziol explains that everyone supports everyone on next to no money.

"There is a real wairua around film-making in New Zealand today and there is a hope that things are going to be very interesting in the coming years."

The festival will be held every year at Kahungunu Marae in Nuhaka and will have joint screenings at the Gaiety Theatre in Wairoa now that it has reopened.