A scene from the feature film Waru, screening this weekend at the revived Hokianga Film Festival. PHOTO / SUPPLIED
A scene from the feature film Waru, screening this weekend at the revived Hokianga Film Festival. PHOTO / SUPPLIED
A film festival which enjoyed near cult status in the early 2000s is returning to Northland after an absence of eight years.
The Hokianga Film Festival will take place at Rawene Town Hall this weekend with a strong line-up of indigenous, Northland and New Zealand films, as well as workshops for aspiring actors and movie-makers.
The revived festival comes amid an upsurge of movie-making in Hokianga with two films by Hokianga women also showing this weekend in Canada at ImagineNATIVE, the world's biggest indigenous film event.
Co-ordinator Jessie McVeagh said the festival's return had sparked excitement, not just in Hokianga but also among film buffs around the North Island. The headline movie, Waru, had sold out already so organisers are considering a second showing.
The festival was a chance for locals to show their own films, learn new skills and network with other film-makers. For others it was a chance to see movies on the big screen without having to travel to Kerikeri or Kaitaia, both an hour's drive away.
A number of factors were behind the upsurge in Hokianga film-making, Ms McVeagh said.
Digital technology had made movie-making far more affordable but it was also the fruition of a decade-long effort, via locally run film-making courses, to boost skills and encourage Hokianga residents to tell their own stories via film. Hokianga was also one of the few small communities visited by Script to Screen, an Auckland-based organisation dedicated to developing storytelling for the screen.
Feature films at the festival will include the newly-released Waru - made up of eight interwoven parts directed by Maori women, each taking the perspective of another character in a tragic tale of child abuse.
Also showing will be the Hokianga-made, award-winning short film Natalie.
Screenings will be followed by Q&A sessions and chances for discussion.
Independent film-makers Andrea Bosshard and Shane Loader will hold workshops on film-making, while award-winning actor Miriama McDowell will run an acting workshop and camerawoman Mairi Gunn will offer a workshop in cinematography.
Hokianga film-makers will showcase work tackling local issues, such as now abandoned plans for deep-sea oil drilling off the west coast, while Rawene's Number 1 Gallery is holding a complementary exhibition of video art.
The event, with the tagline Inspiring Hokianga, runs from October 20-23. Go to www.hokiangafilm.com for more information.
The festival fizzled out in 2009 after changes in Film Commission funding and the Hokianga Community Educational Trust, the now revitalised volunteer group which runs the event.
Both Waru and Natalie are also being shown this weekend at ImagineNATIVE. The director of Natalie, Omanaia teenager Qianna Titore, 18, will present the film in Toronto thanks to NZ Film Commission sponsorship.
Also in Canada for the festival is Casey Kaa from Matauri Bay, one of the directors of Waru. At least three of the other writers/directors - Renae Maihi, Awanui Simich-Pene and Josephine Stewart-Te Whiu - have links to the Hokianga.
