Anti-1080 film-maker Clyde Graf yesterday failed to talk down a dying hunter and fellow protester who is threatening a mountaintop martyrdom.
Cancer-stricken hunter and 1080 protester Chris Short climbed Mount Tongariro in the central North Island on Sunday, after telling his wife he was going to buy milk.
The Taupo man, 50, is believed to have just weeks to live and is refusing to come down until a 115-minute Graf documentary - Poisoning Paradise - is screened on national TV.
The documentary is the second protest film from brothers Clyde and Steve Graf and is to screen in Wairarapa on Wednesday.
In 1995 Mr Short confronted three men with a shotgun after suspecting they were spreading the pesticide from their helicopter.
He took the men hostage and was jailed for two years.
He yesterday remained adamant he would remain on the mountain despite a personal call from the documentary-maker for him "to go home and be with his family", Graf said.
The hunter's wife, Leanne Short, said she is proud of her husband and was yesterday planning to meet him at his mountain hideout, near where he staged a similar protest about 14 years ago.
The Hamilton-based Graf brothers are screening their latest documentary, which focuses on the incidental harm from aerial drops of 1080 poison, at the Kuranui College Hall, at 7.30pm on Wednesday.
"That he's putting his life on the line is good for the cause but if he does die up there, that would just be a tragedy."
Graf, who several years ago shot footage in Wairarapa hill-country, supports the right of Mr Short to stage a legal protest but "would be very surprised, and impressed" should network television air the documentary.
"What Chris Short is doing has really lifted the profile of the film in urban areas and across the country.
"That he's putting his life on the line is good for the cause but if he does die up there, that would just be a tragedy."
Graf said the Wairarapa show is the fourth after the weekend and the brothers expect about 60 people to attend, which is about the same number that last year viewed their debut 1080 protest film - A Shadow of Doubt - at Parkvale Hall near Carterton.
Graf denies accusations Mr Short is his accomplice and the mountaintop protest is a publicity stunt for the film "when I only ever met him once about four months ago on the Napier-Taupo road".
"We're not interested in shooting footage of him on his protest because that could fuel the lie that this is a stunt.
"Besides, television should rightly do that. We have no standing or power as media - we're just a couple of boys from the bush.
"We are going to put it to TV3 to screen the film, which has a parental guidance warning, but it's just far too disturbing for the networks."
Mr Graf said that should a network channel screen the documentary "the use of 1080 would stop overnight".
