A team of Rotorua-based filmmakers have been selected to make one of the 10 short documentaries created as part of Loading Docs 2017.
The unique initiative is in its fourth year creating documentaries which aim to captivate and inspire audiences while developing New Zealand filmmakers.
Directors Tim Worrall and Aaron Smart, who have produced a number of films around the Bay of Plenty area with Steambox Films, have been selected to produce their proposal He Kotuku Rerenga Tahi.
He Kotuku Rerenga Tahi is a documentary based around larger than life Maori entertainer Kotuku Tibble, who cheated death and is now on a mission to make peace with his loved ones.
Mr Worral was approached by Loading Docs late last year.
"They wanted to spread a message of diversity and wanted to include Maori culture in that," he said.
"We sat down and did a big brainstorm and Kotuku came out of that."
The three-minute documentary is entirely in te reo Maori.
Tibble was working as a relief teacher, when he collapsed.
Dead for 20 minutes before being resuscitated he believes his ancestors sent him back to make peace with those he loves and to leave a legacy for his descendants.
"I've been given a second chance," said Tibble.
"It's a wonderful opportunity to see the things I never did, to take the chances I didn't take."
Focused on using his new lease of life to share the Maori knowledge he has gathered, Tibble has begun studying his masters.
"One of my elders said, Maori knowledge, Maori language is a blessing of the mind," he said.
"I have been privileged to hear that knowledge and I want to protect it, enhance it, and put it in a safe place."
Tibble wants people who view the documentary to take away the message that if they only had 24 hours left, they would take every opportunity, but that no day is promised.
For Mr Worrall it is important that the audience is moved and uplifted by his aspirations.
"I really hope that he can achieve them," he said.
The Loading Docs platform will enable the documentary to reach a wider audience, however each of the films has to fundraise $2000 through the site boosted to unlock the $4000 and post production package from the organisation.
