Ngai Tuhoe's landmark architectural undertaking Te Uru Taumatua.
Ngai Tuhoe's landmark architectural undertaking Te Uru Taumatua.
With the world premiere of Ever The Land just around the corner, the Rotorua Daily Post talked to film director Sarah Grohnert about falling in love with Tuhoe.
What started out as a documentary about architecture, turned into something a lot more personal for the German-born film-maker.
In 1997, Grohnert was an exchange student at Orewa Collage in Auckland. The year turned out to be a pivotal one in her life.
A still from Ever the Land documentary that followed the design and construction of Te Uru Taumatua.
During an English class viewing of Jane Campion's film An Angel At My Table, she knew film-making was her destiny.
Grohnert now calls New Zealand home and her first feature documentary Ever The Land will premiere at the New Zealand International Film Festival on July 18.
Whatever Ever The Land started out as, it wrapped up being a film that captures the bond between people and land as it follows the design and construction of Ngai Tuhoe's landmark architectural undertaking Te Uru Taumatua.
Sarah Grohnert.
Te Uru Taumatua is New Zealand's first living building designed and constructed to meet the world's most stringent green building programme, the Living Building Challenge.
"At the beginning, I was interested in producing a documentary about sustainable architecture and put my feelers out," Grohnert said.
"I was pointed towards Jasmax, a company designing sustainable spaces in New Zealand, and the team responsible for Te Uru Taumatua."
Thousands of Ngai Tuhoe attended the opening of Te Uru Taumatua. Photo / Supplied
However, the documentary's vision changed dramatically once she found herself falling in love with Tuhoe.
"I was blessed in that I was welcomed into the community, was able to spend time in the valley and was shown amazing hospitality by locals.
"There is such a presence about the place and I saw and felt that instantly. I then had to work out how to capture that presence, and the spirit of the building, and make it part of the story."
Grohnert said she laboured away for three years to produce Ever The Land and she is excited and nervous in the days before its release.
"I'm planning to attend the screenings in Auckland and Wellington. I want to be there not only to gauge reaction, but also to be available to answer any questions anyone may have about the film.
And while Grohnert lives a simple life in a tiny hut at Karekare on Auckland's west coast, she says she will be back and forth between her home and Tuhoe for a long time.
"I've made such great connections with the people and the place and it is part of me now, there's no way I'll be able to stay away."
