Women in Film & Television (WIFT) in New Zealand consists of two separate organizations, WIFT Auckland and WIFT Wellington, who have a mutually cooporative relationship. WIFT New Zealand is affliated to WIFT international and the women of Nga Aho Whakaari.
WHENUA FILMS was started in early 2004 by Cliff Curtis and Ainsley Gardiner. Cliff, a talented character actor, came home from Hollywood with the expectation that after ten years away the Maori Film Industry would be flourishing with a diverse range of characters for him to play!! The reality inspired him to start a company devoted to creating a home for indigenous storytelling, that would in turn encourage an aspect of the industry informed by tikanga Maori.
WHANAU is an innovative and new short drama series designed to teach Maori language through situation and character dynamics.
WHANAU is a gentle introduction to learning the Maori language. In each six-minute episode, Maori words are incorporated into the dialogue in easy steps to be absorbed along with the story.
Every third programme is a Tutorial lesson that revises the Maori language learnt in the previous two episodes.
In a small New Zealand coastal village, Maori claim descent from Paikea, the Whale Rider. In every generation for over 1,000 years, a male heir born to the Chief succeeds to the title.
The time is now. The Chief's eldest son, Porourangi, fathers twins - a boy and a girl. But the boy and his mother die in childbirth. The surviving girl is named Pai. Grief-stricken, her father leaves her to be raised by her grandparents. Koro, (the Chief) refuses to acknowledge Pai as the inheritor of the tradition and claims she is of no use to him. But her grandmother, Flowers, sees more than a broken line, she sees a child in desperate need of love.
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Since its first transmission in 1987, Waka Huia has - in about 500 hour long episodes - captured for all time, the faces and voices of many kaumatua who are no longer with us. In the process we have created a vital and important audio-visual archive of Iwi and Hapu life and history.
Waka Huia attempts to preserve the Maori language in its best form. It asserts a level of linguistic excellence that must be present in a society that is relearning its native tongue.
In the course of its long production history, Waka Huia has travelled many thousands of miles to hundreds of marae and special tribal areas. It has recorded thousands of hours of korero with hundreds of our tupuna.
