Mātaki Mai Film Festival

Coming to Alice during Te Wiki o te Reo Māori 14-20 September, the Mātaki Mai Film Festival is a celebration of exceptional films made in Aotearoa in te reo Māori about Te Ao Māori.

Tue 15 Sep – MAURI

Mauri (meaning life force) is set among the colourful characters of a once thriving settlement upon whom the encroachment by Europeans spells disaster. Now isolated by lack of numbers, time and distance, the remaining survivors form a tight-knit community which outsiders find impenetrable.

Rewi Rapana returns to Te Mata desperately hiding a secret from his past and his arrival rekindles old tensions as well as renewing family ties.

Wed 16 Sep – EVER THE LAND

In 2014 when ancestral homelands were returned, the Government gave an official apology, and Tūhoe built the first ever ‘Living Building’ in Aotearoa. We follow Aotearoa’s most fiercely independent tribe as they invite us into the gentle ebb and flow of Tūhoe life.

Made under strict sustainability certification as part of the internationally recognised Living Building Challenge, Te Wharehou o Tūhoe is both a mammoth undertaking to watch unfold and a potent symbol of the Ngāi Tūhoe philosophy.

Thur 17 Sep – WE WERE DANGEROUS

New Zealand in the 1950s was not an especially friendly place for outcasts, especially for those who also happened to be young, queer, or Māori women. When teenage Nellie (Erana James) and Daisy (Manaia Hall) are rounded up on the city streets, they are sent to the School for Incorrigible and Delinquent Girls under the care of a devout matron (Rima Te Wiata). There, they meet Lou (Nathalie Morris), a wealthy Pākehā girl whose parents sent her to the school to curtail her wayward behaviour.

Fri 18 Sep – TOITŪ: VISUAL SOVEREIGNTY

Unprecedented insight into the curation of the Toi Tū Toi Ora: Contemporary Māori Art exhibition reveals the struggle for Māori artistic sovereignty within the structures of Aotearoa New Zealand’s cultural institutions.

Chelsea Winstanley’s debut feature follows the journey of curator Nigel Borell as he navigates the constraints between institutional authority and Māori self-determination. Borell’s curatorial vision is clear – Māori art must be authored, not simply advocated for.

Sat 19 Sep – 1978

Aotearoa New Zealand, 1978. In a small rural town, the Ropata family must pull together after their lives and community are turned upside down. When the local school faces closure, it’s up to the youngest son and his friends to save it. Meanwhile at home, the family is divided by something bigger, after one of the eldest sons joins the fight for Māori land rights at Bastion Point.

As one of the most turbulent years in New Zealand history unfolds, can the family stay united and support each other through it all?

Sat 19 Sep – MĀRAMA

Set inside an especially appalling corner of Victorian England, Mary (an exciting performance from Ariāna Osborne), travels from Aotearoa to North Yorkshire after receiving a mysterious letter about her biological family. Finding the letter-writer dead, she is trapped working as a governess for a wealthy former whaler.

The greatest horror is always colonisation.