Tauihu short film selected for world’s largest indigenous film…

Tauihu Media’s latest short film, Pūmanawa: The Gift,  will have its world premiere Sunday 20 October 2013 at the imagineNATIVE film + media arts festival in Toronto, Canada, where it has been officially selected in competition.

Produced by Tauihu Media’s Tui Ruwhiu and directed by Poata Eruera, the short deals thematically with religious intolerance. It is the story of a mother who shares her own tragic past to stop her daughter repeating the same mistake.

“We are pretty chuffed about selection at imagineNATIVE,” says Eruera. “It is a testament to the cast and crew to have their skills acknowledged by a film festival that gives voice to indigenous peoples from around the world. It is a very proud achievement for us.”

“Tui and I, the writers and a number of the cast and crew whakapapa to the Hokianga,” added Eruera. “To be involved in taking a Hokianga story to the world is especially rewarding.”

Pūmanawa: The Gift is also a part of a Maori focus that imagineNATIVE is running during  the festival from 16 – 20 October. Two programmes of Maori shorts films and a small selection of Maori feature films have been programmed.

Submissions will continue with Pūmanawa with the hope of gaining official selection to more major film festivals internationally and domestically.

imagineNATIVE

imagineNATIVE is the world’s largest presenter of Indigenous screen content. The organisation is recognised locally, nationally, and internationally for excellence and innovation in programming and as the global centre for Indigenous media arts. imagineNATIVE (legal entity: The Centre for Aboriginal Media) is a registered charity committed to creating a greater understanding of Indigenous peoples and cultures through the presentation of contemporary Indigenous-made media art (film, video, audio and digital media).

imagineNATIVE  an Indigenous-run organisation based in Toronto with a national and international reach. It presents the world’s largest Indigenous film festival, a national Tour focused on reconciliation, and numerous other activities throughout the year.

You can learn more about imagineNATIVE here.

Aho Shorts

Pūmanawa: The Gift stems from the Aho Shorts strategy to grow film story telling talent in the regions. This initiative was developed by the guild for Māori in film and television – Ngā Aho Whakaari – and funded through them by the New Zealand Film Commission. Over a two year period, writing workshops were held in the Hokianga, Waiariki and Waikaremoana. Pūmanawa:The Gift springboards from the Hokianga and is the first of the Aho Shorts to be completed. The original story comes from Hokianga writers Marie Thompson and Wayne Te Tai.

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