UTU,Patu! Muru and Kaupapa Maori in cinema with Tearepa Kahi 

Sonja korero's with film maker Tearepa Kahi ( Ngati Paoa,Tainui),filmmaker based in Aotearoa.Tearepa was over in Naarm/Melbourne for a special screening of his film Muru at the Birrarangga Film Festival ( with Papa Tame Iti who stars in his film) in 2023. 

‘Raised between Papanui in Christchurch and Pukekohe in South Auckland, New Zealand,Tearepa fell in love with storytelling whilst listening to his ‘muso’/ spud picking father at bedtime.Jim Moriarty’s theatre company came to his high school and after graduating from Burnside,Tearepa begged Jim to join his Theatre Company. Two years on the road, performing to high school students and prison inmates led to the desire to live with his Kuia in Pukekohe and study History at Auckland University. He was handpicked by Don Selywn to play Roreneto (Lorenzo) opposite his wife to be, Reikura, in Te Tangata Whai Rawa o Wēniti, the landmark te Reo Māori version of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. On his 21st birthday, his first proposal for a documentary was funded and he’s been working as a storyteller for the past 20 years, having won numerous awards for documentaries, short films and features. Mt Zion, starring Stan Walker was the most successful local release of 2013 and Poi E: The Story of Our Song, has become the third highest grossing NZ documentary of all time.Their other groundbreaking film is Herbs: Songs of Freedom. Tearepa was mentored by Don Selwyn and Merata Mita. Tearepa has a huge passion for kaupapa Māori stories and has been a board member of the New Zealand International Film Festival for over the past 10 years.’ Muru is his most recent film and feature: Tearepa Kahi drew inspiration for Muru from several events in New Zealand history including the 2007 anti-terror raids on Tuhoe,the Police shooting of Steven Wallace in Waitara in 2000, and the arrest of Māori leader and prophet Rua Kēnana in 1916. At the exposition, Muru contains a
statement stating that "this film is not a recreation… it is a response" to the events of the Tuhoe raids’

This is such a special korero with Tearepa on all the things that influenced his film Muru and on the ways of kaupapa Maori when creating his films and how they are always very much a community mahi.

Includes choice music tracks including Herbs 'Dragons and Demons' and Peter Tosh.

Mauri Ora