A wee heads-up about a very interesting (and FREE) film screening this Saturday at 7pm at the Film Archive.

Shot in 1954 by a UK team, The Seekers is a very colonial take on first contact between Maori and Pakeha in a bizarre NZ ‘Wild West’ style feature film.

Both riveting and shocking viewing (there’s eroticised dancing and plasticine moko for a start) it’s also one of the few films made in NZ the late fifties/early sixties. A combination of the introduction of television and a lack of government support for independent film making at the time means we have only the occasional international project like The Seekers to show for nearly 15 years of New Zealand’s feature film history.

The Seekers promotional poster

Witness people falling live into boiling mud, geysers exploding around sailors etc etc – all used for maximum impact to represent our great ‘Land of Fury.’

And did I mention it’s FREE?!