The Māo­ri­land Film Fes­ti­val 2017 pro­gramme includes mul­ti-award win­ning fea­tures, doc­u­men­taries and short films. Of the award win­ning fea­ture films, there are eight New Zealand pre­mieres. “Indige­nous film­mak­ers are very keen to screen at Māo­ri­land as they con­sid­er it to be the most impor­tant fes­ti­val in the South­ern hemi­sphere,” said Māo­ri­land Char­i­ta­ble Trust chair Tainui Stephens.

This year there are some spe­cial events as well.

  • Māo­ri­land Ran­gatahi Film Fes­ti­val — curat­ed by Ngā Paki­a­ka – a group of award-win­ning young film­mak­ers (aged 12 – 16). They have viewed films from around the world to put togeth­er a pro­gramme for their peers
  • Vir­tu­al Real­i­ty — INDIGI LAB will be at Māo­ri­land to present their work in the Vir­tu­al Real­i­ty space along­side Lani­ta Rir­inui-Ryan, cre­ator of Poi 360 – a dig­i­tal hub for the world of poi.
  • Hawai­ian Street Artist Estria Miyashiro — In 2010, Estria co-found­ed ‘The Estria Foun­da­tion’, an organ­i­sa­tion that cre­ates art in pub­lic spaces local­ly and glob­al­ly with artists, youth, edu­ca­tors and activists. Their aim is to raise aware­ness and inspire action to resolve human and envi­ron­men­tal issues.
  • The NATIVE Slam II – an inter­na­tion­al col­lab­o­ra­tion where estab­lished inter­na­tion­al Indige­nous film­mak­ers from Cana­da, Hawaii, Aus­tralia, Tahi­ti and Aotearoa are brought togeth­er and chal­lenged to pro­duce 5 short films in 72 hours.
  • The Māo­ri­land Sto­ry­telling Tent — a relaxed forum for film­mak­ers and film fans to talk about the work and the ideas seen on screen.