BONZA - Australia & New Zealand Database

Title

Mana Waka

Released

1990

Production Year

1990

Director

Merata Mita

Comments

The film is unattainable Victoria, and is not found on the database for the Australian National Film Archive either. Footage remains in the hands of the Te Puea Estate, NZ.

Synopsis

This film is a construction of 1930s footage of the making of the ancient Maori canoes/waka, which was intially to be a film cut together and ready for the 1940 centennial celebrations, which was an idea of Pricess Te Puea's at that time to try and uplift people after the Great Depression. Later in the 1983, the Maori Queen, Dame Te Atairangikahu approved the retrieval and reconstruction of the material. As the original footage was shot by Manley, a photographer, not a cinematographer, there is no camera movement; just long static shots of the building of the waka, and the eventual launching of them into the water. Hence Mita, given the job of scripting and editing it had a hard time cutting it neatly and smoothly together. (Henry, Ella. 'Mana Waka' in Onfilm, Feb-Mar, '90, Vol.7 No.2, p.21.)

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