An AIO-NM (Americans for Indian Opportunity), INDIGENOUS CINEMA SCREENINGS, and NATIVEZINE Productions special!  BONUS: possible skype talk/Q&A with the director/producer, more details t.b.a.!

Cliff Curtis and Temuera Morrison (both of 1994’s Once Were Warriors) star in this sweeping Māori-language epic about the 1864 Battle of Ōrākau, as an Indigenous tribe defends their land from invading British forces.

Aotearoa New Zealand is one of the most welcoming, stable democracies of the world, but its history was forged in bloody battles over the scourge of colonialism—a perspective not often represented on movie screens. This audacious, relentlessly paced debut feature from Michael Jonathan depicts the 1864 Battle of Ōrākau through the eyes of Haki (Paku Fernandez), the son of an English army officer and a Māori mother, and Kōpū (Hinerangi Harawira-Nichola), a teenage girl reluctantly serving as a war god medium. When Haki is captured and condemned for sacrifice, Kōpū intercedes, befriending him as a kindred spirit. As British forces inch closer, tribal leader Rewi Maniapoto (Temuera Morrison) convinces other Māori tribal factions to make a united stand. Overwhelmed five-to-one, the Māori valiantly hold off the British for three days before escaping, forcing Haki and Kōpū to choose sides. Told almost entirely in the native Te Reo language and made with a mostly Māorian cast and crew, the film focuses on the real-life tragedies that helped forge today’s thriving Māori identity. With a mixture of visceral brutality, genuine humor, and ravishing North Island cinematography, Ka Whawhai Tonu brings to life a bracing war epic rarely glimpsed outside of indigenous history textbooks.

"A bloody, brilliant coming-of-age film stacked with powerful performances, Michael Jonathan’s directorial debut is filmmaking we need more of." —Emma Gleason, NZ Herald