It was a joke that kickstarted Tioreore Ngatai-Melbourne’s film career and, as she freely admits, not a good one.
After a casting call went out around schools in her region of New Zealand for Taika Waititi’s beloved comedy-drama Hunt for the Wilderpeople, her parents forced her to audition. “They made me do it — I didn’t even want to do it,” she says. 15 at the time, she was asked to sing a song and tell a joke. So in the ‘Marae’ — the traditional Maori meeting house (Ngatai-Melbourne is Maori, of Ngāti Porou and Ngai Tūhoe descent) — they recorded a video of her singing and telling her grandfather’s favourite one-liner.
“Ok, I’m just gonna say it,” she says, speaking to THR from Auckland. “What’s the difference between a bird and a fly? A bird can fly, but a fly can’t bird.”
Poor joke though it may have been,...
After a casting call went out around schools in her region of New Zealand for Taika Waititi’s beloved comedy-drama Hunt for the Wilderpeople, her parents forced her to audition. “They made me do it — I didn’t even want to do it,” she says. 15 at the time, she was asked to sing a song and tell a joke. So in the ‘Marae’ — the traditional Maori meeting house (Ngatai-Melbourne is Maori, of Ngāti Porou and Ngai Tūhoe descent) — they recorded a video of her singing and telling her grandfather’s favourite one-liner.
“Ok, I’m just gonna say it,” she says, speaking to THR from Auckland. “What’s the difference between a bird and a fly? A bird can fly, but a fly can’t bird.”
Poor joke though it may have been,...
- 9/8/2023
- by Alex Ritman
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
If there’s a story that deserves a biopic it is certainly that of Māori trailblazer Dame Whina Cooper, who variously took on the patriarchy, the Catholic Church, the Pākehā (the Māori name for the European settlers) and the government over the course of her 98 years – a fight for rights and recognition that continues today, with an ongoing debate about changing the name of New Zealand back to its Te Reo Māori title Aotearoa. Here Whina is given very well-appointed and loving treatment in a story that’s so powerful it rises above the filmmakers’ more sentimental tendencies.
The film hinges on the historical Māori Land March in 1975, which Whina led at the age of 80 and despite her arthritis, beginning in North Island and ending in Wellington, almost 700 miles and a month later, epitomised by one of its key slogans: “Not one more acre of Māori land.”...
The film hinges on the historical Māori Land March in 1975, which Whina led at the age of 80 and despite her arthritis, beginning in North Island and ending in Wellington, almost 700 miles and a month later, epitomised by one of its key slogans: “Not one more acre of Māori land.”...
- 8/13/2022
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Exclusive: Cornerstone is heading to the virtual EFM with New Zealand drama Whina, which stars Siren, Once Were Warriors and Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones actress Rena Owen as revered Maori activist and female rights advocate Whina Cooper.
See an exclusive first look image of Owen as Cooper above.
Cornerstone will launch worldwide sales, excluding Australia/Nz, on the film which heralds from writer-directors James Napier Robertson, who directed 2014 festival favorite The Dark Horse, and Paula Whetu Jones (Waru).
Whina (pronounced fee-nah), will see Owen play the role of Cooper, the beloved Māori matriarch who worked tirelessly to improve the rights of her people, especially women. At nearly 80-years-old Cooper became nationally revered as the ‘Mother of The Nation’ when she led the first Māori Land March over 1,000 kilometers from Te Hapua in the Far North to Wellington at the bottom of the North Island of New...
See an exclusive first look image of Owen as Cooper above.
Cornerstone will launch worldwide sales, excluding Australia/Nz, on the film which heralds from writer-directors James Napier Robertson, who directed 2014 festival favorite The Dark Horse, and Paula Whetu Jones (Waru).
Whina (pronounced fee-nah), will see Owen play the role of Cooper, the beloved Māori matriarch who worked tirelessly to improve the rights of her people, especially women. At nearly 80-years-old Cooper became nationally revered as the ‘Mother of The Nation’ when she led the first Māori Land March over 1,000 kilometers from Te Hapua in the Far North to Wellington at the bottom of the North Island of New...
- 2/11/2021
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
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