Tame Iti face of Latin American shorts screening on Te Reo Maori Film Day
Tame Iti on location during the filming of 'Marathon', a film by Aucklander Sebastian Vidal Bustamante.
Tame Iti is known as many things: activist, convicted criminal, and the face of Maori nationalism.
Now, he is the face of two short films produced by Auckland-based Latin American film makers.
The Tuhoe Color and Marathon were written by Sebastian Vidal Bustamante and produced with the help of Auckland Latin American Community Inc.
The cast and crew of 'Marathon'.
The Tuhoe Color featured in the Documentary Edge Film Festival.
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The films explore the issue of identity and were made alongside a book of Maori poetry translated into both English and Spanish.
The short film 'Marathon' will play along with the documentary 'The Tuhoe Color' at Te Reo Maori Film Day.
The Tuhoe Color is an eleven-minute documentary and was filmed in the heart of Tuhoe country, in Iti's creative space in Taneatua.
Marathon portrays a Maori music teacher (Brian Rankin Jr) dealing with the death of his mother.
Bustamante said he wanted to try and create a fresh vision of Iti.
"He is an amazing artist who has a very clear vision of who he is, so I wanted to portray that through the films."
Auckland Latin Community Inc founder and Chilean poet Esteban Espinoza said he met Iti in the mid-1990s at a local art festival.
"Tame Iti is a recognisable face of the Tuhoe Nation and they have struggled with the concept [of] nationhood.
"For us that's quite attractive because we lost our nationhood and someone else recovering theirs is something we would like to support."
Group president Fiona Taler said Maori were seen as leaders by the indigenous people of the Americas.
"They've fought back and with the Treaty of Waitangi they're making their case seen."
The films and book aimed to give a voice to "people who haven't had a voice", she said.
Both films will play as part of Te Reo Maori Film Day at the Auckland Art Gallery on Sunday.
- Stuff
