Movies: Rawiri Paratene

Inter-tribal rivalry leads to a competition to erect a huge statue (moai) in record time before Make can take part in the race to retrieve the egg of a Sooty Tern. The reward for winning this race is to rule the island for one year....

On the east coast of New Zealand, the Whangara people believe their presence there dates back a thousand years or more to a single ancestor, Paikea, who escaped death when his canoe capsized by riding to shore on the back of a whale. From then on, Wh...

Five years have passed and Jake has turned his back on his family. He's still up to his usual tricks in McClutchy's Bar, unaware, as he downs his latest opponent, that his eldest son, Nig, has died in a gang fight. The uncomfortable family reunion at...

Agents of an oil tycoon vanish while exploring a swamp marked for drilling. The local sheriff investigates and faces a Seminole legend come to life: Man-Thing, a shambling swamp-monster whose touch burns those who feel fear....

When a storm washes a canoe bearing an infant boy ashore upon a small South Pacific island, he is at first well-received as a gift from the heavens, even to the point of the tribal chief adopting him as a successor. However, with time as hardships ar...

A romantic drama that charts the lives of three women from different backgrounds, forever changed when they emigrate to New Zealand as war brides....

This docudrama follows an imaginary news reporter who travels back in time to cover the days leading up to the Treaty of Waitangi's signing on 6 February 1840. Dropping the usual solemnity surrounding Aotearoa's founding document, it uses humour and ...

Featuring the characters from Murray Ball's "Footrot Flats" (New Zealands most beloved local cartoon strip), questions to be answered include: Will Wal Footrot win the affections of Cheeky Hobson over the sleazy Spit Murphy? Will the Dog win the affe...

Monica arrives back from her big overseas experience to find her boyfriend Nick unchanged. Although Nick styles himself an artist, he is really something of a cultural redneck, and when the couple head up north for a break, and they meet up with R...

Dominic Dromgoole’s production brings refreshing clarity to one of Shakespeare’s most famous and best-loved tragedies, drawing out the contemporary relevance of this passionate teenage love story. Ellie Kendrick, a truly youthful Juliet, and Adetomiw...

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An island paradise, big business, complex characters, love and betrayal set the scene for this light-hearted romantic action adventure film. Set in the stunning scenery of the South Pacific, with drama, action and comedy at every turn, it tells the s...

After her father's death, Anna Peterson and her family move from Australia to her father's ancestral home in New Zealand....

In New Zealand, a scientist, his family and down-on-his-luck investigator are trying to prove that the beaching of the local whale population is caused by activities of a corporation which is searching for natural gas in the area....

Actor Rawiri Paratene was 16 years old when he joined Māori activist group Ngā Tamatoa (Young Warriors) in the early 1970s. "Those years helped shape the rest of my life," says Paratene in this 2012 Māori TV documentary, directed by Kim Webby. The pr...

When Arthur, self-proclaimed son of God, sets off on a mission to find the Queen of Heaven, his world changes....

Everyone in Taranaki (New Zealand) wants to know the secret behind the magical milk produced on Aphrodite's Farm. The family mystery has remained safe for four generations. However when patriarch Ralph Riley dies, the future of the farm is thrown int...

In this mockumentary, Kevin Smith plays himself covering the story of a New Zealand town after the discovery that a local shellfish, the geoduck (pronounced "gooey duck") has the properties of Viagra....

Barry Barclay was a New Zealand/Aotearoa director of documentaries and feature films. He is regarded as one of the world's first, and very influential, Indigenous film makers. The film The Camera on The Shore is a feature length introduction to Barry...

A gang of construction workers try to relieve tension by taunting their newest member....