Tūhoe tale history in the making

More than a year after its release, Kiwi documentary The Price of Peace is still making waves with film buffs worldwide.

The film chronicles the life of Tūhoe activist Tame Iti in the lead-up to his 2012 trial in relation to the Urewera raids, and his homecoming after serving nine months in prison on firearms charges. It opened at the 2015 New Zealand International Film Festival.

At Monday night’s screening at AUT’s Ngā Wai o Horotiu Marae, the film’s director, Kim Webby, talked about what motivated her to make the film.

She said she wanted to tell the story of the so-called “terror raids” from a different viewpoint than what was covered by the mainstream media.

“When I first started it, it was to give those people a voice and it unfolded from there.”

It was a production of passion. Because the film had no budget, Ms Webby and the rest of the crew worked for free.

However, after production wrapped, the crew's hard work paid off.

An international distributor saw the show reel online and approached Ms Webby and producer Christina Milligan about marketing the film to international festivals.

Ms Milligan said this was rare and it was usually “a lot of hard slog” to get a distributor.

After the distributor got on board The Price of Peace was released in Tahiti, China, France and Canada.

It won best documentary at ImagineNative festival in Toronto and was awarded a silver prize at a First Nations’ festival in Montreal recently.

Ms Webby said different aspects in the film resonated with different international viewers. Audiences in China noted underlying environment themes, whereas First Nations people in Canada expressed suffering similar land ownership grievances to Tūhoe.

“What’s really surprised me is that people in places as diverse as France and China got it.”

This month, international television network Al Jazeera screened The Price of Peace on its Witness programme and online platforms.

Ms Milligan said she believed the film had “travelled well” because of “the quality of the story”.

For AUT law and arts student Rapaaea Henderson, who attended the screening, the film was a “reminder of what happened”.

Although it was the first time he had seen The Price of Peace, its story was one he knew well.

Mr Henderson said it was important “for people to understand what’s gone on in their country”.

“To one side [Māori] it’s well known. On the other side [Pakeha] it’s not.”

Ms Webby said these tensions could be felt most significantly “closest to home”.

But, when the film was screened to an audience of Paheka farmers close to Ruatoki, Ms Webby’s concerns about their reception were allayed. She was in fact “surprised by the level of warmth” it received.

Ms Milligan, who is also the head of AUT’s screen production programme, said she would like to see more Kiwis, particularly students, watching and engaging with New Zealand films.

“We don’t place enough emphasis on our own stories.”

• Update by River Lin

More emphasis was placed on The Price of Peace when it added another award to its skite sheet in October.

The Te Pou Tatau Pounamu NZ Peace Foundation Award was presented to Ms Webby, Ms Milligan and co-producer Roger Grant. The award was made for their contribution to peace and aroha, on the 20th anniversary of the Ngā Aho Whakaari (Maori Film Practitioner's Guild).

Ms Milligan was delighted. There was something very special about getting an award here at home, she said.

"There's also something particularly special about getting an award from the Māori Film Practitioners Guild, which was sponsored by the Peace Foundation, because their awards recognise practitioners who really contributed to the Māori film industry."

She added: "It's getting quite wide reach in terms of beyond just New Zealand, which is what we really wanted. It's also been well-received, understandably, in the indigenous international community."

Ms Milligan's next film project, which is being kept under wraps and has just begun shooting, is on "representation beyond just Pakeha" and is scheduled for release late next year.