Māoriland – Recipient of Sundance Institute Respond & Reimagine Plan

Māoriland Film Festival is one of 39 storytelling organisations in 19 countries to be funded by the Sundance Institute as a part of their Respond & Reimagine Plan.

Announced in April, the Sundance fund was created to directly support the urgent needs of independent artists, artist collectives and storytelling organisations from around the world who perform an integral role in their communities and were disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The $1 million USD fund was distributed to the 39 grantees by nomination from a network of peer arts organisations, funders, and Sundance Institute alumni artists – a broad cross selection of expertise across media, arts, racial justice, theatre, humanities, philanthropic, social science, and human rights organisations. 

Māoriland Charitable Trust is thrilled and humbled to receive the support from the Sundance grant to remount the Māoriland Film Festival 2020 in September for the community of Ōtaki, New Zealand and digitally with the wider world through virtual programming. 

“Film and Arts Festivals are a chance for communities to come together and share experiences together. At this time of border closures Indigenous filmmakers will enable our community to travel around the world through stories,” said Māoriland Festival director Libby Hakaraia.

“The remounted MFF2020 is also an opportunity to acknowledge the resilience of our community both in Ōtaki and within the wider screen industry providing the programmed filmmakers with an opportunity for their films to be seen,” said Libby Hakaraia.

The festival will also inject a much needed economic boost to Ōtaki. 

Ngā mihi nui Sundance for your support of Māoriland and Indigenous Screen Storytelling.