imagineNATIVE to host International Premiere of The Native Slam
In March of 2016, just days before Māoriland Film Festival 15 Indigenous Filmmakers gathered around Aotearoa to make a film. They had just 72 hours, with a budget of $800 NZD and yet five short films were produced. These films are The NATIVE Slam.
Māoriland Film Festival in association with producer, Pauline Clague are delighted to announce that The NATIVE Slam will premiere at imagineNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival in Toronto this October.
The five films of The NATIVE Slam speak to a global Indigenous experience. Each team consisted of a Māori filmmaker as host to two international Indigenous filmmakers.
Producer, Pauline Clague says of the project, ‘The films saw a new way of seeing how each other works and how to collaborate with different nations to the one goal.’
The NATIVE Slam was funded with support from the NZ Film Commission and an almighty 149 private donors via crowd-funding website, Boosted. Māoriland Film Festival Boosted Co-ordinator, Madeleine de Young says of the experience, ‘Believing in our project was one thing – one of the directives for the teams was that each film had to heal – and they do, they are stunning films. Boosted is terrifying though! You have no idea who will come out to support you and if you’ll reach your target. It was a crazy month as we watched the numbers slowly climb and the validation when we finally saw it hit 100% cannot really be replicated. This project is a community driven project through and through and we are stoked that the community behind our North American filmmakers will be able to see these films!’
The five NATIVE Slam films are as follows:
Ara, d. Kath Akuhata-Brown, Echota Kilsnight, Sara Margrethe Oskal
Ra’stat’ste, d. Sonia Boileau, Mike Jonathan, Jeremiah Tauamiti
Sech’el, d. Trevor Mack, Cornel Ozies, Chelsea Winstanley
Skoha, d. Zoe Leigh Hopkins, Tainui Stephens, Rima Tamou
Tawhaowhao, d. Himiona Grace, Blackhorse Lowe, Sunna Nousuniemi
For enquiries about the NATIVE Slam, please contact: