Thursday, January 22, 2018
Kiwi actor Manu Bennett stars in a short film – Maori Times – that has been filmed on location at Waiotahe Beach and Ohiwa Harbour. Photo supplied
Kathy Forsyth
WAIOTAHE Beach in Opotiki and Ohiwa Harbour are the stunning backdrops for a new short film that has been made in the Eastern Bay.
Directed by Tim Worrall, from Waimana, the film stars Manu Bennett (Spartacus, Arrow, the Hobbit trilogy) and Waihoroi Shortland (Boy, Rain of the Children) with supporting turns by Miriama Smith and Janus Webster.
Cliff Curtis is the executive producer while his cousin, Piripi Curtis, is the film’s producer.
Worrall says the film “is about a part-Maori property developer whose life is in free fall when an ancient set of bones is uncovered on the building site of his expensive new house”.
“The delay to the build and the agonisingly slow karakia of the bumbling tohunga brought in to cleanse the site drives the developer’s frustration to boiling point. The ensuing confrontation with the tohunga has surprising consequences.”
The filming in the Eastern Bay comes amid a big push by BOP Film to promote the Bay of Plenty among New Zealand and international film-makers as a prime movie-making destination.
BOP Film general manager Anton Steel said the crew was “blown away by how amazing the locations were”.
The film is about 13-14 minutes long and Worrall said the aim was to gain entry into A-list film festivals, such as Cannes and Sundance, before an online release of the film via the filmmakers’ Steambox Films Facebook page.
Worrall, an award-winning screenwriter, director and graphic designer, now based in Rotorua, said the crew and cast totalled 25 people and they were fortunate to be given discounted accommodation by the Ohope Beach Resort during the four days of filming.
Resort manager Margaret Holt said this was the largest film crew they have had staying at the resort.
“It was really good for them, they used all our facilities … they had their meals in the conservatory.
Worrall, whose films include The Road to Whakarae and Tits on a Bull, said most of the crew work for Hikoi NZ, a television production company based in Rotorua.
Worrall also said he was “thrilled to get to shoot in an area that I love and have whakapapa to and that has a such a high level of natural beauty”.
At least three more members of the crew and cast – Simone Ashton, Shaun Greaves and Kaiaho Noema are from the Whakatane district.
Curtis and Worrall are also hugely grateful to owner/operators of Frontier Helicopters, Mark and Anna Law, for allowing the production to film on the build site of their beautiful new house.
Maori Times is funded by the New Zealand Film Commission and is likely to be released in March or April.