Mana Waka: feature-length documentary showing the re-building of the seven wakataua/war canoes of the Great Maori Fleet
"Mana Waka, working title Canoe, is a feature-length documentary made to launch New Zealand's 1990 centennial celebrations. The documentary has a fascinating history. Princess Te Puea Herangi of the Turangawaewae Marae, Ngauruawahia, was a great Maori leader committed to work that would uphold, and be used for the benefit of, the Maori people. During the late 1930s she conceived the idea of celebrating the 1940 centennial of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi by re-building the seven wakataua/war canoes of the Great Fleet, According to legend these canoes had journeyed from Hawaiki to Aotearoa some 25 generations previously. Princess Te Puea asked stills photographer R.G.H. (Jim) Manley, who had not previously made a film, to film the re-building, and he did so over a period of three years. Up north in the Puketi Forest, a great kauri tree was felled for the building of the Nga-toki-matawhaorua canoe which is now housed at Waitangi. Two totara trees from the Oruanui Forest provided the timber for the canoes that were carved and built at Turangawaewae."
(Helen Martin, 8 July 2011, Onfilm Magazine)
Fig.1 Still from "Mana Waka": NZ 1990 Documentary prod co Nga Kaitiaki o Te Puea Estate and the Turangawaewae Marae Trust dir Merata Mita camera R.G.H. Manly (filmed 1937 - 1940) ed Annie Collins kai korero/narrator Tukuroirangi Morgan film preservation Te Tumu Whakaata Taonga The New Zealand Film Commission, Ngā Kaitiaki Ō Ngā Taonga Whitiāhua The New Zealand Film Archive, NFU Laboratory, NFU Sound finecut Nga Kaitiaki o Te Marae o Turangawaewae sound Merata Mita, David Madigan, Chris Verberg, Mike Hedges, Annie Collins. 85 minutes.
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
BFI gets Halas & Batchelor animation archive
"the husband and wife-run Halas & Batchelor, sometimes called the British Disney – which for more than 50 years produced adverts, public information pieces, feature films, TV cartoons and serious award-winning animation respected the world over.
Today, 15 years after the studio's last release, the British Film Institute will announce that it has been given the Halas & Batchelor archive, including film prints, stills, scripts, correspondence and original cells. It is the largest ever single donation of British animation and was welcomed as 'an extraordinarily rich gift' by the BFI director, Amanda Nevill. 'We look forward to working on ensuring these films and artefacts are enjoyed by the widest possible group of people in years to come,' she said. ...
Curator Jez Stewart hopes that the BFI will be now be able to open up Halas & Batchelor to new generations of animation fans and practitioners. Aardman Animation's Nick Park said he had fond memories of watching the company's animated educational films at school. 'They have always been part of my life,' he said. 'John Halas was the judge on the first animated competition I ever entered – I didn't win, but admired him and looked up to him as a great figure in British animation.'"
(Mark Brown, 3 December 2010, The Guardian)
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
