MĀORI TELEVISION PROFILES ARTIST DARCY NICHOLAS

7 November 2007

A portrait of Taranaki artist Darcy Nicholas – the only feature-length Māori documentary at the recent New Zealand International Film Festival – is the focus of LAND OF MY ANCESTORS screening in Māori Television’s New Zealand Documentary slot, Pakipūmeka Aotearoa, on Wednesday November 21 at 8.30 PM.

Director, co-producer and editor Lala Rolls says the deeply moving film offers a rich palette of indigenous art, politics and culture supported by music from some of Aotearoa’s most outstanding composers and performers – Elena, Trinty Roots, Fat Freddy’s Drop and Hirini Melbourne as well as tracks form the Tuwhare CD.

LAND OF MY ANCESTORS follows Darcy to America to the opening of stunning weaving exhibition The Eternal Thread in San Francisco and its closing at the Warm Springs Reservation, Oregon, and celebrates the precious exchange of breath between Māori and First Nations people of America and Canada.

“ Darcy’s story is inseparably woven with his mountain, Mount Taranaki, his family, his ancestors, his art and into the lives of other indigenous artists and friends,” says Lala Rolls. “This documentary takes us from the times and politics of Parihaka through to Aotearoa today.

“Darcy says the documentary is about a Taranaki family. We say that is true and it is also about being Māori, weaving, art, keeping a strong thread to the ancestors and living in the world today.”

LAND OF MY ANCESTORS screens for the first time in Māori Television’s New Zealand Documentary slot, Pakipūmeka Aotearoa, on Wednesday November 21 at 8.30 PM.

Ends

Vanessa Horan
Kaiwhakaputa (Publicist)
Māori Television
DDI: +64 9 539 7159
MOB: +64 21 928 007
EML: vanessa.horan@maoritelevision.com